The air rushed through Drayce's shaggy hair. Almost immediately had he encountered a titan. Seriously, it hadn't even been five seconds before it leaped at him. But as always, Drayce managed to kill the thing.
"That was way too close. Well then Hayweld, let's get to that forest," he said mounting his steed.
As Drayce rode away from the walls, he was overwhelmed with the sense of nostalgia. It seemed almost yesterday had he been riding a horse with his friends. He passed a patch of dented ground and he grinned. Oh how he remembered it. Ivan had fell of his horse riding and lost control of gravity. He was slammed into the ground, creating the dent.
Flashback Begins
"Ow, that hurt," Ivan complained.
"It would have hurt less had you not lost control," Megan said helping him up.
"Come on Ivan, try not to steer your horse into too many rocks, yeah?" George asked laughing his head off.
"That's not very nice George, considering you fell twice as much during training," Drayce shot back, grinning.
"Ok for the record, my horse did not like me," George protested while the rest of them roared in laughter.
Flashback Ends
Drayce raced to the left, avoiding a hand. He turned and pushed off his horse, shooting his anchors into the titan flesh. He unsheathed his sword and in two clean cuts, he sliced the nape out. Hayweld galloped back to the steaming titan corpse. Drayce mounted once again and took off. The tree tops appeared over the horizon but unfortunately so did two more titans. One skittered towards him on all fours like some weird spider. The other was fat and had a potbelly. He stood on the back of Hayweld and unsheathed his sword yet again.
"Stay steady boy. Just need them to get closer," Drayce muttered. "Come on, just a bit more…"
The abnormal continued to race towards him, its gaping mouth opening and closing over and over.
"Gotcha," Drayce said.
He fires both his hooks into the titan's eyes. The titan roared in pain and skidded to a stop as it attempted to claw the anchors out of its eyes. Drayce flew upwards and towards the injured titan, swinging around its neck and slicing the nape out. He jumped off just as the hand of the second titan slammed down on the spot Drayce was just standing on. He jumps onto the titan's arm and ran up it. Faster than it could react, he leaps off to the side and fired his hooks, attaching them to the back of its neck. Reeling in, he raises his sword and slashes down twice. The titan jerks as it falls down dead. Landing down onto the grass field, he looks back at his handiwork, two steaming titan corpse.
"Hey buddy, what do you say we take a lunch break," Drayce called out to his horse.
"What do you guys want," Annie asked annoyed. "Reiner, we literally talked last night and yes, I'm still going if that's what you're concerned about."
"No, that isn't what we're discussing today. Your mission just got harder. Drayce was sent by the Survey Corps to go to the titan forest two days early," Reiner said. "Levi fires one yellow flare and it's over."
"What do you think they're trying, Reiner?" Bertholdt asked. "Our course stops at the end of the titan forest and then we turn back to leave."
"That's the one part we still haven't figured out. Annie, did you learn anything from the Military Police?" Reiner asks.
"Think about it numbskulls. They're after the Victory Titan, like we are," Annie says. "The day he appeared, it was evident that he was on Paradis's side. He appeared somewhere to the southeast and the only space habitable there is the titan forest."
Reiner growled in frustration.
"So they want to capture the shifter. Be careful. One slip up and the mission fails. Locate Eren and the Victory Titan, capture them, and get outta there. I gotta go, I have lookout duty on the wall after Sasha and Connie today," Reiner said.
Annie nods. Reiner and Bertholdt walk off.
"I have to clean the stables with Mina. See you," Bertholdt says and he shuffles away.
Reiner scaled the wall and caught up with a drooling Sasha and a shocked Connie.
"Uh, what's happened so far?" Reiner asked confused.
"Drayce just killed two titans and now he's sitting down and eating lunch," Connie said.
"He's eating meat! MEAT," Sasha yelled.
Reiner took the scope and sure enough, Drayce was sitting next to two steaming corpses, eating some dried beef.
"I mean, he can handle himself. Looks like he took out just about all the titans in the area," Reiner observed.
"That's how many titans killed today? Three?" Connie asked.
"No. Four, including the one he killed right when he left," Sasha said.
"You guys actually keep track," Reiner asked incredulously.
"I mean not much happened," Sasha shrugged.
"You guys are done. I have second shift so you guys are relieved," Reiner says.
"Who's with you on watch?" Connie asks.
"Ymir," Reiner groans.
"Oh wow. Good luck," Sasha said as she began to descend the wall. "Connie, wanna raid the kitchen? I'm getting hungry."
"Sure."
Reiner sighed. This would be a long day.
Drayce fastened his satchel on Hayweld and remounted. He moved forward and began to gallop towards the forest. Within several minutes, they reached the edge. Drayce slid off Hayweld's back.
"Run around the forest, meet me at the back," Drayce instructed Hayweld.
His horse whinnied as if to agree and ran along the edge. Drayce watched as his steed disappeared around the corner and shot his hooks into a tree and zoomed off. He pushed off hard from the tree, extending his claws, jumping from tree to tree.
'Judging by the sun, it's almost noon. The watch outs should be taking their lunch break just about now. They won't notice me transform,' Drayce thinks.
He grabs a claw and pulls hard, cutting himself. Lightning comes down from the sky and strikes him. Titan flesh envelopes him. He runs through the forest. A titan leaps out at him, only to receive a face full of Drayce's claws. He grabs the titan's face and slashes his other hand across the nape killing the titan. He pushes forward, killing any titan stupid enough to face him. After his killing spree, he walked to the edge of the forest. Drayce emerges from his flesh shell steaming and jogs to Hayweld.
"Come on, I got a place where we can crash," he says smiling.
They walk a little way until coming to a creek. They follow the creek upstream until arriving at a moss covered ditch. Drayce put his hand on the side and followed it down. He came to a thicket of vines and bushy leaves, perfectly concealing an entrance to a cave. He held the curtain of leaves open as his horse walked inside. Drayce looked around, pulled out his flare gun and shot out a blue flare. Feeling satisfied, he walked back into the cave. Hayweld was waiting for him.
"We dug this place out with our bare hands. Made this place a few years ago when we got sick of the walls. Got an outside area where we kept horses," Drayce said, guiding Hayweld to a tunnel that led to another section of the cave.
The ceiling opened up in a small hole just big enough to let in some fresh air and light. He led Hayweld into a stall, and then filled the trough with some horse feed and a bucket with water. He unhooked his own satchel and strode out back to the main cave. For a cave out in the middle of a forest, it was quite clean. No dirt on the floors. Rachel had always made a point to rid the cave of anything dirty. She had wanted something "suitable" if they were going to live there from time to time. Much of the furniture was moved there via portal, courtesy of George. He wouldn't be able to keep it open for long but just long enough so that it got through. They couldn't exactly move beds so they decided on hammocks which wasn't half bad of an idea but it did hurt falling off them onto the stone floor. He slung his sword strap on a stone hook and flopped down on a couch, resting his feet on the table and began to close his eyes.
"Sir, blue smoke flare spotted at the titan forest about five minutes ago. Drayce made it safely," Reiner reported.
Levi looked up from his paperwork.
"Is that so? Get ready for our expedition. Tell the other recruits that when they finish packing, they have the rest of the day off," Levi said, submerging himself back into his work.
"Yes sir," Reiner saluted and walked towards the wreck room.
"Guys, Captain Levi ordered us to start packing for our expedition," Reiner called out.
"Dude, way ahead of you, we finished like yesterday night," George said, taking another drink out of his mug.
"Did Drayce make it ok?" Jean asked.
"Blue flare was spotted about five minutes ago. Looks like he killed some titans as well by the looks of the steam. When you guys are done, we apparently have the rest of the day to ourselves," Reiner continued.
"All right then," William says getting up. "I'm going to the market, care to join me?" he asked staring pointedly at Rachel, George, and Mable.
"Alright I'm going," Mable says.
Rachel nods in agreement.
"I still gotta pack," Jean groaned.
"Same, see you guys later," Armin says getting up.
William, Rachel, Mable, and George get up from their seat and walk out the room. They walk around to the back of the castle.
"We're going to the forest," William says.
"Wait, now?" George asked.
"If we know Drayce, the only place in the forest he would be at right now is the cave," Rachel says.
"True," Mable agreed.
"Alright then. You might want to back up a bit," George says.
They step back a bit and George fixes his eyes on the wall. A spark, a fizzle, and finally a hole. The four leap through and the portal closes.
Drayce hits the ground hard. He groans in pain and sits up, vision blurred.
"How many times have I told you to not put your feet on the damn table," said an angry voice.
'Oh no. I'm in trouble,' Drayce thinks.
"Hey, are you even listening?!"
Drayce groans and gets up rubbing his back and eyes.
"Should've told me you guys were going to visit before I left," he said.
Rachel's eyes glow turquoise. The table and couch slide back into place.
"I told you a million times not to put your feet on the table! It took me forever to save up that much," Rachel grumbles.
"Dude literally just lie in the hammock next time," George says, arms crossed.
"Hey take it easy, it been years since I've been here," Drayce whined.
"Well then it should be fitting that you be the one to clean this place," Rachel says dusting of the table.
"Geez now I'm starting to think your Levi in disguise," William says laughing lightly.
"So, how was it?" Mable asks plopping down.
"Well got here, shifted, killed a few titans, fired the flare, and stuff. Not too bad," Drayce says after taking a sip of water from his canteen.
"How many you kill," George asked.
"Thirteen, fourteenish. I don't know, wasn't really counting," he said.
"Now I believe you owe me, what was it, your meat ration," William says smirking at George.
The teleporter groans and waves his hand. Rachel smacks the two boys upside on the head.
"I can't believe you guys bet on that," Rachel says fuming.
"Guys, listen. There something that concerns me right now," Drayce says. "And I'm not happy about it."
"What is it?" George asks, taking a seat on the couch across from Drayce.
"The mission that Marley was going to send us to do," Drayce begins. "Annie's part of it."
"Wait what?" Rachel asks, leaning forward. "Annie?"
"Yeah. Last night I heard her arguing with someone. From what I could make out, it seemed like she was forced against her own will to go," Drayce says.
"Do you know who she was talking to?" William asked.
"No, I couldn't, but it definitely was a male," Drayce says. "At some point, he mentioned threatening Annie by killing me like they did to Marco."
"She killed Marco?!" Rachel asked in horror.
"Forced to kill him. To try and protect me," Drayce corrects.
"So then what do we do?" William asks. "Turn her in?"
"No. Despite the things she's done, she's still innocent. Annie will be there during the expedition in her titan form to try and catch Eren," Drayce says. "I will fight back and stay out of my way when I do. Let's go outside to train. I've gotten a bit rusty."
"Oh you're so going down," George says cracking his knuckles.
"Oh really? We fought over a hundred times and I won all of them," Drayce says chuckling.
"No, he wasn't talking about a one on one battle. He was talking about a four on one," William says grinning, fireball in hand.
"I'm down. Let's do it," Drayce says.
They rush out of the cave and took their places.
"No injuries and control your attacks," Drayce called out.
"Yeah William, we don't need you to burn the entire forest down," George teased.
"Be quiet," William grumbles. "That was one time."
"Ready. Go!"
William threw his fireball, George creating a portal, catching Drayce by surprise. He rolled away and leaped through the portal before it closed. He threw his katana at Rachel before charging at William. Rachel's eyes glowed blue, just in time to stop the hilt from hitting her.
"Mable, some help," William yelled as he sent wave after wave of fireballs.
Mable threw out her hand and Drayce was hit with a blast of wind. A thick tree branch splintered away but Drayce stayed on trajectory.
"Oh come on, you think that'll stop me?" Drayce yelled.
"Not even as a distraction?" George yells.
A portal appeared right underneath Drayce and he was pulled through hard. He reappeared through the side of the cave and rolled to Rachel. He quickly recovered and gave her a quick uppercut.
"Rachel, you're done," he shouted as he dodged a barrage of flames.
She crossed her arms and huffed off, massaging her chin. He rushed toward William and jumped over a portal. A blast of wind slammed him off to the side of the cave. He gets up once more.
"Dang, you got a lot tougher," George says frustrated.
Mable runs towards him, spears made from wind in each hand. She threw both of them but Drayce caught the javelins and hurled them at William and George. Just as the first spear hit William, the spear dissipated. George quickly threw up a portal in front of him and Drayce, but he was ready. The spear traveled through the portals and Drayce slid underneath and rolled through the portal, sweeping George's feet. The last wind spear came in contact with Mable's chest and dissipated.
"I win. Again," Drayce says.
"I really need to work on my reaction time," Rachel grumbles.
"You guys should also work on your coordination with the portals and stuff," Drayce observed, drinking some water. "It could easily be used against you."
"Yeah, bad planning on my part," George said rubbing his neck.
"You guys should get back. It's almost dinner for you guys," Drayce said.
"Yeah, hope things will go as planned during the expedition," William groans.
"Let's go," George calls, a flickering portal next to him.
They leap through, leaving Drayce alone once again. He sighs and picks up his fallen katana. He walks back in the cave, sitting down on the couch and resting his feet on the table once more.