Something heavy dropped on their shoulders.
The horses whinnied and panicked before throwing Erwin and Hange off onto the ground. Erwin tried to raise his head while noticing Tala had already leaped off his horse. But as he tried to stand up, an unknown weight forced him down again. He grunted while struggling against the force, soon noticing that the ground beneath Tala's feet began to sink beneath him. Erwin's eyes widened as a large crater formed beneath Tala while an ice-blue aura started swirling around him. He tried to call out for the redhead only to end up coughing and gasping for air, unable to muster the voice to say the latter's name.
"E-Erwin...!" He heard someone gasp.
He glanced to his left and saw Hange gripping her throat, coughing and gasping for air. Her eyes bulged as her body began contorting. A boulder seem to sink into his stomach while the rest of his innards began to twist and knot each other. Every muscle fiber tightened as if threatening to rip itself apart. Something began to pound on his head, akin to a hammer repeatedly beating against an anvil. He tried to push himself up from the ground only for his arms and legs to suddenly lose their strength, causing him to fall flat on his face. Wincing, he struggled and raised his head, ignoring that his nose already began bleeding. He had to stop Tala before anyone else could get killed by the sheer density of whatever force the latter was emitting.
"V-Valkov!" Erwin managed to call out.
But the call fell on deaf ears with whatever force Tala was emitting cancelling out his voice.
He gasped and coughed, facing the ground and gripping the soil. Was this how he was going to die? He didn't even get to see what Eren had been talking about! Had he made the mistake of recruiting Tala and the others into the Legion? Was he going to unleash another monster? His heart sank when there was one good possibility: Tala would become an enemy of humanity and nothing in the walls could stop him from obliterating the cities and its denizens.
Suddenly, the force lightened up and he was able to lift his head when he saw Kai gripping Tala by his shoulders.
"Tala, what the fuck!" Kai growled. "You could've killed them!"
Tala snarled. "He was sacrificing us for his bullshit plan!"
"We agreed to work with him. It's part of it!"
"I didn't agree to become his pawn to bring back that stupid titan alive and get the rest of his men killed!"
He figured it out! Erwin gawked. How did Tala know? He didn't even inform him of the true plan. All he told him was that he and the rest of the Blitzkrieg Boys would be assisting in the simulation of the run toward Shigashina. The run entailed making sure Eren made his way to his old home, most importantly: the basement. He made sure that no one else but Hange, Levi, and Mike knew that he had an ulterior motive: capturing the enemy who had killed Hange's titan specimens. Whoever it was, they knew how to use a 3D maneuver gear and he could only assume that the strange titan attacking them now and the one who killed Hange's specimens were the same person.
"Well, yell at him later. If you really want to make this easier, we'll capture the titan our way," Kai explained.
Tala shot a withering glare at Erwin.
"We made a promise, Tala. And we're damn straight going to keep it," Kai repeated. "But we can't do it if you plan to rip Erwin into pieces."
After a few moments, Tala clicked his tongue in disapproval. "Thank God your head's attached to your shoulders."
"We can't both be freaking out. The world would blow if that happened," Kai chuckled darkly. He then looked back. "So, what's the game plan?"
Tala shook his head. "Spencer? Ian? Bryan?"
"Hold on." Kai pressed his earpiece. "Spence? Ian? Bry? Come in."
All Tala and Kai heard was static in their earpieces.
"Shit," Kai growled. "Tala, your energy fried the signals."
Tala paled. "What!?"
Erwin found the strength to clamber back to his feet. "Ian and Spencer should be together and Bryan's with Eren. By now, they've confronted the titan and should be heading here. You" — he coughed — "would've met up with them had you not unleashed whatever it is you released."
Growling, Tala grabbed Erwin by the collar.
"You sent my brothers to die and you're pinning their deaths on me!?" He spat.
Erwin narrowed his eyes. "Their deaths would be on you because you disrupted the formation," he explained calmly. "You let your emotions get the best of you and now, your energies as Hiwatari calls it fried your only way of contacting them."
Growling, Tala flung him to the ground. Erwin coughed and dusted himself, noticing the frustration shining in Tala's ice-blue eyes and the blood leaking from both his palms. Just how did Tala believe that he could prevent anyone from dying? It was a war against the Titans; if they died, that was it. Mourn and move on — there was no time to grieve when Titans were constantly charging into the walls of the Walled City to destroy them. He figured Tala, an experienced soldier, knew that.
"Tala, Erwin," he heard a weak voice call for them.
Erwin spotted Hange who managed to gather herself, still a bit weak in the knees. "Hange, how are you?"
"Breathing but a bit light-headed," she laughed weakly. Hange then turned to Tala. "So, what's the game plan now?"
Tala growled and turned to Kai. "Can you track them?"
Kai nodded, closing his eyes. Suddenly, red flames formed at the corner of his eyes as he exhaled sharply. A few seconds later, the flames disappeared as he opened his eyes.
"They're around 10 km from here," Kai reported.
Erwin's eyes widened. Kai had tracking abilities? To give Tala that exact measurement — just what else were they capable of?
"Alright." Tala nodded before smirking at Kai. "You and me?"
Kai raised an eyebrow. "You want to do it in front of witnesses?"
"No one's going to believe them."
"Pretty sure they'll believe anything at this point especially since they're chasing a titan in human skin. You're not exactly the most covert."
Tala blew a raspberry at him. "Pooh, you're no fun. What's your game plan?"
"I'd rather at least go with firing a flare to have Spencer, Bryan, and Ian round-up with us." Kai began searching his bag, pulling out his flare gun. "At least, we'll all be able to fight her instead of you just going ham on everything."
Kai's the calmer one between the two, how strange.
Erwin watched the two young men interact, wondering how Kai could keep a cool head when Tala was supposed to be the leader. What made Tala their leader to begin with? However, he noticed that Tala pondered for a moment as if to consider Kai's suggestion. A few minutes later, Tala nodded.
"Light up the beacons," said Tala.
Nodding, Kai pointed his flare gun up into the air and fired a blue round into the sky.
As the dark blue smoke dissipated against the afternoon sun and sky, Erwin then put his fingers in his mouth and began whistling. He whistled again and again, but unfortunately, no response. Erwin couldn't even hear the sound of their hooves.
"What the hell's that for?" Tala raised an eyebrow.
Erwin exhaled sharply, stopping for a moment. "It's for the horses that you scared off."
"Tch, you guys could have used cars to make lives easier."
That caught Erwin's curiosity. "Cars?"
"You know, the thing that goes vroom-vroom and has wheels?"
Now Erwin was even more confused. There's such a creature that has wheels and makes vroom-vroom sounds?
Kai sighed. "Tala, remember: their tech isn't like ours."
Tala groaned. "You've got to be kidding me! They know what a carriage is but not a car!?"
"Carriages came first before a car. They don't have any machines save for the simple ones meant for opening the gates and the sort."
Cars? Forces? Tracking abilities? Erwin now had a barrage a question that he wanted to barrage Kai and Tala with. If what they were saying was true, he could only imagine what kind of technology they could offer to make killing Titans easier. Wait, Erwin realized. Did that mean they had faced creatures bigger and more terrifying than Titans? A boulder once again dropped into his stomach when he recalled how Tala panicked when he believed that Bryan and Kai were placed in their positions for the sake of suppression.
"How did you get here so fast?" Erwin asked, realizing Kai had caught up to them pretty quickly.
Kai chuckled. "Notice I don't have a horse?"
Erwin's eyes widened. Kai's horse wasn't anywhere! Did that mean he ran all the way here? But he should have been kilometers away! It would have taken him more than 2 hours to cover that kind of distance! Unless, he thought. Kai had been breaking from the formation, to begin with.
"Besides, be thankful that I got here before Tala went berserk," Kai coldly hummed while looking around. "For your stupid ingenuity, I would have let Tala maul you until the inch of death."
Before he could protest, Erwin saw more red flares popping into the air along with some black ones. He also heard some incoming galloping with soldiers coming in, including Bryan, Spencer, and Ian. Several carriages and soldiers on horseback rode up to Erwin, Hange, Tala, and Kai. Levi broke through the crowd with his horse, raising an eyebrow.
"Erwin, that strange titan's on its way here," Levi reported. He then saw that all four of them were without horses. "What happened?"
Erwin exhaled sharply. "The horses got spooked by the repeated flare explosions. Start preparing things in the forest."
Raising an eyebrow before snorting in annoyance, Levi gestured to the rest. "Everyone, set up. Eren, Special Ops team, with me!"
Spencer dismounted from the carriage, walking over with Bryan and Ian to Tala and Kai. "We got the flare. What's the plan?"
Tala exhaled sharply, looking at how the Legion now had all their eyes on them. He bit his lip; his little tantrum brought too much attention to them. With his fists clenched tight, he looked beyond the horizon and noticed the blood dripping from his hands. No more pointless deaths, he thought to himself. Although the wounds on his hands already healed, the sight of the blood caused his blood to boil.
"Track her, find her, kill her," Tala growled.
Ian grinned. "Ahh, the good 'ol fashioned Blitzkrieg style."
"We kill the Female Titan," Tala explained. "We rush her and rip her out of her Titan body then let them" — he shot a dirty look at Erwin — "handle the rest."
Ian blinked. "But that's not killing her."
"It's killing her titan body," Bryan replied with a shrug, throwing his OMD onto the ground. "So, we going all in?"
Tala nodded. "All in."
"Finally!" Bryan's lips curved into a maniacal one as his eyes flashed bright silver. "It's about damn time!"
Spencer put a hand in front of Bryan. "Hold up, are we all just going to transform here? It wouldn't make sense with all five of us."
"The faster the better. What's the problem?"
"We might have collateral damage. Mind you, it's not just us on the battlefield."
Bryan groaned. "Ugh, you're actually caring for the army that nearly got us killed?"
Kai shook his head. "Spencer has a point. If we all do our thing here, we might actually overdo it instead of getting anything done" — he then turned to Tala — "but it's your call."
Exhaling, Tala glanced behind him with a wry smile at the Legion. Although he loved Bryan's plan of being straightforward, Kai and Spencer posed a valid point. He bit his thumbnail and scanned the open field in front of him, wondering how things would play out. While he could definitely fight her and possibly kill the sentient titan, Erwin wanted the individual alive. Damn it, we signed a contract too, Tala chewed on his thumbnail harder. Feeling a slight pain from his thumb, Tala growled when he saw that he chewed a bit too much on his thumbnail's body.
"Damn it, I hate to say this but we signed a contract with them," Tala grumbled. "Spencer, Bryan, Ian — you three take care of any stragglers she may bring."
The three boys nodded before walking towards the Legion while Tala turned to Kai. "You and I are gonna tango with the bitch."
Kai smirked. "Of course." The red flames burned at the corner of his eyes again. 'Ready?"
Tala's ice-blue eyes flashed into a glacial teal. "You damn right I am...!"
Suddenly, energy exploded from his body with it eroding the rocks around him and generating enough force to rip even the biggest of trees from the ground and forming a crater around him. Kai's crimson eyes began to glow also as a bright light consumed Tala, revealing a shadow of something that looked more canine than human.
Erwin froze when a wolf howl filled the air. He slowly looked up and saw a monstrous red humanoid wolf-like creature. While it had the head of the wolf, it had multiple whip-like blades that served as tails. Both its hind and front legs were covered in armor plating with each paw revealing jet-black claws. No Titan ever looked like what he was seeing. He saw all the other soldiers who were equally paralyzed in fear while Spencer, Bryan, and Ian just continued with whatever they were doing.
"What is Tala?" Erwin murmured.
"A lot worse than a human in Titan skin," snickered Bryan as he loaded the cart with more bags.
Erwin blinked, surprised by Bryan's keen hearing. "How...?"
"How has he not killed you yet? That's a good question. Kai should have just let Tala eat you and be done with it."
Erwin nodded slowly. "Kai's his leash."
"You can say that."
Erwin took one good look again at Tala, watching him talk to Kai. He shut his eyes and shook his head, sharply exhaling. Whatever Tala was, he wasn't completely human. But was he born that way? If so, what kind of people lived beyond the walls? What kind of monsters were there? He shivered a bit as Kai leaped up to ride on Tala's back and changed his weapon instead to a large sword, similar to Spencer's, Bryan's, and Ian's. Could he actually swing that thing?
Before he could ask, the ground beneath him trembled as he saw a large silhouette of a titan charging toward them. Erwin's eyes widened as he drew his sword.
"Into the forest!" He commanded. She was here!
While the Legion retreated to the forest, he could have sworn that he saw Bryan smirk and mutter, "show time." Spencer and Ian already boarded the carriage while dragging Bryan into the storage, spurring the horse to run in. He, however, lingered for a brief moment to watch the brutal clash between the red wolf and the aberrant female Titan. Nothing in his years of commanding would prepare him to see a clash between two large humanoids fighting to the death.
The red wolf, or Tala, lunged first and locked his jaw on her arm before swinging his whip-like blades to slash the Female Titan. However, she quickly brought her arm to block it, only for the blades to rip her arm off. She whirled around and tried to kick him but something slashed her knee, causing her to lose balance and fall over. She buried her heel into the wolf's face while trying to catch the shadow that had been nipping and shredding at her joints. He shuddered when he watched how she tried to crush the silhouette, only for the wolf's whip-like blades to impale her arm to the ground it before kicked her head with its hind legs.
"Commander!" A sharp voice snapped him out of his daze.
Erwin turned around to see Hange standing right beside him. "We're all set," she said.
Nodding, he pulled out his flare gun and immediately fired a black round into the air.
Let's hope they hold their end of the bargain.
Once Kai spotted the black flare, he wove past the Female Titan's legs before jumping right next to Tala's ear.
"Time to go. It's show time!" Kai dodged her incoming punch. "Tala!"
As if he detected Kai was in danger, Tala howled before whirling around and slashing her face with his bladed tails before sprinting off toward the forest.
Kai clung onto Tala's red fur for dear life, wincing as the Female Titan shrieked behind them. Here it comes. He glanced back to see a shadow of a horde of Titans rushing towards them with the Female Titan pursuing them. Placing his hand on his sword, Kai focused on the smaller Titans that tried to lunge at Tala to rip out his nape before mincing and dicing them into smaller pieces. A few tried to climb up on Tala, but he quickly swiped their fingers off before they could dig into the wolf's legs.
"Damn, these guys are persistent," Tala growled as one of his tails impaled another Titan through its neck before ripping it apart. "This bitch better be worth it!"
"Maybe not to us but at least to Erwin." Kai shredded another 3-meter Titan's face and neck. "Pin the debt on him."
Tala smirked. "Makes sense. How are you holding up?"
"Don't worry about me." Kai severed the fingers off another 5-meter titan's hands. "Holding your humanity isn't hard."
Once Tala dove into the forest, Kai leaped up into the air and closed his eyes. With a deep breath, he listened for Tala's heartbeat until their rhythms were exactly matched. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes and soon, Tala reverted back to his human form with Bryan suddenly swooping down from the trees and catching the redhead.
"She following?" Bryan looked towards the forest's entrance.
Suddenly, a thundering thump shook the trees as the Female Titan charged in.
"Does that answer your question!?" Kai hollered back.
Bryan, Tala, and Kai zoomed through the forest, using the branches as their footholds. The Female Titan charged after them, even trying to grab one of them. Bryan soared straight up into the air while Kai dove low with Tala zipping to and fro, slipping past her grip. Once they spotted Spencer and Ian hiding amongst the trees, Tala, Bryan, and Kai quickly changed direction and pointed their flare guns at her.
"Fire!" Tala ordered.
Spencer, Bryan, Ian, Kai, and Tala shot brightly colored flares into her face, causing her to slow down and gasp. They also heard a loud screeching sound from beneath them, causing them all to flinch. Tala clumsily landed on a branch with Ian and Kai digging their swords into a tree trunk and Spencer grabbing hold of another branch. Bryan, unfortunately, plummeted right past them and showed no signs of slowing down.
"Bryan!"
The boys quickly dove after their unconscious brother, soon noticing that they were caught in the middle of what appeared to be a net trap for the Female Titan. Spencer's eyes widened as he quickly flooded his body with energy.
"Under me!"
Kai and Ian swam through the air right under Spencer while the big blonde reached out for Tala and Bryan before letting a bright light consume them all.
