Here's the re-release of The Stranger. This used to be a part of Chapter 2 of the original, but I thought it best to put it up as the very first this time around.
I own neither HTTYD or Shingeki No Kyojin.
The mission wasn't going as well as planned, Captain Levi surmised.
He grimaced internally at the sight of another of his soldiers getting eaten by a Titan, screaming in hopeless desperation all the way, before being promptly cut off by the titan's jaws biting down on his neck. That was the third one today, and many more had already been injured.
It was the second day into the Survey Corps' 55th Expedition since the fall of Wall Maria, and the regiment had stumbled onto a pair of Titans in the open plains on the way Shiganshina to establish a supply route. The 8-meter and 12-meter Titans, with those ugly-ass faces of theirs, had locked onto them like rats to moldy cheese.
Erwin had given the orders for the Special Operations Unit to lead them away into one of the nearby forests to dispatch them, which they did, one kill going the Captain himself and the other to Eld, his second-in-command. However, it wasn't long after that screams and sounds of combat reached them. Chasing after it like bats out of hell, the squad entered a pretty distressing sight.
Four Titans surrounded the commander, accompanied by Hange's, Mike's, and Rashad's teams. It seemed they had all come up with the great fucking idea of using the forest's tall trees as ideal ODM environment to fight against them, not expecting to be ambushed by more. Levi's squad was quick to join the fray.
It wasn't even 30 seconds before their party was crashed by a new, particularly rude 15-meter Titan and obviously an Abnormal. After that, it had all gone to hell in a handbasket. Even with the Special Operations Unit, taking on that many of them wasn't exactly a walk in the park. Erwin must have sent the scouters to go around and meet up with them at the other end of the forest, rendering their function effectively null.
Yeah, it definitely wasn't going as well as planned.
Even he couldn't be in all places at the same time, and the unexpected turn for the worse had caused most of the soldiers to shit their pants in fright. He would've scoffed if their lives weren't in danger; they should've known better than to be so complacent as to think that there was no risk of things going south. Having expectations in life-or-death missions only led to the inability to adapt when things went downhill.
He whirled in the air with his blades outstretched, cutting cleanly through a 9-meter's nape. It fell down with him standing on its head, his swords coated in steaming blood. At least it would disappear before it had a chance to dry. Bloodstains were always so hard to remove.
Still, with the scouters useless in this predicament, more Titans could be closing in on them and they wouldn't know it until they were right on their asses. He at least hoped Erwin had had the foresight to order the rest of his subordinates to station themselves around the forest and keep any other Titans from entering.
A shrill scream of fear caused him to turn his head. One of Rashad's team members was caught by a 6-meter, holding her arms pinned against her body as tears streamed down her face. The Titan that held her was one of those types who could open their maw really wide.
Levi especially hated those; as if they needed a reminder that these monsters were here to eat them all.
Just as he got ready to step in, he heard the sound of whirling blades and saw a pair of white blurs cleave through the wrist that held the Scout. The hand landed on the ground, the appendage cushioning the fall for her, who immediately used that opportunity to escape.
Relieved to see the soldier safe, he directed his gaze back to the Titan, to see who it was that saved her. He was understandably surprised to find it wasn't a fellow Scout, but a blond woman with... axes standing on the thing's forearm, dressed in an odd set of clothes. His gratitude aside, Levi didn't know what the hell was going on or who'd be stupid enough to venture out here on their own.
She crouched a bit when the 6-meter opened its mouth again. Just as it rushed forward to swallow her, she vaulted over the head in a twisting flip, causing the Titan to bite down on its own arm. Striking out with her weapons, she left two deep gouges along the nape as she descended, flipping to land smoothly on the ground.
Her opponent was less lucky, falling on its face and beginning to dissolve.
Few could boast killing a Titan without the aid of ODM gear.
Weird or not, Levi was certifiably impressed.
It was her bad luck that a 13-meter decided to focus on her, bending down and taking a swipe at her with its right arm. He imagined he adopted a pretty stupid expression when she dodged by bending backward, her knuckles touching the ground.
She backflipped and jumped onto the same arm before it could react. She then did a jump that almost humanly impossible and swung her left axe across the bridge of its nose and through its eyes. The Titan promptly stood up while gripping its useless eyes, bellowing in pain. The newcomer, having clung to its jaws with her axes, was thrown upwards by the sudden motion, but instead of flying out of control, twisted gracefully in an incredible display of acrobatics.
When she came to the apex of her flight, about 6 meters right above the monster, she raised her axes and began somersaulting, the motion causing her blades to leave behind streaks of white.
Blood spurted from the back of the Titan, deep trenches on the nape and upper back. She wasn't done, however. The woman kicked off when she reached the end of the shoulder blades, and Levi saw that she was headed towards the 7-meter right next to them. With its back to her, she slashed in a crisscross maneuver, leaving a deep X mark on its kill spot.
The beast fell down with her on its neck, standing right over the mark she made. She looked straight at him, a gaze that held power and gravitas. He returned the glare unflinchingly, fully aware of his teammates looking up at her with a mixture of awe and trepidation.
Their attention was then diverted to the 15-meter Abnormal running at them while spouting nonsense. Before he could even ready his swords, a flash of orange and yellow struck the back of its head. It collapsed with its head falling right between the Captain and the newcomer, thick smoke coming from the large scorch mark on the nape of its neck.
Huh. Maybe luck was on their side after all. It appeared that portable cannons had been set up right on t- holy shit! What the fuck was that?!
The squad captain felt the rare feeling of astonishment as a large, reptilian creature landed on the dead Titan's head. Blue and yellow scales covered its forms, wings in place of front legs or arms. Its yellow, slitted eyes immediately sought out the strange woman, who smiled at it.
The hell!? Was this thing her pet or something? Was the woman in her right mind? Maybe not, and that had the potential of making her even more dangerous than she has already proved herself to be.
His superior officer, Commander Erwin Smith, came forward and put a hand on his shoulder, as if sensing his thoughts. The much taller man looked down at him and shook his head, and it was only then that Levi realized that he had a white-knuckled grip on his swords.
He relaxed his nerves, his hold loosening and nodded up to Erwin in silent agreement. Whether or not she was hostile, it'd be best to assume the latter at the start, for a fight would be inevitable if they showed hostility first. Still, the realization didn't make him any more comfortable with the situation, and he hoped they weren't blindly walking into a trap.
The commander walked towards the woman and beast, who had climbed down from the carcasses. The woman appeared calm enough, though she had a hand on the huge horn on her pet's snout, an obvious show of caution and warning not to try anything funny. A pettier part of Levi wanted to tighten back the grip on his swords to showcase the same thing, holding himself back with a bit of effort.
Thankfully, if she had noticed his unintentional stance earlier, and he had a hunch she did, the stranger didn't comment on it. That was a good sign, if anything.
"Greetings," Erwin said composedly, standing about six meters away from the duo. "I thank you for saving the lives of my comrades. If I may ask, who are you?"
Levi was glad to note how the blond newcomer's shoulders relaxed a mite, a good clue that she was open to diplomacy. Still, he wasn't going to be fooled by first impressions, and Erwin was a craftier man than himself.
"You may, but it's common courtesy for people to introduce themselves first," she replied with calm self-assurance.
The captain knew that tone; it was uncannily similar to the one Erwin tended to use. However, he was put on edge by the sense of aristocracy to it that reminded him of the nobles from Wall Sina, but without the arrogant inflection in her voice that most of them spouted.
Just who the hell was she?
The leader of the Survey Corps was quiet for a few moments before nodding. "I am Commander Erwin Smith and the soldiers behind me are my subordinates. The man at the front is Captain Levi, my second-in-command."
Her stare was calculating, holding a disturbing amount of intelligence that made Levi want to both put his guard up and shift self-consciously. The spell was disrupted for the most part when the stranger focused her eyes on Erwin and spoke.
"My name is Astrid Hofferson, heir to the tribe of the island of Berk."
Figured it was best to put Astrid's introduction to the Scouts as the first chapter; builds a lot of suspense that way. It's really short in comparison to most of my chapters, even for The Stranger's standards, but the next will be released shortly. As I said, I'm just adding some very minor changes and shuffling the scenes up a bit, so it won't take long to post the other chapters.
See ya soon.