A flash of white light encased the blonde's bay left arm as Armin drew his cleaver form his back. A bone white sneering skull mask formed over his face as his eyes flashed golden. The huge fourteen meter female titan was catching up to them quick as Armin, Ness, and Cis tried to keep their distance.
"What do we do?" Cis asked looking towards Armin for an answer. Ness was the one to answer just before Armin could speak. "We take it down like we did the last one" he said grinning as he spun around on his horse.
Armin was about to voice his opinion with the reckless Ness shot off towards the charging titan. "Wait for me!" Cis yelled firing his own cables to catch up with his friend. Armin spun, his wings taking him towards the sky as he watched the two circling around the titan's shoulders.
It hardly seemed to notice them as Ness pulled his triggers, his cables bringing him around for perfect view of the titan's nape. That's when it did notice, Armin could see the scowl that marred the titans face for less than a second before its left arm shot out.
Ness didn't even get a chance to fight back as he was subjected to a full body bunch from the female titan. The crack of his bones echoed throughout the area as the cables detached themselves from the titan's shoulders.
Cis yelled as he went in to avenge his friend, only to shoot too far as the titan grabbed on to his cables. She didn't stop running as she spun his cables, throwing the boy into a loop before her foot came crashing down on his chest.
Blood splattered across the grass, the female not even taking a second glance as she charged toward Armin.
"I can't beat this thing like I am now" Armin growled as he flew off, the titan right behind him. "Child, you need a distraction to go balance breaker, a team is not far away" Albion spoke to him as he redirected himself towards the next hill.
Flying low, Armin just avoided the extended hand from the female titan. Spreading his wings out, Armin curved his dive over the hill as he spotted Jean and Reiner not far away. Drawing his pistol, Armin quickly took aim towards them as he felt a hand approaching him quickly.
"Frozen shot!" he roared, pulling the trigger just as the hand came down on him. The shot fired, exploded beside the two boys as they turned their horses to see Armin being batted towards the ground.
"Shit, come on!" Jena cursed as he directed his horse forward. Reiner followed silent, drawing his blades as he got ready to distract the female titan.
Armin rolled in his landing, his back hitting the ground with a loud thud as he looked up towards the female titan. It was just staring down at him, one of its hands slowly reaching towards him. "Ah Primus" Armin cursed as he felt his right win was broken.
Retracting them, Armin rolled over on his side, rolling down the hill and avoiding the grab from the female. "Armin, get up!" Jena yelled as he and his horse came galloping towards him. The golden blonde smashed his gauntlet clad fist into the hill, skidding to a stop on his knees as he did.
"VANISING DRAGON DEMON SCALE!" his gauntlet bellowed as the jewel pulsed to life. It flashed with a counter of thirty second as the blonde forced himself to stand up. "Reiner, keep it busy!" Armin ordered as his hand stretched out and caught Jeans.
Jena pulled him on to the back of his horse, letting the blonde crouch down as he sheathed his cleaver on his back. "We need to get out of here!" Jean yelled to him as Armin nodded. "Few more second and then we can get out" Armin replied as he turned to se Reiner swinging around the female titans shoulder.
His blade were pulled back as he was about to spin forward, only for a skinny hand to shot out and grabbing him. Armin and Jean froze as they watched the female titan press her thumb to the boy head, the muscles in her hand tensing as she clenched.
Blood sprayed into the air as Armin snarled at what just happened. As he was about to jump from his perch on top of Jean's horse, the female titan hand exploded in a shower of blood and flesh. Reiner spun out of the female's grip, the acidic blood devolving off his clothes as he landed in a rough roll.
"What, you're alive!" Jena yelled in surprise as Reiner climbed onto his horse. "It's still coming for us!" Reiner stated loudly as Armin and Jena turned to see the female already having its hand repaired and was getting ready to run towards the.
"I got this!" Armin yelled as he leaped towards the charge female titan. Both Jena and Reiner had to shield their eyes as the blonde was enveloped in a bright ice blue light. "HOWLING MISSILE!" they heard a voice echo form the light as numerous ice blue bullet shape object exploded outwards.
The female titans eyes widened in shock as she brought her arm up to defend her face. "Let's go!" the voice of Armin yelled as the two saw a white knight standing in front of them. A scythe/axe was in his right hand as a long ice blue cape with white armoured trimmings cascaded form his shoulders.
His left eye glowed golden as the side of his draconic helmet started to gain ice blue markings similar to Armin's skull mask. "Huh, Armin?" Jean questioned as the knight turned to him. "Questions later move now!" he yelled running past the two horse riders as his gauntlet bellowed a divide.
Collapsing to his knees, the white armoured knight using his scythe/axe as leverage to stay upright. "Okay, it's leaving" Reiner muttered as he and Jean watched the female titan staring to walk towards the huge forest of trees.
"And towards Eren" the knight muttered as both Jean and Reiner turned to him. "What do you mean?" Jena asked as Armin sighed, forcing himself to stand up. "The female was after me, and if it's walking away, it's now after Eren" Armin stated as cracks stared to form around his armour.
It shattered like glass, leaving a much smaller more familiar figure of Armin alert standing there with his cleaver stabbed into the ground. "You really are like Eren" Jena muttered in disbelief. "Why would this female titan be after you or Eren for that matter?" Reiner asked.
"Because of Eren humanity actually had its first victory, we both have similar powers so if the titans are looking to destroy humanity, and they need to get rid of us first" Armin explained as he sat down, his left shoulder twitching as he cringed in pain.
"You okay?" Reiner asked as Armin rubbed his gauntlet clad hand across his forehead. He pulled it away to revile a bit of blood coming from his head. "Not really, my heads bleeding and my left wing is broken" Armin muttered as Reiner approached him with a set of bandages.
"I don't know about wings but this should keep your head together" Reiner said as he finished tightening the bandages around the golden blonde head. "Thanks, you two can head on, I'll only slow you down at this point" Armin said as Jena and Reiner shook their heads.
"Honestly, your too important to leave behind, our horses won't carry you for long so we can only wait until that wing of your heals" Reiner said. "Why can't you have a horse that likes you?" Jean asked in annoyance about behind stuck out in the open.
"You would be surprised how many animals actually dislike a dragon/devil hybrid" Armin remarked. The two were stopped form questioning the blonde as the sound of hooves hitting the ground echoed into their ears.
"Hay, are you guys alright?" a familiar voice asked as the three boys turned to see the blonde girl Christa approaching them on her horse. "You guys looked like you had some trouble, I brought supplies" she said smiling at the three.
For some reason that Armin will never know the sun started to beat down on the girl face making her look like a goddess right in front of them. Reiner and Jean were struck in awe as a blush grew across their faces. "I want to marry her" Reiner muttered.
Armin on the other hand was looking up at the clear blue sky. "What the hell happened to the sun?" he wondered trying to find out why the light got stronger as Christa appeared in front of them. Was she a goddess?
"King, I worry greatly about you sometimes" Demon muttered before getting wacked on the head by Albion.
"This isn't good" was all the messenger stated as he handed Levi the report from one of the outside squads. Levi read over the message, a frown cross his face as he handed it back. "Keep in formation" he spoke up as the messenger moved to return the message.
"What's going on?" Oluo asked as he caught up to the frowning captain. "A new titan is killing the outside quads, is making its way s towards the middle...too us" Levi said glancing at Eren who was listening to them.
"Then shouldn't we retreat?" Eren asked, he didn't want to sound like a coward but if this titan was after him, then it would be better to retreat and rethink their plans. "No, we keep in formation, we're heading towards the forest of giant trees" he stated as he whipped the rains of his horse.
The group eventually reach the rest, Erwin and his squad had already moved into the forest for some reason. "Keep going" Levi ordered as he noticed Eren looking behind him. "What about the rest?" Erne asked trying to see if anyone else made it to the forest.
"They have their orders, now follow yours" Levi replied making eh black haired boy frown.
"This is boring" Armin muttered as he and the rest of the outside squads were stationed in the tree surrounded the giant forest. "What does Erwin have planned" he added thoughtfully as he looked towards the advancing titans.
"Great bait duty" Armin mumbled as Jean and Reiner looked towards him in confusion. "What? It's not like it not true" he defended as the two older boys sighed. "How many do you think made it to the forest?" Jean asked as Christa, and Ymir looked toward him.
"Not as many as I would have liked" Armin relied as he summoned his pistol. "Let's just keep these one busy the captain and commander should have a good plan, whatever it might be" Armin muttered before turning his attention towards the other entrance of the forest.
The trees were swaying widely but there wasn't a wind to cause it. "She's in the forest" Armin muttered turning his whole body towards the direction of what will be the female titan. "Let's hope Eren doesn't go ape shit again" Armin mumbled.
"Why are we on our own again?" Eren asked looking around for any sign of another squad, hell another person would help. "Does it matter?" Levi asked as he scowled at the boy. "Yes, what if that odd titan attacks?" Eren replied.
"Then we have the advantage" Levi said glancing towards the trees. Eren thought for a second before realising why they came here. Eren glances around himself, looking towards each member of Levi's team.
All around him he could see the uncertainty in their faces. "They don't know either" Eren thought. "Can you blame them partner, this is the first time they had someone like us around, they will feel unnerved by it" Ddriag stated as Eren could only nod at the old dragons words.
"Better get ready though, that female titan is inside the forest, and it's looking for us" Ddriag added as Eren found himself reaching for his buster blade. The sound of a foot step echoing throughout the forest made him grab the blade as another one followed.
"It's here" he mumbled. The screams that echoed from behind them stopped as soon as they started. Something was killing their men. Looking between each of the front squad, Eren could only see the nervous looks and shifting of uncertainty.
The explosion of a tree directly behind the group made all but Levi spin around to face it. Running at speeds the group found almost impossible to believe was the blonde haired female titan. "Captain!" Petra yelled looking for orders from Levi.
Levi stayed silent as he kept his horse running forward. "Captain, what do we do!?" She yelled again only to be met with silence as the frowning man refused to answer her. "Levi! What do we do?" Eren asked his right hand gripping his buster sword as he waited for an order form the captain.
Levi didn't answer as three more soldiers flew in on their gears. Each one going directly for the female titan's neck. Erne could only watch in sick horror as the female smashed one of the shoulders into a tree with her shoulder, another was caught by his cables, swung around like a child's toy before being crushed under the titan's foot.
The last solider roared in anger as he swung around the titan's shoulder. His blades ready to cut the titan's nape open. Erne watched as the titan leaned forward, its body twisting towards the oncoming soldier before it delivered an uppercut punch that broke ever bone in the man's body.
"Captain, permission to engage!" Petra yelled as Levi refused to answer once again. "We should engage it Captain, we can kill it" Oluo yelled as she pulled one of his blades out. "Levi, let us engage it!" Eren yelled as he drew his buster blade.
The seven foot long blade held directly at his side as Levi looked back at Eren, his eyes narrowed. "Do it then" Levi spoke making Eren stop his angry thoughts. "Go and disobey orders, fight and maybe defeat that titan" Levi added as he eyed the black haired boy.
"Or, you can listen to my orders and trust us to defend you like we are assigned to do" Levi finished as Eren scowled. Sheathing his buster blade on his back, Eren sighed as he relented. "Fine" he muttered, if Levi and Erwin had a plan for this titan, then he would listen for now.
"Armin will kill it if you fail" he thought to
himself.
Across the forest, Armin sneezed as he felt someone talking about him. "Something's wrong" he mumbled looking towards the dense forest in thought. "What's wrong?" Christa asked looking towards Armin in wonder.
"I need to go" he spoke making the distracting teams stare at him in confusion. "But, you can't fly with your broken wing" Reiner reminded him as Armin shot him a grin. "Release the order: heavens torment" Armin relied as he was enveloped in a pale blue light.
The teams that hadn't seen Armin use his powers gasped as they saw his white armoured gauntlet and grieves. Flicking his thumb across the spiked guard of his Katana, Armin allowed the blade to spark as he grieves exploded with golden lightning.
"I'll be fine, if you see Mina, keep her safe for me" Armin said as he disappeared in a boom of static. Christa could only pout as the golden blonde left after speaking about Mina. "What is it about him that attracts all of you" Ymir mumbled in distain.
Back with Eren, he was watching Petra yelling at Levi for permission to engage the titan. "What is he up too" he muttered watching the man who jus continued to stare forward, ignore the female teammate's pleas on what to do.
"I would cover your ears" Levi finally spoke up as he pulled a flare gun from his holster. It was already loaded as Eren could only watch silently as the man pointed the gun upwards while his other hand covered his ear.
The trigger fired just as the group past a small but noticeable clearing. The female was right behind them, its hand going directly for the buster sword wielder. It all seemed to stop as Erwin voice roared throughout the forest.
"FIRE!"
Not a second later did numerous spike launchers start to rain down on the female titan. Her back, arms, and legs were impaled in multiple places as the lines connected to the spike tightened and restrained.
Eren looked back and notice the female's position was to defend the nape of her neck, both hand covered the weak spot. Lowered his gaze, Eren frowned as he saw the wavering eyes as the female attempted to move, only for another round of spikes to fire.
"She's scared" he muttered turning back as Levi fired his cables and flew back towards Erwin.
"What do you think we should do?" Levi asked as she landed beside his long time friend and commander. "Whoever is inside this titan is in the nape of its neck" Erwin spoke up as Levy narrowed his eyes at the trapped female titan.
"How can you be so sure?" Levi asked feeling sceptical about the whole humans controlling titans. "You believe in devils, why not this as well" Erwin said jokingly despite the situation. "Fine, what do we do" Levi asked as he gazed towards the female titan.
"We cut the person out" Erwin said his tone cold and sharp as if he truly didn't wish for this to happen. "Better get to work" Levi said as he fired his cables. Swinging across the trees, he landed on top of the blonde titan's head, his blades held at his side as he calmly kicked her.
"We know you're in there, this can all be avoided if you come out now" Levi said almost hoping for whoever was inside to agree. He was met with silence as the female titan shifted on its feet. "I guess we do this then, but let me ask you" Levi spoke again.
"Do your limbs grew back, and I'm not talking about you titan limbs, no, I'm talking about you're limbs" Levi stated darkly as the female titan icy blue eyes widened in shock and a little fear. Her jaw opened as a scream ripped from the titan's throat.
Everyone still in the clearing covered their ears as the inhuman scream echoed throughout the forest and the surrounding land. "What's it doing?!" one of them asked as the creaming continued. Huge crashes of heavy footsteps echoed just over the horrifying scream.
"Abnormal's!" one of the soldier yelled as everyone turned to see a huge number of abnormal titans running from all sides towards the female titan. "She drawing them in! Get out of there!" another yelled as all of the survey corps soldier deployed them gear to get to the branches in the trees.
Titan ranging from all sizes charged into the clearing, their jaws wide open as they aimed directly for the screaming female titan. The spike launchers used to keep the blonde titan in place were crushed under the heavy footsteps of the charging titans.
The soldiers could only watch in horror as the female titan was devoured by the ever increasing hoard of horrific human like beasts. Levi landed on one of the higher branches beside the seemingly calm Erwin.
"This is problematic" Levi mused as he sheathed his blades into their holsters. "It's not over yet" Erwin spoke up making Levi glance at him in wonder. His only expression asking the obvious question was a slight raise in his eyebrow.
"Did you see anyone other than our soldiers that are accounted for leave yet?" the blonde man asked as Levi's eyes narrowed in thought. "No" he answered simply as Erwin face turned grim. "Whoever was inside that titan is disguised as one of us" he said as he looked towards the direction that Eren and the rest of Levi's squad had left in.
A boom of static made both captain and commander turned to see Armin standing on the branch beside them. "What happened?" he asked instantly. "The female titan escaped obviously" Levi replied condescendingly to the golden blonde.
"Where's Eren?" Armin asked ignoring the small mans words as he stared directly at the commander. "Aren't you supposed to be on the outside?" Erwin asked his toe carrying amusement for the small blonde boy in white armour.
"Where's Eren?" Armin stressed out as he gripped his Katana tightly. "Further into the forest, watch yourself" Erwin said as the blonde nodded before disappearing again. "You sure you should have told him that?" Levi asked.
"He and Yeager are our only hope to make this mission a success" Erwin replied calmly as he stared down the forest road.
Armin appeared again further down the road cutting directly through the forest. He could only see trees around him and the occasional titan making its way towards the centre of the forest. "I have to hurry" Armin mumbled.
Just before he could start moving again, the sound of a 3D gear firing its cables echoed into his ears. Turning his head, Armin saw the glimpse of someone flying through the trees with their green caps hood up.
"I wonder who that is?" he mumbled as he let lightning encase his armoured grieves once again. Jumping from the branch he was on, Armin disappeared in a boom of static, heading towards the person.
He appeared a few meters away, only for his eyes to go wide as he saw the person twisting their hips towards him and firing their gear cables in his direction. Taken by surprise, Armin barley brought his Katana up to block the swing form the person right blade.
Before their left one could take his throat, Armin grabbed their forearm and pulled them backwards. His grieve slipped from the grip they had on the branch, casing both fighters to fall through the trees, the 3D cables coming lose and slipping back into their holsters as both Armin and the person feel into the forest floor.
Armin's back hit the ground first, the person rolling off him as their hood fell back off their head. Shaking his head, Armin looked up to see he was at blade point, slowly his blue and yellow eyes followed the blade up the person thin arm and landed on the beautiful and flustered face of Annie Leonheart.
They two stayed frozen in place as Annie's blade shook slightly as if she was deciding on what to do. Armin's eyes were just wide in surprise as everything about Annie came forward and everything about the female titan matched.
"You're..." Armin statement was cut off when he felt a pair of lips pressed against his. His eyes shot wide open in shock as he saw Annie had kissed him, what the fuck was going on? "Please...don't" he heard her speak as she backed off again.
Armin stammered in reply only for Annie to shot off back into the trees.
"Fuck!" Armin cursed as he pushed himself back to his feet. "It's Raynare all over again" he cursed as he disappeared in a boom of static, fully intent of catching Annie before she did anything stupid.