Chapter 1: Vanguard Strike
Victor halted on top of the roof, taking in the sight of Trost, and it's smoking buildings. The Titans reserved nothing to devour those unfortunate humans who could do nothing but run, or succumb to their gruesome death. He spared a glance at his squad mates, each having their own look of terror. Jacob, his best friend through all of training, watched with a look that screamed both hatred and horror, Victor could even hear a low growl through Jacobs gritted teeth. Claire, their quick addition to replace Victor's own brother, looked frozen in place from the sight. Max's eyes were glued to the titan that ate the small child, no doubt worrying about his own wife who was expecting any day now.
"We have to stop them!" Max shouted, "They're killing everyone! We can't let them get any further!"
"Stay calm!" Victor boomed, giving all in his squad a confident and calm look. "The area near the gate is lost. Anyone in there has little chance of living. Unless you want to face groups of titans?" There was a unanimous silence of agreement, but he could see Jacob still looking at the onslaught, apologizing silently. "We need to draw a line, and hold the titans. I vote here." Victor drew his sword, pointing to the other end of Trost, and traced an imaginary line to the other end. "Take them out, one at a time, and avoid the groups." Victor drew his other blade, giving the other three the bravest look he could muster, "Soldiers! We will hold this line!"
The three gave a salute, "Yes, sir!"
As a group, they moved in a diamond formation, Claire in the back, and Max and Jacob to his left and right, respectively. "Stay low!" Victor shouted, "Abnormals could be nearby!" Victor fired off his hooks, catapulting himself towards a lone titan, three meter class. He retracted his hooks, and slid right by, the titan watching him with its glassed over eyes, and it's lust for glutton. It started to lumber towards him, but neglected his squad. Max came flying by, and wrapped around its neck, and took his blades slicing directly into the neck for a clean kill. Victor watched the titan fall as Jacob and Claire shot forward over its falling corpse, towards a fifteen meter that rounded the corner, eyes locked on Jacob. "Shit! Jacob! No!" Victor took off towards them, expending extra gas to achieve even faster speeds.
At these high speeds, a humans vision can blur. Wind causing you to squint, and the velocity causing various stationary objects to come together as a mess of colors. However, Victor had trained for years on this. Focusing his eyes on target, he released his hooks, using the current momentum to fly by the titan. As the titan blur got closer, he flicked his body in a spin, and the slash resounded clearly, and the blood that splattered on his face was hot. There was no doubt he killed it. Perfect.
His landing was the opposite.
The spin threw him off, and instead of landing how he normally would, he landed backwards. He was able to skid effectively with the boots soles, but his right foot crashed into some building rubble. His body kept moving, and he tripped. He crashed into the ground, and started to tumble and roll, losing his grip on the left blade as it began flailing dangerously in all three dimensions. The confusion from the uncontrolled crashing only increased as the ground and sky began mixing their colors together, left and right became impossible to distinguish, up became down, down became up. Every single tumble, some part of himself was smashed into the ground, and before he could use the collision as a way to tell how he was orientated, he had already smashed into the ground with another part of himself.
After what felt like a few minutes, he stopped tumbling, and instead skid on his front to a stop. His blade didn't stop with him, however. It sped towards him, as if racing against an imaginary opponent. The sharp edge shallowly sliced into his forearm, and stopped at his wrist, settling in. He winced and seethed as blood started to flow. The warm liquid of his blood following gravity, and the hot blood of the titan evaporating off his clothes reminded him that this was still a combat situation. Adrenaline pumping, he removed the blade from his arm and shot himself up, any pain he was experiencing from the fall vanished once he was back on his feet. He checked his blades, and saw the one with his blood had snapped from the repeated beatings of the stone road he took a nasty trip down. The other was buried in the titan some distance far from him.
"Victor! Are you okay?" Jacob skidded to a stop, shaped like an eagle landing. Once to a safe speed, he ran towards Victor, finally noticing the wound, "Holy shit! You're bleeding!"
"It's minor." Victor lied. Underneath all that pain killing adrenaline was probably bruises waiting to show the world their purple and black colors. Plus, it was quite possible that he fractured his rib. He inspected the broken blade that had sliced into his arm, and the evaporating titan corpse it had assisted him in killing. The titan blood on the blade evaporating, his own blood dripping to the floor, giving a contrast to the grey stone he stood on.
Killing the titans... it felt good. A 15 meter was considered a menace to humanity, and he took one down. Not alone, but it was dead, venting steam as it died. The hot blood that was evaporating off him actually gave him a thrill, and it excited him in ways it shouldn't have. That was the blood of the enemy of mankind. He wore it as a stain, as titans should be known for. A stain on humanity. How could anyone fear these things? They were easy prey. He chuckled, hatred sinking in. His brother died to these? His brother was not weak. He was strong, just as good as Victor, maybe even better. How did the Colossal manage to kill him? Maybe that one was special? More special than an aberant? He kept laughing. Every time he thought about killing the titans, he laughed a bit, unable to stop. They could hold the titans off. They might not regain Trost, but they could save the civilians. Titans were no threat, not to him, or his squad. Humanity would be victorious this time.
"Victor? You alright?" Jacob patted Victors back, "You took quite the tumble..."
With a nod, Victor jettisoned his broken blade and pulled another. "Fine," he answered. "Just... laughing at how close that was," he lied. He grabbed Jacob's shoulder, giving him a friendly shake, "Be more careful, Jacob. That could have been a lot worse for all of us."
"Right... will do." Jacob gave him a nod, and Victor released his grip on him. Jacob started to run off, but paused, "I'm going ahead with Claire, I think Max has something to bandage that arm up with."
Those were Jacobs last words to Victor as he took off towards a nearby building rooftop, meeting up with Claire and together they took off. Turning around, he saw Max zoom up to him, landing slower than Jacob did. "Victor!" He shouted, pulling out a bandage roll. "Lemme patch that arm up."
Victor took his jacket off, and ripped the forearm of his undershirt off. The wound was clearly bleeding still, and dried blood around his arm was smeared from the shirt. Holding the wounded arm out, Max started patching him up. "We should probably hurry. Titans could be here any second, and I don't have a good view from down here."
"Right. I'll go fast." Max replied, bandaging fast, and rather roughly. Victor winced once or twice, but before he could get a single word off to be gentler, Max was done. "I'm going ahead to backup Jacob and the new girl." He answered.
Victor shook his head, "No, you wont." Victor pointed to the bandages Max had, "Get those into a pack, we will probably be running into wounded soldiers or civilians." Victor nodded towards a destroyed building behind them, "I grew up in Trost, and that was a medical clinic. There should be a satchel in there you can use, and more supplies."
"Yes, sir." Max turned and jogged into the building.
With Max getting supplies, and Jacob and Claire clearing the way, everyone was performing to standard. The squad under his command easily had this area covered, but the other Garrison soldiers who came with them were spread out, and possibly injured. He didn't want to split his squad, but Max's medical knowledge couldn't be ignored. He also didn't want to pull his squad from the line. The civilians still needed to evacuate... command hadn't launched the all clear flare. Victor groaned to himself, debating the next plan of action once they cleared this area out. Putting his jacket back on, he took off towards where Jacob and Claire were.
As he came over the wall, he saw Jacob squirming in the hand of a titan, swinging his blades and just barely scrapping the titan that had its grip around him, and Claire unconscious some number of yards away. "Jacob!" Victor took off from the roof, heading for the Titan that was looking at Jacob with the eyes of never ending hunger. Victor came perfectly across the neck with his blade, and the titan dragged Jacob to the ground. Victor landed safely some ten meters away.
Victor turned around, looking for any sign of his friend. The titan fell the wrong way, and fell forward, where Jacob was being held. His heart raced and time seemed to stop for a second as the titan fell. Then, much to his relief, Jacob rolled out of the titans hand, albeit roughly. Jacob was still in one piece. Victor smiled. His friend was okay.
AN: What did you all think? Let me know in a review, and don't forget to critique.
Victor's theme: Armored Titan Theme
Attack ON titan, Rittai Kidou, Reluctant Heroes.