Horses respected Levi. His especially, he maintained sanitation and health with the profitable creatures, kept their hair untangled and cut clean for every expedition in which took place outside of the walls. He fed them with the proper nutrition, a based portion of necessities that kept his horses active and substantial. He didn't necessarily regard highly of the animals, it was principally for the sake of prized transportation he did what he did, and, of course, his cleanness issue.
Eren... Not so much. He was focused on the target - head on, instead of paying attention to his horse, which was almost completely out of breath. Eren had urged his horse to travel at impassible speeds, so that he could have another Titan kill sooner. The colt was about to collapse and Levi was too apathetic to mention it to him, hence, they had made it over the teeming forest and fields, until the walls rose right above them.
"Switch to maneuvering gear, Jaeger, this is a tough one." The Titan that was the target Levi and Eren had been summoned for was at a staggering height of approximately fourteen feet and was moving briskly like a tornado on the small flecks of solders whipping around, trying to get hold of its neck.
"OY! COMMANDER LEVI, THIS ABERRANT'S OUT OF CONTROL. KILLED SEVEN ALREADY." A man porting a leather jacket with an emblem of double entwined roses - member of the Stationary Guard ran up to the two, uniform tattered and heaving a breath.
"Seven huh? Well, this giant's placed his own fate by himself, seven severs it will be, before I murder it's ass." Levi's small frame shot into the vapor, as Eren struggled to catch up to his commander before the trace of his fly would be lost.
Levi never minded much, the disability of sight, he was used to all the vapor that masked Titans' bodies when he managed to come in contact with one, and he had gathered that using his sense of touch, and feeling the heat when the Titan comes near works much more effectively than vision.
He clung to the flaky material in which was the wall itself, and held the iron blades alert at his sides. With the vapour thinning and a shadow advancing near, Levi slashed the space on instinct.
"AGH!" Eren avoided the sharp edges of the weapons as he landed on the surface next to where Levi was resting at. "Whoa. Don't kill me, Corporal, I'm here to help."
"Where you should be is down there with the horses. They're vital." Levi stared into the mist, daring for anything to twitch a muscle. After noticing his unbudging trainee, he warned, "GO."
That was when a sizzling arm flew out of nowhere and landed strident punch on the spot where the two were residing. Levi swooped an arc, with a twist, a skillful strike with accuracy, had latched onto the hurtling flesh. He pulled in with minimal difficulty, not unbeatable by the his name, and lifted the blades to his side, them glinting with sunshine that streaked through the ash.
The pink surface of the Titan's wrist neared to the Corporal's blades' tips, then, he brought them together in a symmetric crescent, sinking into the blisteringly warm flesh, cutting off the wrist and bone. The hand smacked the terrain with a loud thud, gratifying to Levi's pleasure.
One.
That was one life for revenge in the Titan's pain, six more to go. Levi didn't believe in much, barely nothing to know of, but he something he did was the importance of a human soul. Every life was to be accounted for as much as his own. No one were to die in vain under his control. He didn't believe in revenge, but if it were for the lives gone, he would watch those suffer and suffer until he deemed debts repaid.
While said that, Levi had divided another hand. Two. Blood was on his clothes, and in his disgust was another reason to blame for the Titan's wrongdoing. He cinched a blade that swiped the air with a loud whip and embedded itself into the giant mouth that had opened on demand. Three.
Another two in its eyes. Four. Five... The Titan howled like an advancing thunderstorm, booming in his ears. Levi felt a drop of sweat roll down his neck, his arms ached from constant overused force. And he was having trouble keeping the wires apex at his sides. But he wasn't done yet. No. He had two to go, two more lives to avenge, no matter how his consequence, he won't allow it in any way.
"Hey!" Levi caught the giant's eyesight match his. His weapons in the air, "You see this? You're going to decide where it goes. I'm all out of ideas, bitch."
He swirled onto a side where the Titan's face followed him, it was pinpointed on him now. It was getting evidently more challenging for Levi as he flew in circles trying to get to the ears.
Once he laboriously exceeded the Titan's speed, he threw another, bullseye into its ear. Six. He was almost done. Almost. But then, he was thrown over, his wires had burst due to excessive use. Damn.
Levi smashed into a pile of rocks agonizingly and felt clothes tear on his backside.
He squinted upwards to see Eren blasting in circles, encompassing its upper body, confused at first, he later realized the boy was using his motions to wrap his wire around the Titan's neck. It had coiled enough to suggest Eren to advance. With the Titan no longer as mobile, the blades collided with metallic bangs as the hysterical boy screamed out incoherent words. The Titan fell. Finally.
Seven.
Levi flipped himself over on his chest, knees bucked in like he had done hundreds of times so long ago, when his father would hit him. He got up on one knee and pushed with an arm, to the standing position.
Eren, remarkably unlike of him, didn't bother to examine the work he had done on the fallen Titan, but rushed over to the man who was severely injured but continuing to hold his stature like a obstinate warrior.
"Dammit, you're bleeding.. Someone get me some cloth!" Eren hurried off to taking off Levi's ruined jacket and cape, the shirt he wore on the inside was as torn as the skin on his back.
"Don't you think I know that? It IS my back that's bleeding." Levi spat bloodied spit into a pile of dirt beneath him. "Ugh, this is absolutely sickening."
A battered girl with vivid blond hair came limping over with a white washcloth, in which she held a bucket of steaming water in the other.
"Thank you Christa."
"It's nothing, Corporal Levi, I hope you heal fine."
She then dashed back to join her comrades who were busy treating their own wounds to be bothered with others'
"You could've killed it in one blow, the six others were stupidly pointless -"
"Pointless. Those seven lives the Titan poached were also pointless, huh?"
"I didn't mean that, it's just if you were just more careful - "
"You're lecturing me about carefulness... Your impulsiveness to get killed isn't any better; HEY, I'm cleaning it myself." Levi snatched the red splotched cloth from Eren's hands and dipped it into the boiling water, he then pressed it against the innumerable scratches the rocks hand dented onto his back.
"Mmp." They hadn't hurt worse than when his father's anger got out of hand and he had beat him with a nail. Those had hurt.
"Corporal Levi, would you like me to get some bandages from the first aid kit?" Eren said frantically.
"No. I'm getting them myself." He twisted his way out of the clingy boy's grasp. His knees had given out again, but with a stumble he mounted once more, steadier. Halfway towards the medical center, Levi turned his head around with the bored expression that was so familiar now to Eren. "You're getting better at 3-D maneuver combat. Don't disappoint me with your next fight."
Eren suspected this to be the Corporal's way of complimenting him. Close enough.
Levi dabbed at his mother's wounds, there were many, a gruesomely deep one on her cheek and several protracted ones in her arms. Of course, more were on Levi, but there weren't any that were above severe, therefore, he went to his mother.
There had been a fight. Between his mother and monstrous father in which was highly disadvantageous to the sick and thin mother, over Levi's choices, the selection day for him had been coming up, a month was when he would have to make a choice. While his father had insisted - No, forcefully pushed him towards the Military Police , because that was seemingly a path he had to choose by the virtue of father's profession. His mother had approved of Levi making his own judgment and compromises.
Levi didn't want to spend away his life being surrounded by slacking men who achieved nothing in terms of their work. He wanted to help humanity as much as he, being one person in the face of mankind could administer, joining the Military wasn't going to bid much advancement in his intentions.
"Do you know WHO puts this roof over your head?" His father had said to attempt to invoke guilt from his son. "ME. That's who. So you listen to me, got it?"
"I would be more than contented if you would remove the roof from my room."
"LEVI." His father had slammed an unwieldy palm on the table as he rose to strike the stunted boy with the indifferent attitude.
"Isaac." His mother warned in a steely tone, "He's allowed to make his own decisions."
"Shut the hell up! Kari!."
His mother winced away as if his words were sharpened. His father spun in his objective, and studied him with one of his threatening smiles. "You WILL join the Military Police. Because I said so."
He hooked a punch up Levi's chin. He sagged at the impact with knees on the wooden floorboard. He had looked downward, because the demeanor in his father's eyes will ride him over his own sake, he didn't want to fight back. His mother whimpered woefully to the point that Levi felt an aching pain inside in a corner of their living room.
"Say it, Levi. You'll become a top trainee - Top ten, in fact. I see you practice even though you don't notice, you can make it to the top. So you'll join Military Police."
He lashed Levi in the ribs with a solid boot. The edge dug in and Levi swore he heard ribs fracture under splitting cracks.
Don't. Don't hit back. Don't.
She had begun to weep for him. It was noticeable, the drops of her tears that hit the ground.
Don't get involved. Mother. Don't.
Levi bit his lip until they ripped under the tension of his teeth. "Say it, Levi."
"Fuck. You."
"DAMMIT SON, WHY CAN'T YOU DO ONE THING FOR THE MAN WHO'S DONE EVERYTHING FOR YOU."
No you haven't. You've done everything for the perfect vision of a family you go by. With collaborative members who follow your every command. A family isn't about that. Father Mother. Care for their child. Child. Care and respect parents. As one with individual thoughts and opinions in which we give up for one another, that's family. I know I've been burdensome but that's because I had tumbled into a hole of confusion and turmoil without anything to grasp onto to break the fall. So don't you DARE say you did this for me, because that's a disgrace the the definition of family, of household.
And by the virtue, he had been slammed in the head by a timbered chair. He fell to the ground, head dizzy, vision almost gone, and hearing - he didn't know if he had heard correctly, his mother had screamed words she never used - foreign to her voice, towards his father.
Levi smacked a hand to his temple, wet with an oozing liquid, blood. Again. He had felt this sensation of a head impact, only once before, much less severe than this. Now, he could only make out blurs of moving colours in front of him. A tall, big shadow hitting the smaller one.. No.
NO.
Levi got up blindly and roaring at a louder voice he hadn't believed viable. But he did, and now, he was hitting the figure, kicking, scratching and biting at someone who had fallen under the velocity of his strikes, he knew his father had been defeated but it wasn't enough. Targets were there, a leg, a head, a neck, and a stomach, his mother was begging him to.. Stop? Go on? He couldn't focus on her words.
Just wasn't.
"YOU DON'T GET TO TOUCH HER." And he delivered the final blow. Knee, bone, was sticking out of the flesh, a scream? A scream, from mother or father? He couldn't make out the sounds, they were mixed together and... He was falling? No it was his father who fell. So why were things getting black?
Black.
So. Hi again.
This is chapter four. In case the title wasn't obvious enough. And... Enjoy? I guess that's the primal reason I decided to share this with you guys, for enjoyment to be spread, and in which those with similar interests can all come together to write and read. :)
~Livelongprosperr.