Part 68
Passing the Torch
"How pitiful…" Mused the Beast Titan, glaring at the rushing soldiers coming directly towards him, their voices emitting their final battle cries after just seeing their Commander fall from the front line. "To never learn from any mistakes… It's a tragedy how King Reiss was able to steal the memories of this world. And now, they're repeating past mistakes. In the end, they'll send every last person in the walls, down to the children, on this suicide charge. Saying if they die, they'll die proudly. What bullshit!"
He crushed the fragmented rocks within his fist, it falling like sand from his palm. The Beast could only chuckle. "What's gotten into me? Why am I getting so worked up? I'm not like my father, right? I have to enjoy what life offers me. And right now, I'll turn them all into little chunks of human flesh!"
The Titan roared, pulling back his elongated arm, powering himself up to throw more pebbled rocks towards the incoming charge.
The soldiers fired a volley of green smoke towards the Titan, in any hopes that it would deflect his aim. But his pitch was perfect.
The world slowed. Each soldier taking themselves to their happy places. Remembering their loved ones or their lovers, their families, as they braved their charge from the orders of Erwin.
The volley of piercing rubble crashed into the front line, striking through their bodies and limbs, horses crashing to the ground, bodies being thrown by force from horseback as yet more died for a cause they could not understand.
The Beast Titan raised his arms in victory. Cheering with pride and ignorance. "You all like that? I changed how I pitched my throws!"
And yet, the battle cries only continued as the next volley of soldiers replaced the one's that had just been taken out from the charge. More green smoke being shot at the Beast Titan's direction, yet this only further agitated him. "How is firing this smoke supposed to help any of you now? All this screaming… What good will it do? You poor things…"
One last time, out of mainly anger, the Titan threw his last onslaught of crushed rocks, killing the remaining soldiers that were charging towards him. The open field was littered in blood and bodies. Only silence now remained.
The Beast Titan, now no longer solely focused on the soldiers, looked beside him. His eyes widened. All of his Titans had succumbed to their own fall.
Out of the trail of green smoke, an anchor pierced through the distraction, latching on to the fur of the Beast Titan, having the monster look up only to see Levi engaged and ready to strike. Reacting, the Beast Titan lifted his arm to grab at Levi, only for Levi himself to be swift enough to avoid it and taking his blades down the flesh of the Titan's arm.
"I need to watch out for two soldiers?" The Beast Titan recalled asking a Reiner and Bertholdt.
"Yes. Captain Levi, he is one. And their strongest. The other is Fury. A Tybur. It's true that they she is in fact a Bloodborn. But we don't yet know if she can control a Titan Shifter. However, if she and Levi were to fight together, they are probably unstoppable."
"A Tybur...?" He would respond in interest.
"So this one must be Levi?" The Beast Titan questioned, seeing how swiftly Levi himself was able to remove all of the fingers from his monstrous hand. Out of fear, the Beast Titan then used his remaining hand to cover his nape, knowing Levi would try to pull him out from this form.
But Levi anticipated this and instead took out the Titan's eyes in one swell attack from a different angle. Now unable to see, Levi continued his strikes. Reattaching his ODM anchors to swing him down to the Titan's legs, his cutters shredding through both of the Achilles heals, rendering the beast unable to even stand anymore.
"What happened to all the fun you were having?!" Levi asked aloud, lifting himself into the air, now the one looking down on the Beast Titan, noticing that he was beginning to try and use his hardening skills to crystallise his nape. "Come on! Enjoy this with me!" Levi raged, as he was too quick and was able land on the nape and begin hacking away at it. Blood spilling everywhere, the Beast Titan roaring in pain and Levi cut his way down to where he was finally able to forcefully pull the human male out from his Titan. Fleshy strands that were attached to his body detaching from his skin, smoke beginning to form around them as his Titan already began to deteriorate.
Levi then placed his cutter into the man's mouth, slamming him down hard, looking upon him with focused eyes.
"After shifting, if your body is severely damaged, it's too busy healing to let you shift again. Isn't that right?" Levi surmised. Too impatient for any response, he further pushed his cutter through the cheek of the man. The exit of the blade through the skin only just missing his eye. "Answer me. Learn some damn manners." Yet the man only trembled in fear of Levi.
"I can't kill him yet…" Levi thought, keeping his eyes on the murderer beneath him. "What if someone is still alive out there? If there is, even on the brink of death, the injection I carry can turn them into a Titan. We can have them eat this fucker and take his Beast Titan powers. Someone, even if it's just one that I can bring back to life."
Now being the one that was too distracted, Levi was too deep in thought to hear the thundering approach of the Titan that walked on all four legs. It burst through the smoke, surprising Levi as its mouth was gaped open. He jumped aside, watching as this Titan placed the severed human body of the Beast Titan into its mouth, now being able to get him away from Levi's determination to kill him.
"All of you! Go kill him!" The man ordered of his remaining Titan's. All of their lost gazes then turned to Levi's direction. "This hurts! You've done it now, Levi! It hurts! But I bet now all of your weapons have been used up! With this, you'll be wiped out, and the Bloodborn will be left weak without you! This was a close one, but the victory is ours!"
"Wait…" Levi solemnly spoke. Sprinting Titan's now hailing his way. "I made a promise… that I'd kill you… I promised!
On the other side of the wall, the threat of both the Armoured and Colossal Titan still remained. Both of them still heading towards the wall. And yet none of them knew what had just happened on the other side.
"To think he's still alive…" Jean hissed. "Why won't he just stay dead?! What the hell are we supposed to do now?!" He then looked up to Armin, who was simply watching the movements of the Colossal Titan. "Hey, Armin? Maybe having Eren just escape, with Fury, is the best we can do?"
As Fury herself was about to object from running away, Armin spoke out. "He's thinner… The Colossal Titan has gotten thinner. It's just like Hange said! The Colossal Titan is weak in a battle of attrition. Remember Eren's experiments? He could only shift about three times. If that's the case for a Titan of Eren's size, a bigger one will be less efficient! And there's his steam attack, too! I bet its consuming his Titan's flesh to produce that steam."
"What are you saying, Armin?" Fury solemnly asked. Something wasn't sitting right with her all of a sudden and her eyes then took a minor glance to atop the wall.
"I have a plan!" He revealed. "But you all need to draw Reiner away for me. Eren and I will defeat Bertholdt ourselves. We can win and I'm going to prove it!"
"Took you long enough, shithead…" Fury muttered, yet there was a small lift to the corner of her lip as she said her words with pride.
"I really thought we were goners." Jean then spoke, now feeling relieved that they can rely on Armin's wits again.
With all of them nodding at each other, Armin used his ODM to lift himself to Eren's unconscious Titan atop the wall. Landing on his chest, Armin then drove his cutter through the skin in hopes to get Eren to hear his words from within.
"Wake up, Eren!" He called out. "Let's go and see the sea together!"
Below, and among the remaining buildings, the rest of the squad were now solely focused on just Reiner.
"We all have to trust that those two have got a handle on this, okay?" Fury called out to them from behind her. "We keep Reiner away from Armin and Eren as much as we can. Stay at a safe distance! And we can use what remaining Thunder Spears we have against him."
Her eyes frowning, knowing that Reiner will still be going straight for Eren, Mikasa was the first to go all out on the Armoured Titan. Using her last Thunder Spear, aiming it at his leg.
She detached the wire, the spear exploding instantly as it was buried deep into the Titan's calf, causing him to lose balance and fall to the ground.
"What was that?!" Fury hissed.
"If we get his attention, then we need to deal with him right here!" Mikasa retaliated. "Like you said, it's on us to protect Eren and Armin!"
"What was that? What got me?" Reiner asked himself as his Armoured Titan began to struggle in getting back onto its feet. "A single attack took out my leg… I don't know what's going on… And I don't have much strength left in me. All I know is that if we can capture Eren, and deal with Fury, then we can win. Isn't that right, Zeke? I'll deal with these idiots… and come running back to you quickly."
"This is a plan I thought up myself." Armin spoke to Eren, as his Titan was now sat upright and focused on the incoming Bertholdt. "But its success depends on how long I can hold out for. Eren, sorry… But I can't die until I look at the sea. So I'll have to call it quits before this all gets out of hand. The rest is up to you. I'm… not a hero. Eren, we promised to see the sea together, right? Have I ever lied to you in my life? So no matter what, stick to my plan."
Eren's Titan nodded, slowly getting to his feet, only to have the crumbling layers of brick beneath him give way, causing him to fall from atop the wall, hitting the ground hard as he came to sudden stop from the impact. "Eren!" Armin then called out.
"I knew this battle was already won." Bertholdt spoke within, watching on at Eren's stumble. "He probably has concussion and can't stand on his own." He then watched more as Armin, with gritted teeth, anchored to his Titan's teeth, lifting himself up to be face to face.
A human seeing murderer.
A human seeing a devil.
"Armin… all the way till the end. You fought well."
Further explosions were then made below as Hange had returned, with the loss of one eye, throwing her surviving Thunder Spear into the jaw of the Armoured Titan, signalling Fury to then use her own to shove it down the throat of the monster, causing Reiner to split from his Titan, the explosion itself knocking him unconscious.
Meanwhile, Bertholdt emitted steam hot enough to melt human skin. Armin bravely remained hooked onto his Titan's teeth, covering his eyes from the gust that threatened to unhook his ODM.
"I knew it!" Armin said aloud, and to himself through a struggled breath. "The anchors stay put if they're not in his muscle, but his bones. Like the teeth. Most importantly, he can't move whilst letting out steam.
I can't breathe…
I have to let go…
No… Not yet!"
Bertholdt increased the emittance of his steam, the heat peeling at Armin's flesh, setting his clothes alight with flames as the metal from his equipment began to fuse with his skin. And yet, his anchors remained attached to the Colossal Titan's teeth. "My dreams… My life… Everything… This is the one and only thing I have to give!
I'm sure… you will all… reach the sea! You'll all… see the sea for me!"
"It's over…" Bertholdt mused, watching as Armin's body had become detached from his Titan, only to now fall, burnt and lifeless. "Next is Fury and the horses…"
As the smoke began to clear, it was then visible that Eren's Titan had fully crystallised, covering up the hole in the wall completely. Bertholdt then finally realised that it was all a ploy.
Eren's fall was fake, Armin was the distraction needed to allow Eren to cover up the hole.
"Got you!" Eren then called out loud, appearing from within the smoke, his cutters ready as he then swiftly took them through the nape of the Colossal Titan, aggressively then pulling Bertholdt out from the hot flesh.
