Sorry for the delay, people! Here's the final chapter of this arc! Massive shout-outs goes to my good friend ARCEUS-master for editing this. As always, I appreciate it! :D On with the story!
''Titans!'' Speech
"Titans!'' Thoughts
At the moment—while the mindless titans were loudly raging on behind him in their struggle against his side's titan shifters—the only thing on Levi Ackerman's mind were his opponents in front of him, imposingly standing further up ahead in the distance. He scoffed internally when he noticed the Cart Titan joining up with the Beast Titan once again, as he was aware that would make things infinitely more difficult. Zeke's long-range offensive prowess combined with Pieck's speed and agility at close quarters combat were something that Eren had thoroughly warned them about. Nevertheless, he didn't let this deter him whatsoever. His senses were sharp and his focus unbreakable as he rapidly soared through the air and approached the pair with his vertical maneuvering equipment. Only then did he notice that Mikasa was right behind him. She'd apparently figured out the Cart Titan would be here as well.
''Perfect timing,'' Levi thought with the faintest of smiles. He knew that together they would stand a much bigger chance of taking them down. Being Ackerman gave them that advantage, after all. Not thinking about all the setbacks that they had experienced so far in this battle, Levi continued onwards. After all, this operation was supposed to be an easy and quick ambush which should have ended with Zeke's and Pieck's immediate capture, but instead, it had collapsed into an all-out chaotic scuffle.
Finally, both the Cart and Beast Titan seemed to get out of their stupor. Levi figured they hadn't expected two lone soldiers charging at them like they were on a suicide mission. Levi noticed the Beast Titan's features turn into a murderous snarl as he reached down and scooped up two handfuls of dirt and rocks. ''There it is,'' Levi thought as his eyes narrowed, mentally preparing himself. His expression turned deadly serious while all his muscles tensed in anticipation. ''Mikasa!'' he shouted, closely watching as Zeke cocked his arm back intimidatingly. ''Stay close!''
Not a moment later, Zeke violently swung his arm forward, releasing a lethal scattershot barrage of projectiles in their general direction. He didn't even need to be accurate with his aim, his attack covered such a wide area that he'd destroy whatever was in his way in a hundred-meter range. Despite this, Zeke's throw was still impeccable. Rocks of all shapes and sizes whizzed toward Levi and Mikasa with so much velocity they seemed to sizzle in the air like rapid gunfire. There was no way they could dodge them all, even with their incredible mobility thanks to their vertical maneuvering equipment. However, that's not what they had in mind to begin with.
Eren had extensively trained them for this exact scenario. He had honed their reflexes and speed while using the vertical maneuvering equipment to such inhuman levels that their movements were almost impossible to follow with the naked eye. As such, when the first few rocks began to reach Levi, his pupils shrank on reflex and both of his arms—which were tightly holding his blades—whirled in front of his body like a tornado, causing him to turn into a spinning blur. Most of the rocks shot at him were sliced and turned to nothing but dust while the bigger ones were deflected away and continued to travel into another trajectory. Since Mikasa was close behind him, he covered her almost perfectly, making it so she only had to defend herself against the occasional large rock that Levi opted to dodge instead.
They worked together like a well-oiled machine, with not a single movement wasted and not a single mistake occurring throughout their defensive maneuver. The two Ackerman created a mini-sandstorm of dust which they appeared out off like a pair of desert spirits once the rocks stopped coming their way. Yet, despite their extremely clever tactic, they didn't come out of the attack unscathed. Since a lot of the projectiles hurled their way were too minuscule to block, Levi was still pelted all over. He gritted his teeth and clicked his tongue, blood slowly seeping out of multiple wounds and staining his face, while his uniform was covered in thousands of tiny tatters. Mikasa, luckily, looked a lot better than he did; she only had a few cuts here and there. Ignoring the pain all over his body, Levi propelled himself forward faster, making a sharp right turn while Mikasa did the complete opposite. This ensured the Beast Titan couldn't target both of them with his next throw.
Meanwhile, Zeke couldn't believe what he was seeing, but based on the confidence behind their reckless frontal assault, he had already assumed they would've survived his attack from the start. ''These are definitely no ordinary soldiers,'' he thought incredulously, eying them as they split up in separate directions. He growled in frustration and without noticing, tightened his fist to the point he accidentally pulverized the ammo in his other hand into nothing but dust. ''Oh,'' he thought and cursed to himself. ''I should be more careful.'' He noticed that Pieck was slightly nervous as their female adversary swiftly approached them from the right, closest to where she was.
''You're right. We shouldn't underestimate them. Be careful, Zeke. I've seen what the girl can do firsthand, never mind that the guy blocked most of your attack just now,'' Pieck growled in warning, getting low to the ground and tensing all of her muscles like a wild animal about to pounce. Zeke harrumphed, focusing instead on the slightly-wounded soldier who was approaching him on his left. He could see his ragged cape billowing behind him in the wind while his face was stained red with blood. However, no fear was present on his face whatsoever; only an icy-cold determination that sent a shiver down Zeke's spine. ''Could they be…?'' he thought with slowly-widening eyes and a growing sense of realization and dread.
Once his opponent was within range, Zeke roared and thrust his long arm forward, extending the claws at his fingertips like deadly spears to shred the incoming Levi into bloody pieces. As expected, Levi dodged the attack easily by shooting the hooks of his vertical maneuvering equipment down into the ground and going low in a seamless maneuver. ''Just as I thought!'' Zeke smirked triumphantly. In one swift motion, he swept his other arm horizontally, his sharp claws slicing one of the steel cables of Levi's equipment and snapping it. Any other soldier would've lost control and fallen to the ground haplessly. Unfortunately for Zeke, Levi wasn't just any other soldier. He was Humanity's Strongest, and the Beast Titan was about to find that out the hard way.
Levi let out a loud grunt as he lost control for just a split second, and near-instantly recovered by unhooking the still functioning part of his vertical maneuvering equipment and shooting it into the Beast Titan's leg, deftly breaking his fall by changing his trajectory into a more favorable one. He still crashed to the ground, but he was able to roll multiple times to soften the impact and use his extra momentum into his favor.
''What…!?'' Zeke hissed in complete alarm, unable to do anything but watch in shock.
With his blades still drawn, Levi lunged forwards and sliced forward in an X-pattern at Zeke's left ankle. The sharp steel ripped through the Beast Titan's flesh and tendons like they were nothing, severing his ankle from the rest of his body with a gush of steam and boiling blood that splattered unto the ground below them with a sickening squelch. Zeke could only give a yelp as his clumsy torso and sometimes awkward weight distribution failed him, causing him to him fall on his side. The crash was immense and left Zeke disoriented for a couple of crucial seconds. He cursed under his breath, and having completely lost track of where Levi was, Zeke quickly hardened his titan's nape on reflex, coating it with a layer of dense crystal-like material to ensure he would not be defeated so easily.
Meanwhile, Pieck wasn't faring any better. Her animalistic instincts screamed at her to charge and bite Mikasa in half the moment she was within range. So, that was exactly what she did. Hoping to use her speed and agility to catch Mikasa off-guard, she suddenly leaped forward and opened her massive beak-like jaws wide. While the Cart Titan was easily the weakest of all the titan shifters, it did have the most endurance of them all. Not to mention well-developed leg muscles that made her able to jump like a frog with surprising nimbleness. It was scary how quick she could be in close-quarters, and it seemed Mikasa hadn't entirely anticipated that.
Mikasa's advantageous mobility thanks to her vertical maneuvering equipment combined with her inhuman reflexes were the only reasons why she wasn't reduced to a bloody smear in Pieck's jaws. Mikasa gritted her teeth as she shifted her body weight and posture sideways and released a potent burst of gas from the canister on her back via the switches on the handles of her swords, with her body movement being so abrupt the sudden change in trajectory hurt her sides somewhat. However, she was more than glad she managed to evade Pieck's large open maw snapping at her. An intimidating crunch-like sound reverberated through the area as the Cart Titan bit down on nothing but thin air.
Pieck, however, didn't give Mikasa any time to recover. She swiped one of her arms—claws extended menacingly—in a downwards arc with blinding-fast speed in the direction where Mikasa was going, making sure that she had no way of dodging it whatsoever. Mikasa's eyes widened as she realized this with growing horror. She had to defend herself quickly or else she'd still end sliced up into multiple bloody pieces. On a purely instinctual reaction in speeds worthy of an Ackerman, she whirled around so she was facing upward, blades drawn and crossed in front of her as a makeshift shield. Pieck's claws loomed over her in what looked like in slow-motion, but in reality, it was only a fraction of a second. Mikasa gave a war cry as she thrust both blades forward and met Pieck's claws head-on.
A resounding clang echoed loudly all around Mikasa as claws met steel, making her ears ring painfully. She hoped her blades would go straight through Pieck's attack, but the force of her strike was pitiful compared to the power the Cart Titan was able to put behind her attack. She gasped in pain when both her blades broke on impact, the force of the hit slamming her down roughly to the ground. She was lucky all of Pieck's claws broke on impact as well, otherwise there wouldn't have been much left of her.
The Cart Titan growled as the momentum of her earlier leap led her away from her target. However, it only gave Mikasa a few extra seconds to act. The moment Pieck landed on the ground, she quickly spun around—smoothly and efficiently—in one deft movement and lunged at Mikasa once again. Mikasa gritted her teeth, barely recovering from her rather painful fall before she was staring death into the eyes once again. Now, she was acting on pure instinct and that fact alone made her muscles move blindingly fast. Mikasa replaced her broken blades with brand-new ones from the large metallic holsters at her sides and then dived forward with a deafening scream, straight into Pieck's open maw.
Pieck's eyes widened incredulously. "Don't try it! I'm a lot faster than you!" She thought to herself, growling from deep within her titan. Time seemed to slow down to a crawl as Mikasa lunged towards the Cart Titan's open jaws. The moment Pieck calculated Mikasa would be passing right between her massive teeth, she smirked and closed her titan's mouth with immense force. "I win."
In another inhuman reaction, the moment Pieck's jaws began close down on her, Mikasa pressed the switches in her blade's handles, releasing a potent gush of gas that propelled her forward, moving past the Cart Titan's teeth in an instant.
The last thing Pieck expected when she snapped her jaws shut around Mikasa was for her to completely dodge her teeth and end up inside of her mouth. As such, Mikasa's razor-sharp blades pierced through Pieck's palate and shot straight out of the back of her skull. Pieck hissed in alarm and desperately tried to swallow Mikasa whole. However, Mikasa resisted the sickening pull of the muscles at the back of Pieck's mouth by holding on firmly to her blades, which were still lodged into the Cart Titan's cranium. With another fierce battle cry, Mikasa pulled one of her blades back, which was now covered in boiling-hot blood, before thrusting it forward again, stabbing Pieck through her palate once more.
Pieck cursed loudly, the obvious damage to her titan's brain making her lose functionality in her limbs. She thrashed and shook her head around harshly in an attempt to make Mikasa lose her grip so she could swallow her whole. ''I can't believe it, just who and what are these soldiers!? I have to get rid of her or…'' Pieck couldn't finish her thought as a very sharp pain exploded through her chest and left shoulder. Mikasa had retracted her blade amidst being completely disoriented and successfully stabbed it at the back of the Cart Titan's throat, slicing the flesh through the back of her neck and piercing her real body. Pieck let out a loud shriek of pain, completely losing sense of her surroundings and control of her titan. Seeing that she had finally hit Pieck's body, Mikasa twisted her blade around savagely to further wound her.
A great sense of desperation and panic overwhelmed Pieck as her own blood pooled in her destroyed lung cavity, giving her the feeling that she was drowning while coughing up heaps of it in a frantic attempt to breathe. She hadn't even noticed that her Cart Titan had helplessly collapsed onto the ground, spasming pitifully as her healing factor did its best to aide her and keep her alive. ''No… Please…'' Pieck thought, her eyes as wide as saucers while still coughing up her own blood. She had no idea where she was anymore, only that her vision turned blurry the moment she felt someone cut her titan's nape open, effectively getting her out of her titan and leaving her completely defeated.
Pieck wanted to fight the growing dizziness and stay awake, afraid she might never wake up again, but the moment she closed her eyes, the pain and panic started to fade as she fell into a state of sweet unconsciousness.
The moment Zeke had focused on hardening his nape as a defensive measure, it had been all over for him. He surely thought that Levi would try to end the battle as quickly as possible and thus zero in on his nape, especially when he had fallen down and was left vulnerable. As such, he never expected Levi to attack his head instead. The extremely sharp blades pierced through his skull almost too easily. Like he was an overripe banana, his head split open in two with a disgusting gush of boiling blood, rendering most of his senses and all of his movements completely useless. ''What the… Did he… expect me to do that!?'' Zeke hissed, completely petrified while widening his eyes almost comically. He was basically a sitting duck at this point, and it didn't take Levi much more time to hack and slash his way around his titan's hardened nape. Splatters of blood stained the Beast Titan's brown fur as Levi mercilessly slashed away, ending it with a wide and potent slash that ripped Zeke out of his titan with a loud scream.
Boiling-hot blood and steam rose everywhere around them as Levi harrumphed at Zeke's defeated and battered form. His healing factor had slowed down to a crawl; courtesy of Jean already doing massive damage to him in their earlier fight. ''So, this is the almighty Beast Titan,'' Levi thought with a disgusted grimace as he looked down at him, keeping both of his blades interlocked against Zeke's neck.
''Who… Who are you guys?'' Zeke wheezed while blood slowly trickled past his lips and down his chin. He winced when he felt the sharp edges of Levi's blade cut into the soft skin tissue of his neck.
''You're not much in a position to be asking any questions, Zeke Yeager,'' Levi answered, his bloodied expression making him look more like a serial killer than anything else. ''I have to hand it to you, though. You made it extremely difficult for us,'' he admitted offhandedly, his attention now diverting to Mikasa and Pieck. He cursed and briefly questioned Mikasa's sanity when he saw her leap straight into Pieck's maw who snapped it shut an instant later. He gritted his teeth, only for him to gasp when he saw both of her blades pierce through the Cart Titan's skull from within. ''That's… pretty clever, actually. Using that thing's odd mouth shape to her advantage,'' he admitted to nobody in particular.
Zeke chuckled. ''Beastly Instincts,'' he revealed. ''Not that it matters much anymore. I've lost and by the looks of it, I won't live for much longer anyway.''
Levi didn't spare Zeke as much of a glance as he shifted the angle of his blades and thrust them down, cutting off both of his arms, followed quickly by both of his legs with another efficient slice of his blades. The loud screams of pure agony from Zeke's mouth were like music to Levi's ears. ''That was for those rocks you threw at us. Don't go anywhere now, I have to help my teammate.'' Levi shot off in the direction of the Cart Titan, who was getting stabbed repeatedly with one of Mikasa's blades from the inside of her mouth.
''If she keeps that up, she might even defeat her without my help,'' Levi thought, very impressed with her improvisation. ''Best to not take any chances, though.'' He noticed how Pieck had lost functionality of her limbs after a particularly potent stab through her skull and crashed to the ground, giving Levi the perfect opportunity to finish her off.
He could hear Pieck's wails of pain and agony—which were equally as melodious to him as Zeke's had been earlier—clear as day when she started to shake her head around like a dog in a vain attempt to get Mikasa to lose her grip on her swords, only for her to stab her straight through her neck. ''That must've pierced her straight through her chest,'' Levi deduced, seeing the end of Mikasa's blade covered in a thick layer of non-boiling, clearly-human blood. Deciding to put Pieck out of her misery, he silently sliced her nape open in a single, swift pass, ejecting her out of her titan. Levi tsk'ed, unimpressed as Pieck lost consciousnesses fairly quickly afterward.
Not much later, Mikasa freed herself from the lifeless body of the Cart Titan that was quickly going up in smoke. She was breathing raggedly, her eyes hazy while holding on to her swords for dear life. Levi perked a brow, but otherwise didn't question it. Instead, he gave her a hand to help her get up. ''I've defeated the Beast Titan,'' Levi stated matter-of-factly, seeing that Mikasa was all right and didn't suffer any lethal wounds. She was just experiencing a shock reaction. He knew that'd wear off.
Mikasa nodded her head and grabbed his outstretched hand. In the distance, she could see that Eren, Sasha and Connie were finishing off the remaining mindless titans, meaning the battle was as good as over. ''Let's take Pieck and Zeke with us then and join the others,'' she responded shakily, her heart still beating a mile a minute. ''I am sure Eren would love to know how Zeke anticipated our ambush so flawlessly.''
Levi snorted. ''He was talking something about his Beastly Instincts, as if it was a sixth sense that warned him from the upcoming danger. It seems plausible, but I'd rather ask Eren to make sure it's the truth. Moreover, we have some other, much bigger problems we have to discuss as soon as possible.''
Mikasa could take an estimated guess of what Levi was talking about. Now that some of the Marleyan warships had witnessed the brutal battle that took place, their cover of stealth had been completely blown. The crews of these ships would undoubtedly report to Marley what had transpired and let them know Paradis Island was ready for war, and then it'd be a race against the clock.
''I'm sure Eren will come up with a plan, if he hasn't already,'' Mikasa replied evenly, the admiration for the boy palpable in her voice.
Levi simply nodded his head as he went over to where Zeke had been screaming in pain just a minute ago; he probably had lost consciousness by now as well. Levi looked down at the defeated Zeke with a disdained expression. ''Well, as much as I want to kill you right here, Eren apparently has other plans for you. Consider yourself lucky,'' Levi said as he grabbed what was left of Zeke and carried him on his shoulder. Mikasa did the same with Pieck, only she carried her on her back. Mikasa's revolted expression clearly showed how much she wanted to kill her as well, but she refrained for the time being. A quick nod to Levi was all that she needed to give him before the two used their vertical maneuvering equipment to head toward Eren's general direction.
Eren sighed internally, looking over the smoke and steam-shrouded battlefield. The harbor Marley had built was completely destroyed, never mind the surrounding area all around it which had now been reduced to a tattered landscape. He'd just finished off the last of the mindless titans. Miraculously, nobody of his squad got killed or seriously injured; the only worrisome case was Armin. He would probably be out of commission for the next six months. ''It could've been worse,'' he reassured himself, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Right now, he was meeting up with his team. Most were wounded, but still standing strong. Levi and Mikasa had haphazardly tossed before him the unconscious and mutilated bodies of Zeke and Pieck, as if it was up to Eren to pass judgement upon them. ''So, Eren,'' Levi asked him neutrally while he had his arms crossed, ''what will we be doing now? In just a few days, Marley will be aware that Paradis isn't as unknowing about the outside world nor as regressive and helpless as they had once thought it was.''
It was a serious issue, Eren realized, but not something that was impossible to overcome. ''Right now, we will stick to the original plan,'' he said firmly. ''We make contact with the Azumabito, form an alliance, build up our defenses around the sea and attack Marley as quickly as possible.''
Everybody present knew it was still a solid plan. The fact Marley was in the middle of a war with the surrounding nations and had just lost another two titans meant they could not afford anymore adversaries. Moreover, with the fact they would get access to some of the latest technology thanks to the Azumabito, they would also show the other nations they weren't the Devils Marley's relentless propaganda made them out to be. ''It's not like Willy Tybur is in any position right now to hold an epic speech and make me the enemy of the entire world,'' Eren thought, shaking away those dark memories.
''While I do agree with you that it's the best course of action,'' Erwin mused, ''what about our brethren? If Marley knows all of the titans have fallen into our hands except for the War Hammer, then what's stopping them from killing all the Eldians in the interment zones?''
It was a fair question, and something Eren was the most anxious about becoming a reality. However, he wasn't the Founding Titan for nothing. Freeing Liberio was still one of his top priorities, and he knew exactly how he was going to manage that. ''You don't have to worry about that one. I'll personally make sure not a single Eldian soul will be lost because of this.'' Eren spoke with so much confidence that he left no doubts in the mind of his friends and his teammates about this statement.
''Alright, we will trust you with that task, then,'' Levi responded, now pointing one of his blades to their prisoners. ''But, what about them?''
Eren breathed in loudly and looked at the unconscious pair with a thoughtful expression, knowing that Zeke was still of the opinion that euthanizing all of the Eldians would be the best way to go. However, just because that was his opinion right now didn't mean it couldn't change. He saw no reason to kill either of them for the time being, especially since Pieck had worked together with some of his teammates in the past—well, the past for Eren, at least.
''I will extract their titans as a precautionary measure; however, we will not kill them. They might not agree with our point of view, but that doesn't mean we can't change their minds. They could be very valuable allies if we say the right things to them. And if not, they won't be able to do much without their titans once they're locked up,'' Eren reasoned, now looking out over the sea in the general direction where he knew Marley lay over the horizon.
Everybody became silent as they all followed Eren's gaze and stared out toward the sea as well. They'd come so far, but they all knew that the final and most difficult hurdle was just about to begin.
And that's it for this arc, people! Did you guys like it, love it, hate it? Please leave a review! Reviews make my day a little brighter! Next chapter the final arc: the battle against Marley! Until then. :3
~Syrup