Chapter 7: Night of the Graduation Ceremony
850
Today was the day they put everything they had learned to use to demonstrate their abilities in a series of final tests that would decide whether or not they qualified for graduation.
"Pick up the pace! Run, you lead-footed laggards!" Shadis ordered as the cadets ran through the rain on foot, carrying all of their gear, while he followed on horseback. "What's the matter, Arlelt? You're the only one who's lagging behind! Is that load too heavy for you!? Should I make an exception and let you drop your gear!?" Armin didn't answer. He was doing his best to keep running, even though his body was begging him to slow down and lighten the load. "If this was a real mission, you'd be titan food by now!" Shadis told him as he picked up the pace, leaving him behind.
"Ha... Da... Damnit..." Armin panted. He couldn't fail here!
"Give me that, Armin!" Reiner whispered as slowed down to run next to him, grabbing his pack.
"Reiner..." Armin said, surprised.
"You're gonna fail at this rate! We're being graded today!" Reiner whisper-yelled.
"But... you'll get points marked off too if you do that..." Armin whispered back.
"Then make the grade without getting found out! Before I change my mind!" Reiner retorted lowly.
"..." Shadis kept silent as he rode his horse, but he already knew what was going on just behind him. 'Reiner Braun...' he thought as he observed them out the corner of his eye. 'Strong-willed, with a solid constitution. Most adept at gaining the trust of his comrades.'
"I refuse to be a burden!" Armin said lowly, gritting his teeth. "Even if it costs me my life!"
"What the!? Hey!?" Reiner exclaimed as Armin grabbed his pack back and forced himself to pick up the pace, forging ahead despite the pain.
'Armin Arlelt. Subpar physical aptitude by a soldier's standards...' Shadis thought as Armin pushed past him. 'But allegedly a genius when it comes to theoretical courses. Should he ever find his own niche... Then, probably...'
Next up was target practice. The cadets were to maneuver through a wooded area using their 3DMG and exterminate the 'titans' located within. Jean, Annie, and Bertolt all closed in on the same target. Annie and Bertolt struck simultaneously, cutting all the way through, while Jean's strike was much shallower. The senior instructor with silver hair and glasses recorder their scores as he observed their run from a platform near the target.
Annie Leonhart. She strikes with a perfect penetration angle... her blows carve deep into the target. She's a solitary type, and solidarity doesn't come easy to her.
Bertolt Hoover. Highly proficient in various hand-to-hand combat styles... He seems to have great potential... However, he lacks in self-confidence and tends to leave it to others whenever it comes to showing some assertiveness.
Jean Kirstein. Highly competent with the 3DMG and highly skilled at using it efficiently. He's also good at assessing his situation at any given time, but is far too prompt to unsheathe his sword. He is also prone to sparking conflicts.
'Damnit! Annie and Bertolt again...' Jean thought, furrowing his brow. 'Forget about cutting deep, I just can't compete...! I'll just have to spot the titans first and score points that way!' "If I don't make it into the Police, no one will!" he shouted, using more gas to leave the others behind in his dust. "!!" Jean spotted a large silhouette through a gap in the trees and made a beeline for it. 'Here it is...' he thought, getting ready to strike as he closed in on the target. 'Now it's my turn to...!?' he gasped when someone else shot ahead of him. 'Connie...!! That asshole...'
'Following him was a good idea. Thanks a bunch, Jean!' Connie thought with a smirk as he closed in on the target, leaping from tree to tree. Just as he was about to strike, something flashed past him, and the next thing he knew, there was a chunk missing from the target's neck. "Wha... Sasha!!" he shouted incredulously when he saw who it was.
"Yaaay!!" Sasha cheered, throwing her hands up in the air to celebrate her successful 'kill'.
Connie Springer. Good balance. Especially good at making tight turns. But he's slow on the uptake, and his grasp of strategy is less than perfect.
Sasha Braus. Lightning fast with an uncanny intuition. But her eccentricity makes her unfit for group operations.
"I've been tailing you from above, Connie, and it was worth it!" Sasha shouted as she bounced back up on her line.
"Goddammit!" Connie cursed, frustrated that she had managed to use his own tactic against him so effectively.
"Dammit! Go follow someone else!" Jean yelled at them.
"You hear that, Sasha! Stop following us!" Connie shouted as they both ignored Jean and kept after him.
Meanwhile, Mikasa, Heidi, and Eren had located their own prey.
"Here they come," another instructor said, signaling for his partner to shift the targets into gear. As the targets began to rotate and turn towards them, Mikasa and Heidi sped up, striking so fast they looked like little blurs next to the targets. Mikasa's cuts were a couple of centimeters deeper, but Heidi didn't lose to her in accuracy or speed. They finished off both targets within seconds, careful to leave just enough space on them for Eren, who was right on their tail.
'Damn!' Eren thought, gritting his teeth in frustration, when he saw how shallow his cut was compared to theirs. The girls were performing so extraordinarily that it was making him look bad. Why couldn't he beat Mikasa at least once?
Mikasa Ackermann. A prodigy who excels in the most difficult courses. Completely proficient in every area. She's an unprecedented genius, deserving nothing short of the top grades.
Heidi Trumbauer. Highly proficient in every area, particularly all types of close-combat and efficient use of the 3DMG. She has no trouble taking charge when necessary, but prefers to leave that responsibility to others when given a choice. An individual who is able to set aside personal differences for the sake of a mission, she is well suited to group operations. However, what truly sets her apart is her ability to instantly adapt to almost any situation. With every challenge, she grows stronger, improving rapidly. Her potential for growth appears to be limitless. Although not quite on Ackermann's level at the moment, without a doubt, the day she will surpass Ackermann is fast approaching.
Eren Yeager. No particular talent aside from his excellent close-combat skills. But he's been slowly but steadily improving his grades through outstanding effort, and his sense of purpose is stronger than anyone else's.
—∞—
"That was low, folks," Jean complained while they all rested outside the forest once the test was over, taking advantage of the opportunity to re-hydrate.
"?" Connie said, wondering what he was talking about.
"I'd spotted that target before you," Jean reminded him.
"Low, you say?" Sasha asked loftily. "What a half-baked thing to say, Jean. Since when does one need to show manners when stealing someone's prey?"
"That's right. It's your fault for having it stolen," Connie added defiantly.
"Sheesh... Your hunting yokel logic makes no sense to me!" Jean muttered disgruntledly, scratching his head.
"They're saying it's 'survival of the fittest'," Heidi explained helpfully as she finished emptying her waterskin in to her mouth. Although there was, in fact, a certain etiquette for hunting... That was the essence of nature's law; the inescapable reality of this world.
"I knew that!" Jean snapped, wishing they would all either apologize or shut up and let him brood in peace.
"Oh, well... we should be thankful everyone made it through the exam without a scratch," Marco said, trying look on the bright side.
"That's true..." Heidi agreed. "But, Marco, I think you were holding back too much."
"She's right," Eren said, frowning slightly in confusion as he thought about it more. "You've been finding the targets first, but you'd leave them to someone else... Don't you want to enter the Military Police? You need a top score for that..."
"Yeah..." Marco said, rubbing the back of his neck. "To improve one another's skill, we definitely need to compete, I believe. But no matter what... I can't help but consider it as a real battle situation. As in, since I'm the slowest and all, I should try to draw the titans' attention while the rest strike at them from behind. Though it was kind of pointless, seeing as this test was about measuring our offensive capability..." he explained with a self-depreciating smile. "To think I want to join the Military Police... I've always looked up to it." The others all stared at him in awe.
'He's so pure...' Heidi thought with a mollified smile. She hoped that honorable personality of his would survive the corruption of the inland politics.
"I see... You're what one might call a natural leader," Eren said thoughtfully.
"Huh?" Marco said, surprised.
"Sounds like the right job for you, eh?" Eren continued with a smile, while Heidi nodded in approval. "With that efficient thinking, the attention to detail... I won't mind joining a team if you're the one who's running it."
"Same here," Heidi agreed with a grin, patting Marco on the back.
"I want in on your team, too," Sasha said with a smile. "Sounds like a good survival plan."
"If... If you say so..." Marco said a little nervously, blushing bashfully. It was nice to hear that everyone believed in him so much, but...
"The Battle Planification Trainees' Squad in Trost, huh?" Jean mused. "Count me in with Marco, then. I could use the good luck. I don't want to be in the same squad as some pointlessly suicidal asshole," he added, referring to Eren. "I wouldn't survive even ten seconds."
'Ah, but what a glorious ten seconds it would be...' Heidi thought with a dash of dark humor and a Cheshire cat grin.
"Wait a minute... you talking about someone in particular?" Eren asked Jean, feeling irritated for some reason. He'd better not be talking about him.
"Make a guess. I'm sure you can figure out who I mean," Jean retorted sarcastically.
"Take it easy, you two," Marco said a bit nervously, trying to calm them down before things got out of hand again.
"?" Connie said, wondering who on earth Jean could possible be talking about.
"Here we go again," Sasha remarked wryly. "Jean and his roundabout declarations of love..."
"Can it, Potato Girl...!!" Jean snapped with a vein throbbing on his forehead.
"... I thought everybody'd forgotten about that!" Sasha exclaimed, flinching in shock at her old nickname.
"Sorry, but I don't think anyone could ever forget that..." Heidi commented with a wry smile.
"Hey, Jean? I don't think there's anyone out there who goes by the name 'some suicidal asshole'?" Connie finally said, earning a small laugh from Heidi, even though he was being perfectly serious.
"... You shut up too, Connie," Jean retorted sharply. They didn't have to wait too much longer before their instructors announced that it was time to head back and began leading the return march.
"Ugh... I'm tired..." Jean groaned, feeling exhausted both physically and mentally, thanks to those idiots.
"... I think you'd make a better leader, Jean," Marco said thoughtfully as they walked together.
"Me?" Jean asked, surprised. Was that some kind of joke? "You can't be serious. Courage ain't no quality of mine. What makes you think that?"
"Well..." Marco said a bit hesitantly. "Don't take this the wrong way... but you..."
—∞—
Later that evening, all of the cadets who scored enough points to pass were gathered for their graduation ceremony.
"As everyone knows, 107 years ago... the entire human race, save for us... was devoured by the titans. Following that, our ancestors constructed mighty walls that the titans couldn't get over... and thus, successfully secured a safe, titan-free domain. That is, until five years ago... I'm sure many of you were present there... five years ago, when tragedy struck again," the head of the Cadet Training Corps said, bowing his head in memory of all those lost as he continued to deliver his speech. "We have paid the price for a hundred years of peace with tragedy. Given the sense of crisis at the time, we were ill-prepared to cope with the sudden appearance of the Colossal Titan... As a result, we were forced to abandon our outer wall, Maria. Humanity's territory has shrunk down to the limits of Wall Rose, within which we stand presently. Even as we speak, it is very possible that this Colossal Titan... might tear down the wall to come at us any second now. Whenever that time does come, your duty will be to assist the manufacturers... and give your lives to stand against the titan threat! Dedicate your hearts!!"
"Yes, sir!!!" the cadets shouted back as one, saluting proudly.
"Today, you have completed your military training. I will now announce the ten among you who have obtained the top training results. Come forward if I call your name," he told them, removing the list from his pocket. "First: Mikasa Ackermann. Second: Heidi Trumbauer. Third: Reiner Braun. Fourth: Bertolt Hoover. Fifth: Annie Leonhart. Sixth: Eren Yeager. Seventh: Jean Kirstein. Eight: Marco Bodt. Ninth: Connie Springer. Tenth: Sasha Braus. That is all."
"Tch!" Ymir clicked her tongue in disappointment, scowling. She had thought slacking off might help Krista get into the top ten, but it looked like that wasn't enough.
'I've made it here at last...' Heidi thought with resolve and determination smoldering in her cool, blue eyes. 'It's humanity's turn, now... This time, we'll show the titans what it feels like to be the hunted, and why... humans are the most dangerous prey!'
"Now that you've completed your training... you have three choices," the head of the Training Corps continued. "The Garrison, which reinforces the walls, thereby protecting all of the towns. The Survey Corps, prepared to sacrifice their lives outside the walls by defying the titans in their own domain. And the Military Police Brigade, which serves under the king by policing the people and maintaining order. Of course, out of you raw recruits, the only ones who can apply directly to the Military Police, are the top ten cadets who were previously named. Soon, I'll be asking you which branch you want to be assigned to. But as of right now, the 104th Trainees Squad is officially disbanded! Dismissed!"
"Yes, sir!" the graduating cadets responded enthusiastically. Time for the after party!
—∞—
That night, the cadets were treated to a glorious feast in one of the military dining halls in town.
"Yes!" Connie cheered excitedly as he clinked tankards with Sasha. "Now I'm going to be in the Military Police!"
"No more worrying about food!" Sasha exclaimed ecstatically.
"Lucky bastards, making it into the top ten!" Peter grumbled as he pulled up a chair near Jean and Marco. Heidi was getting farther and farther away from him... "I'm sure you're gonna join the Military Police Brigade, right?"
"Huh? That goes without saying!" Jean snapped, as if any other outcome was out of the question. "Why the hell else would I have aimed to crack the top ten!?"
"I'm going with the Military Police, too," Marco said brightly as he raised his own tankard to take a drink. "Getting to work near the king... It's an honor!!"
"Are you still playing the goody-goody, Marco?" Jean asked as he grabbed his friend's head and pushed it down into his cup.
"Pfft!!" Marco sputtered as the beer splashed in his face.
"Tell me how you really feel. You can't wait to get into the interior, right?" Jean said with a devious smirk. "We can finally escape this shitty, suffocating front-line town!! A safe, comfortable life is waiting for us in the interior, right!?" he boasted excitedly, banging his fist on the table.
"Wha... You..." Marco stuttered, taken aback, as the people around them began to mutter unkind things. "Sh-Shame on you! At least, I'm not..."
"Oh, sorry! My bad! I forgot you're an honor student!" Jean said carelessly. "But what would you guys do?" he asked, challenging all the haters.
"Is he drunk?" Heidi asked dubiously, raising an eyebrow, as she watched the scene he was making from her table. Jean was being even noisier than usual.
"I don't know. How can you tell when you're drunk?" Sasha asked. She knew Heidi's grandfather sometimes let her and Jacob have a sip of vine here and there, supposedly to help build up an immunity against its effects.
"Well, you see these two tankards?" Heidi said, pointing at the two tankards sitting in front of her on the table. "My grandpa said that when it looks like there's four..."
"But there's only one," Connie said, making her stop short. The only tankard in front of her was hers, the one she had just set down a minute ago.
"..." Heidi stared at the space on the table in front of her. She slowly slid her hand across the space, passing right through the first, phantom tankard and stopping when it hit the second, solid one. She also noticed that she appeared to have two hands as she did this. "But... I've only been drinking cider...?" she said, furrowing her brow in confusion.
"Heidi, the cider is spiked... How much did you have?" Armin asked, concerned.
"... A lot," Heidi admitted, feeling giddy. "So, this is what it's like to be drunk..." she mused with a wry smile. It felt kind of nice... No wonder her uncle was always drinking back in the day... She was going to have to be careful not to become an alcoholic.
"I mean, getting the chance to live in the interior, it's almost unheard of, right!?" Jean continued, while poor Marco lowered his head in embarrassment, looking as though he was beginning to regret his seating choice. "Or given the choice, would you rather stay here in this 'human stronghold', or whatever they like to call it!?" There was a heavy silence.
"Well..." one of the guys spoke up at last. "... None of us asked to be born in this border town. So if it meant not having to cower in fear of the sound of titan footsteps..."
"Good answer..." Jean said, leaning back in his chair with a smirk. "You'd all like to go to the interior, right? So... how about you guys?" he asked Annie and Bertolt, who were sitting right across from him and Marco.
"I'm applying to the Military Police Brigade," Bertolt replied.
"Me too..." Annie answered. "... But I don't want anyone to think I'm like you," she added, narrowing her eyes at Jean.
"Hahahaha!" Jean laughed as if she had said something funny. He was definitely drunk.
"Hey..." Eren said, standing up abruptly.
'Uh-oh...' Heidi thought as she took another sip from her tankard.
"You said the interior is comfortable...? Until five years ago, this town was part of the interior, too," Eren reminded him, furrowing his brow. "Jean, you don't have to go to the interior. I mean, isn't the interior of your brain soft enough for you?"
"Bahaha!" Heidi burst out into laughter as she leaned back in her chair, nearly tipping it over, as Reiner snorted and beer shot out of his nostrils, showering his closest neighbor in a spray of alcohol and snot.
"Uwaaa!" Armin cried out in surprise and disgust.
"S-Sorry!" Reiner apologized as he tried to dry off the poor kid using his napkin.
"Eren..." Mikasa said quietly, reaching out to grab his arm in an attempt to stop him. "Don't."
"..." Jean furrowed his brow as he watched the touching scene. Why did Mikasa even bother with that loser? What was so great about Eren!? "Are you trying to say... that I'm an idiot, Eren?" he asked. "... Well, I'm not. I'm looking at reality... more than anyone. Four years ago, twenty percent of the population was sent out to recover territory stolen by the titans. An all-out attack was launched... and most of them ended up walking straight into a titan's mouth, swallowed whole. How many more would we have needed to retake our land?" Jean asked seriously. "For every one of them that we defeated, an average of thirty humans died. However, the number of titans who dominate this planet is a lot more than 1/30th of the human race. Doesn't take a genius to figure it out. For humanity... there is no such thing as achieving victory against the titans." An awkward, heavy silence fell over the room. The atmosphere had become suffocatingly dismal. Jean let out a sigh.
"Look, it's like a funeral in here, thanks to you," he told Eren.
"So what?" Eren asked defiantly, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Besides, you're the one who went and said all that depressing stuff," Heidi added, playing with her fork.
"Heidi, don't help," Mikasa said, wishing the sassy redhead hadn't lost the filter on her mouth along with her sobriety.
"Huh? Were you two even listening to me?" Jean asked Eren and Heidi, chagrined.
"So what you're saying is, 'I don't think we can win, so I'm giving up,'" Eren said, proving that he had understood everything completely. "Tell me... What's so good about giving up? Is it better to escape from reality, to the point where you're throwing away your hope?"
"Sounds like the howling of a loser to me. It's not about the size of the dog in the fight, it's about the size of the fight in the dog," Heidi remarked, bouncing a pea off of her plate and catching it in her mouth. "... In the first place... it's a given that we'd lose to the titans in material terms. I mean, do we know for sure titans cover the whole planet? How can we, when we don't even know what's out there!? We've let ourselves become caged by our fear! Humanity used to know so much, but now we've become so ignorant! If we want to defeat the titans and regain the outside world, the first thing we need is more knowledge about our enemy. Knowledge is power! And we used to have it! We've gotten too good at running away. The Head of the Training Corps said it at the disbanding ceremony, didn't he? That the Colossal titan could reappear and break the wall at anytime... Why place so much faith in something that can be so easily broken? Is that how you want the human race to go out? With our tails tucked between our legs, cowering in a self-made cage?"
"Right. That's exactly what I'm talking about..." Eren said, taking over. "One of the causes of our defeat four years ago was our ignorance about the titans... We lost then, but the information we gained is definitely a step in the right direction. It gave us hope. And yet you're going to give up on developing strategies to fight them? Do you want to be titan food that badly? Give me a break," he said strongly, furrowing his brow. "I... I have a dream... it's to exterminate the titans and leave this cramped, walled-up world. My dream is to explore... the outside world." Heidi stopped playing with her fork and looked up at Eren.
'I see, so Eren also...' Heidi knew they probably wouldn't be able to kill off all the titans within their lifetime, but one of the things she most wanted to see before she died... was the sun setting on a horizon without any walls.
"Ha!" Jean laughed cynically. "What the hell are you talking about!? You must be the one with the soft noggin!" he sneered, tapping his head.
"What!?" Eren said incredulously, narrowing his eyes at him.
"Look at them! Not a single person here agrees with you!" Jean shouted.
"I agree!" Heidi blurted out, raising her hand.
"Shut up, Suicidal Idiot #2!!" Jean snapped. "You don't count!"
"... Okay... You're right..." Eren said, surprising her. He could see that from the defeated looks on everyone else's faces. "I got it... So shove off to the interior, already..." he told Jean, glaring at him at he gritted his teeth in anger. "Having a defeatist like you here on the front line is bad for morale!"
"Of course, that's just what I'm gonna do, but you wanna go outside the wall, right?" Jean retorted sardonically, glaring back. "Go on ahead! The titans you love so much are waiting for you!"
"Pain in the ass..." Eren said.
"Heh..." Jean smirked. Without warning the boys suddenly took a swing at each other, punching the other in the jaw.
"Ah..." Heidi said. They finally did it...
"Whoaaa!" someone at another table exclaimed.
"There they go again!!" someone else yelled.
"Come on, Eren! What's wrong!?" Jean asked sarcastically as they traded blows, enjoying the fact that he seemed to have the upper hand at the moment. Now that he had finished getting graded, nothing was holding him back. "If you're having trouble against me, a mere human... you're not fit to go up against the titans!!" Eren's glare intensified.
"Of course not, idiot!!" he shouted giving Jean a swift kick in the ribs.
"Ngh...!!" Jean gritted his teeth against the pain and threw another straight at Eren, who artfully dodged his attack and simultaneously delivered a powerful punch to his gut.
"... Ugh...!!" Jean's face twisted in pain, feeling as though he was about to throw up.
'I taught him that one,' Heidi thought proudly as she took another sip from her tankard.
"Uh-oh..." one of the guys watching said, wincing sympathetically as he held his own gut, imagining how much that must have hurt.
"Hey! That's enough!" Reiner shouted over the roar of the crowd. "Jean, did you forget what Eren's hand-to-hand combat score was!?" Jean ignored him and took a swipe at Eren, who jumped back to avoid it. "It was the top of our class!" Eren charged forth to attack again, but never made it.
THUP! GRAB.
In one fluid movement, Mikasa broke Eren's momentum and hoisted him over her shoulder.
"...!? Mikasa!?" Eren exclaimed, completely caught off guard by her sudden interference. "P-Put me down!!" he shouted indignantly, flailing his arms and legs in a futile attempt to escape as she carted him away. The juxtaposition was so comical, that everyone couldn't help but laugh.
"Unless... was it second best to Mikasa?" Reiner mused as he watched her carry him around as easily as if he were a baby.
"Wrong. He was third best..." Heidi corrected him as she finished draining her tankard. "After me."
"Oh, right..." Reiner said, wondering how he could have forgotten that. This girl, despite being so small, was a real powerhouse, too...
"Jean, if you guys keep making a racket, the instructor's gonna come by!" Franz said, stepping in to help break up the fight with a smile.
"Hey... Franz...!! This is the highlight of the farewell party! Don't stop me!!" Jean yelled belligerently.
"Um, no... I think we've all had our fill," Franz insisted with a wry smile.
"Let's stop fighting amongst ourselves!" Hannah added from behind him with teary eyes.
"Hey! Put me down, Mikasa...! Heidi, say something to her!" Eren said, blushing furiously out of embarrassment as everyone continued to laugh at his expense.
"Haha! Nice catch, Mikasa!" Heidi called out with a traitorous laugh. "Take him away!"
"Wha...!?" Eren exclaimed, flinching in shock. There went his last hope of stopping Mikasa!
"Tch," Jean clicked his tongue in frustration. "You're lucky, Eren! Having Mikasa to carry you around like that!" he shouted Jealously as they headed out the door. "I bet you're planning to drag her into the Survey Corps just the same way!" Mikasa left carrying Eren without even so much as backward glance. "Tch! Whatever, you guys are crazy for wanting to join the Survey Corps!" he snapped, rounding on Heidi. "A bunch of suicidal idiots!"
"Damn straight, I'm an idiot!" she retorted proudly, surprising him and everyone else in the room. "Because there happens to be a special kind of idiocy that runs in my family, and I've inherited it through both of my parents! We're all too stupid to run away! We refuse to know when we're beat. I've learned the hard way that if you're going through hell, you should keep going, because if you give up, then you'll be stuck there forever... But if you keep going, even though you might have to endure even more pain and suffering before it's over, you just might be able to find a way out. I'm not giving up till I make it through. You can't make a problem go away by pretending it doesn't exist. If you want something no one's ever had before... you've got to be willing to do things no else has ever done before. And something else I've learned... Hunting, with my grandfather, I came to realize... It's not the strongest of the species that survives, or the most intelligent. It's the one that's the most adaptable to change. Everything is food for something else. We humans are no exception... However, we have something the other animals don't... the ability to fight back," Heidi finished with determination, resting her head on her hands. She didn't care that the others were staring at her. She had just said what she felt. It was probably the most many of them had ever heard her talk before. Her eyelids were growing heavy. She was starting to fall asleep in her chair. Peter cautiously sidled up to her.
"You're right, Heidi..." he told her. She was clearly drunk, which meant her better judgment would be compromised... "I completely agree with you, so... Let's kiss and make up!" he suggested with a grin, going in for the kill.
SMACK!
Heidi's hand reflexively shot out to block his face with her fist. Peter was on the floor in seconds. It was an instant K.O.
"Not that drunk..." she mumbled as she drifted off to sleep with her head on the table.
