Ridged shock twisted his face as a warm, wet splash split across his midsection. The hand holding his remaining blade spasmed, and the weapon dropped from his grip.
"Levi!" One of the brats screamed from above him, but he couldn't tell who it was that had spoken.
His legs buckled; Levi went down on one knee, lost his balance, and fell sideways into the dirt. Blood, his own, spilled from the slit in his stomach.
"Shit," Levi rasped, teeth grit, tasting iron and bile in the back of his throat. He'd certainly been careless in his last stand... lashing out with little regard to the outcome. Hell, long as he was useful in the end, it didn't matter if he made it out alive- stayed alive. No one left to stay alive for anyway.
Levi swallowed, forcing down a desperate sound as his hands tried, vainly, to hold himself together. The pain was so intense that his breath came through his clenched teeth in short, gasping draws.
"Someone!" There was the telltale hiss of gas above him. "Help the Captain!"
Don't bother, he wanted to say, unable to lift his head, keep going and finally end this, but the words were drowned in a wet gurgle that burst behind his teeth, spraying blood against his cheek.
The ground around him glistening in the dark.
Well, he was certainly bleeding out quick. The wound must be deep…
A rueful smile twisted at his lips.
So, this was it then, huh?
At least—
Levi struggled against the blanket of darkness that now consumed his peripheral vision. The cavern swam before his eyes. His lungs were on fire.
At least he hadn't been eaten by a fucking monster.
With the last bit of strength he possessed, before he succumbed to his own inevitable death, a weak, shaking hand inched up to clasped desperately at his left breast. Under his uniform, in the small pocket of his jacket, he could feel the smooth, round stone of Erwin's tie so close to his heart. The feeling of it there, heavy, promising, gave Levi a strange comfort.
Almost there, Erwin.
He felt himself slipping away.
I'm right behind you.