"Shit! Shit!" Albrecht Yazawa swore under his breath again and again. Perspiration ran rampant down his chiseled face, some of it getting in his eyes, and his hair flapping in the wind as his horse charged across the flat plains.
Lars Monroe ground his teeth firmly, the horse's reins rubbing his palms raw as he clenched them for dear life, and he smacked his steed's side with his heel to try and spur it on faster. "It's coming right for us!" From behind him, he could hear the sound of large footsteps grew steadily closer, and he could feel the tremors that came with them. They shot through the ground, traveled up the galloping, pounding legs of his equine and the tremors settled into his heart, filling it with such indescribable fear that he wanted to scream and nothing else. Judging from Albrecht's pale-stricken face, he must have felt similarly in this situation.
"I know that! It's running faster than I thought! It must be an Abnormal or something!"
"What should we do? Can we try to fight that thing?" Lars offered.
Albrecht snapped, "No way! We'll get killed! We can't fight with our vertical maneuver gear on flat land like this! For now, we have to regroup with the rest of the squadron!"
Lars finally took a moment to whip his head over his shoulder, even though he knew quite well that the sight could have killed him from the shock alone. A Titan was charging after them, a ten-meter one, very tall with a slim build and black hair that seemed to shine, likely with grease. When his eyes crossed with those black, glossy orbs staring hungrily back, with what resembled a gleaming slasher smile spread across its face, Lars could have sworn he experienced a minor heart attack. His heart must have literally skipped a beat or two. It was true what the veterns said; meeting a Titan's stare was enough to make you want to turn to drinking and curl up in your bedroom with the lights on for the rest of your life.
He tore himself away from that horrifying face, somehow, before the will to fight was completely sucked dry from his body like a leech. However, doing this allowed him to discover something else that only further worsened the state of the poor muscular organ hammering away inside of his chest.
"Oh God! Emmerich! He's going to get…!"
"What?" Albrecht exclaimed. He didn't need a full explanation.
The third member of their party was a young man named Emmerich Meyer, the same age as both of them, and one of their best friends from training camp. He was currently falling behind the two by several dozen feet, with the Titan nearly closing the gap. He desperately flicked the reins and struck his horse on the rib multiple times, but the riding animal only continued to lose speed. Emmerich could almost feel the Titan's hot, musky breath brushing against the back of his neck now. Emmerich let out a strangled squeak of terror, because he had wanted to avoid this kind of situation at all costs.
His horse had been exhibiting some oddities earlier on the scouting mission, actually, it appeared that it had caught ill. How the stable-men missed it was beyond him, but Emmerich had gone too far out past the wall with the rest of the Survey Corps. that, by the time he had noticed it, there was nothing he could have done. He couldn't request to turn back, because he'd be abandoning his comrades.
According to Commander Erwin's formation plans, the squadron split off into a number of smaller squads going different directions, putting considerable amounts of distance between each other. Unfortunately, or maybe inevitably, a pair of Abnormal Titans appeared and disrupted the flow. attacking two of the squads nearest to the three young men.
Somehow, in the midst of all of the resulting chaos, Emmerich and his two friends had gotten themselves lost from the remainder of the group. A Titan had tried to attack them, but it gave up when it noticed a larger group of soldiers calling its attention, and after riding for several minutes, this new one appeared and forced them to go far off of the planned route. They had fired a red flare, but they'd received no such reply in turn as of yet.
Over the sound of both his own pounding heart and the Titan's footsteps, Emmerich could just make out the breathing patterns of his steed It was wheezing and gasping for air like a sickly man; it was clearly putting all of its effort into its gallop, even though its health was on the line. He wished that sheer persistence was all they needed to survive, but his trusty horse just wasn't up to snuff. Emmerich made a quick snap from fear for his life to determination to fight. He had no other choice, anyway. His horse was not going to outrun it. He released the reins.
'I'm going to have to kill it!' Emmerich unsheathed his Anti-Titan blades from the sheathes attached on his thighs, attaching them onto the handles that controlled his 3-D maneuver gear.
"What's he doing?" Lars cried out; the two men watched on as if it were some kind of extreme stage play, and they were the audience. They were unable to do anything, stricken with panic as they were.
"He's going to try and kill it!" Albrecht was honestly baffled at the very thought.
Lars' eyes nearly flew from their sockets, shouting back, "The guy's nuts! At this point he's gonna get eaten either way, but why throw himself right into the Titan's hands? Shit, we have to stop him, Albrecht!"
"Let's just hope it's a stupid Abnormal; some of them are fast or strong, but not many of them are very bright." Albrecht pointed out. He grimaced, "We can't stop, or else we may get killed ourselves, or our horses might get injured too. It doesn't look like Emmerich's horse will be any use anymore for him to escape. He has no choice. And besides, if you have no hope left in surviving, wouldn't you rather die trying to fight back then just running away…?"
Lars could not reply, and he nibbled anxiously on his bottom lip as he struggled to think up a response, yet nothing came to him. He looked back to properly burn his friend's last moments into his mind, so he could fully recount it to the unfortunate man's younger brother left behind at Military Police headquarters.
Emmerich leaped off of his horse, spinning himself around in mid-air so his body faced the Titan's, man to monster. He clicked the operating switch on the handle of the left blade, which fired a thin steel cable that pierced itself into the jugular vein of the Titan's throat. The monster could not had less indifference to being stabbed in the neck; it really didn't seem to have any pain receptors at all. It did not take its eyes off of its designated prey.
Just as it had gone in the training, his maneuver gear released a stream of high-powered gas that propelled him into the air, and he led along by the wire itself straight into the Titan's open maw. Emmerich had already formulated a simple but extremely dangerous plan. He intended to swerve a hard, fast left just as the Titan made its grab for him, and if he moved quickly enough, he could roll himself over the Titan's shoulder or get underneath its arm, and whip around onto its back, where he would get a clean shot at its nape. The chances of achieving this feat successfully was incredibly slim. It was basically akin to jumping down into a deep, dark gorge with a blind-fold on and hoping you land on the soft mattress instead of the rocky spikes just a half-foot to the right of it. He prepared both himself and his blades when he came into Titan-biting distance. It was now or forever.
He tilt his body to the left in conjunction with the maneuver gear's gas speeding him through the air, and he attempted to move at top speed, squeezing down the trigger hard enough that his hand ached. The wind was lashing across his face and his cape flapped in the wind. The Titan lunged for him. Emmerich couldn't breath; it moved its head right into the path of his movement, as if it had anticipated it from the very start. It nipped at his foot, biting through the tip of his shoe and removing two of his toes along with it. Emmerich sucked in air through his teeth. Blood flew, some of it splashing on the Titan's face like some kind of grotesque make-up. It swallowed his toes in a single gulp.
It happened faster than he could have expected; Abnormals were nothing a greenhorn like himself was prepared to face. Emmerich tried to fly back and put more distance between himself and the Titan before whipping around to get at its neck. Unfortunately, his maneuver gear had hit its technological limits; he was already moving at max speed. Even more so, he could only let out so much wire, and he was nearly run out, so distance was out of his control as well.
The Titan was already upon him again; its repulsive visage looming overhead, jaws open wide and saliva oozing from its lips. Emmerich's fear heightened to an all new level, one unknown to him before, and he realized that this was it. He had not only underestimated the enemy, but he'd completely overestimated his own talents, and now he was going to die. The Titan grabbed him in its giant hand, and the wire of his maneuver gear snapped off. It held him so carelessly, like a child holding a ragdoll. Emmerich looked up at the creature.
No. Not yet. There was still one viable option left, he thought.
Emmerich peeked out of the corner of his eye to see Lars and Albrecht's horses galloping further and further away, the two men remaining firmly atop them. They had chosen not to fight; even right now with his body partially immobilized by the Titan's grip, Emmerich could not say that he blamed their choice. This Titan was an Abnormal, a strong one at that, and it was simply a misfortune that Emmerich's horse had not been in peak condition enough to outrun it. Dying with purpose was part of the Survey Corps' code, but staying alive was still considered being of critical importance.
The Titan squeezed hard enough to snap several of Emmerich's ribs. Emmerich had liked the two men, they were his closest friends during their days as new recruits. They had befriended him from the very start. They'd even all agreed to join the Survey Corps. together on their first night as roommates. That was how things led up to this point. Emmerich still had one arm hanging loose, so he flung his worthless blade into the Titan's eye with perfect accuracy. The eyeball was torn open, the cornea split apart. More blood dribbled down the Titan's face, yet from the way it reacted,the scar was but the most minor of scrapes.
With his hand now free, he brought it straight to his mouth. If he unleashed his true form, Lars and Albrecht would be able to witness it from their current position. When that happened, after he had defeated the Titan, he would be forced to kill them to hide his secret. His mother had told him long ago that he had a gift, but that it was a gift he should never use in the wake of the Wall People, or else his entire peaceful existence would be destroyed. He agreed with her outlook, but that did not mean he felt a pang of guilt of having to kill his two closest friends. Emmerich brought his hand to his mouth and sank his teeth into the skin-
The Titan's mouth snapped shut on Emmerich's head. Blood began to seep through its lips and dribble over its hand. With a sickening snap, the Titan pulled its head back, taking the young man's head and most of his attached spinal cord with it. The Titan had been just a second faster.
"It got 'em…shit…" Lars could barely keep down his bile as he turned his head away. His vision became blurry as a few hot tears formed, and he desperately tried to wipe them away on his sleeve. He couldn't do it. He tried again, but the tears were adamant little bastards. Lars swore under his breath.
Albrecht took in a breath that shuddered down his throat. "Okay, he's…he's gone. I got it. I got it. He tried, but of course, the Titan won. They always win."
"Albrecht-"
"I got it!" he snapped back at the top of his voice.
"Albrecht," Lars continued, trying to keep them both calm, but he couldn't help but say what was on his mind as frankly as he could, "We should have gone back to save him."
"Tch…" Albrecht looked away, because the longer he tried to hold a stare with Lars, the more the other man's guilt seemed to be absorbed into him, and he started to realize that he was right. They should have stopped running, turned their horses right around, and charged straight at that goddamn monster to save Emmerich. Instead, they had used their friend as a distraction, a sacrifice meant to put more distance between themselves and the Titan.
Lars, despite hesitation to witnessing the desecration of his friend's corpse, looked back at the Titan. The giant was now kneeling on the ground. It almost looked like it was prostrating itself in apology for what it had done.
"What?"
The Titan's body started to alter itself before his very eyes. Its pale, white skin started to sizzle and bubble, turning a darker and darker shade of charcoal-black as plumes of steam began to billow forth. The steam did not stop pouring out until it had formed something of a thick shell around the Titan's entire body, completely obscuring it from view, and leaving the young soldier staring with bulging eyes and a gaping mouth. The tower of steam rose upward next, and it did not vanish even after a minute and a half had passed.
"What are you doing? We have to get away from here before another Titan shows up!" Albrecht's shouts broke Lars out of his daze.
"That Titan…after it ate Emmerich…what is it…?" Lars tried to ask.
"It could be reproducing!"
"Reproducing?"
"We don't know how Titans create new Titans, right? Maybe they reproduce asexually after they've eaten enough people!"
"But we know that Titans vomit up the remains of the people they've eaten after their stomachs fill up! What are you talking about, Albrecht?"
"Yeah, but that's all of the known cases we have written down, and just how many people usually survive encounters with Titans? Maybe some Titans are special and create new Titans, while the others simply eat and spew chunks afterward? Look, what I'm getting at is, we hardly know anything about them! Which is why we have to get back to the rest of the squadron while the Titan isn't moving! We don't have the time to inspect it when it could come charging at us at any second! And if it is making new Titans, then we'll be in even more trouble hanging around here!"
Lars thought he saw something moving inside of the pillar of steam. "But Albrecht…what if it's…"
"Do you want to die like Emmerich? Do you want to make his death all that much more pointless? We have to survive and make it back home, so we can tell his little brother about what happened to him! We'd be failures as human beings if we couldn't do that much for Emmerich!" Albrecht may have been letting his emotions run high to try and hide his anguish over the loss of Emmerich, but he wasn't spouting bullshit either. Lars knew he had a good point. There was nothing they could do that would have improved this situation if they went back.
In the distance, a flare was fired, its black trail like a giant flower stem sprouting into the sky.
"Some other soldiers survived. The Commander is calling us back to regroup." Albrecht remarked, his voice notably monotone once he had regained control over himself.
Lars nodded. He sniffled, and Albrecht's lips drew tight. The two men rode their horses in silence the remainder of the way home. They both struggled to imagine how to properly break this tragic news to Emmerich's younger brother, a soldier in the Military Police, when they themselves weren't sure when, at what point, they could accept that their friend was gone just like that. He was now left permanently floundering as a clump of bloody chunks at the bottom of some Titan's guts.