Level 99: Yokan. Teleport Gate.
Klein shivered slightly, the only outward sign of his current anxiety. The clearing group were still sat, all but silently, awaiting the return of the exploratory group. It had been an hour, but to Klein it felt like days had passed; he thought they would have returned sooner than this, to rally the rest of the clearing group and set off to the final Level. He looked across to his fellow Fuurinkazan members, his friends from before this game started: he could barely remember how they all were before SAO, it'd been too long. Would they all make it to return?
Klein's hands began to twitch, indicating his restlessness. He was not one to wait around, and knowing that Kirito, Asuna, Agil and four of the finest members of the Knights of the Blood Oath had all gone on ahead and left him behind only made this time killing more unbearable. He wanted to know how they were getting on; he wanted to be a part of it. But he was left behind.
He sat cross legged, staring at the stone floor beneath him. He trusted them, and he trusted Kimiko's judgement, but he couldn't stop his mind from playing out murderous, painful scenarios of suffering and death over and over. His hands fiddled while he thought: his left brushed through his tall, ginger hair, while his right tapped at the handle of his sword. A couple of clearing group members sat opposite him began to argue, claiming that a larger group should have been sent, while another instructs him in no uncertain terms to stop lowering morale. Morale was already being sucked out of each player with every passing moment that there was no return and no message.
Klein stood up, looking across to his fellow Fuurinkazan members. "Guys..." a few of them began to look up, while others were still lost in the depths of their own minds. "We should go."
Dale – a large, round soldier with black hair – looked up to Klein in shock. "You mean," he gulped, before continuing, "disobeying Kimiko?" Klein shrugged a little, not wanting to admit to being a disobedient member of the clearing group, before Dale added "The one you're scared of?"
Klein's cheeks flushed a bright shade of red. "I am not scared! Come on man, don't say that in front of everyone!" He whispered quickly, trying to silence his friend. "Still, anything could be happening and it feels lame just sitting here, you know?"
Kunimittz, a tall young man with black, swept back hair and slight stubble entered the conversation, chiming in agreement with Klein, "This does suck, but... should we really go up there? I mean, we were directly told-"
"Who cares?" Replied Klein, impatient as ever. "I'm not just gonna sit here and wait. We should be up there, fighting alongside them on the final Level. It's the last stop before reality. Normality even." He continued, before realising he'd caught the attention of not only his guild members and friends, but the rest of the clearing group as well.
Dale, Kunimittz and the other Fuurinkazan members walked to the centre of the Teleport Gate, much to the shock of the other players sat around.
"We're going up to Level 100; we don't wanna sit around and wait. Anyone's welcome." Klein addressed the rest of the clearing group simply, before calling out "Teleport: Trost!" in order to send himself and his friends to the final Level. He held onto the idea that his friends were still alive up there. He hoped, deep in his heart, that he was right. That they were still alive: Kirito, Asuna, Agil, Kimiko: all of them.
Level 100: Trost. Teleport Gate.
The six soldiers arrived in the marble, archway-filled room that was the Trost Teleport Gate. As the explosive transport uproar subsided, they could hear a commotion below them. They approached the oak door cautiously, before edging slowly down the stairs; they could see Kirito, Asuna, Agil and the Knights of the Blood Oath soldiers, with a group of young soldiers talking to them as they leaned against thick oak tables, shaking in fear.
"Kirito!" Klein called out, overwhelmingly relieved that his friend was still alive. Kirito turned, relieved to see Klein and the Fuurinkazan guild, but still terror reigned in his eyes at the situation outside the building.
"You arrived?" Kirito exclaimed, conveying the mixture of joy, relief and trepidation in his voice. "Of all the times you could've come here, you chose now?" He added, disbelievingly.
Klein cautiously approached the exploratory group, followed by his guild members: outside he could see the same skyline as he had from the Teleport Gate room: red roofs, the far-off wall; it had seemed pretty mundane and ordinary before. However, something was very different now. There were giant humanoid creatures terrorising the area. Klein's jaw and heart dropped simultaneously at the sight of these creatures, and then even further as he heard the rest of the clearing group approaching the hall from the Teleport Gate.
The soldiers that had joined up with the exploratory group were similar to the four that they had encountered earlier, but there were two distinctive differences: firstly, these soldiers were much younger, teenagers at most. Secondly, they did not have the emerald green capes that the original four had. However, they shared the crest and so they seemed to be the original four's subordinates, given the task of looking after the new arrivals while the main soldiers fought off this threat.
However, these soldiers would have their hands full with the rest of the clearing group arriving. A whole roomful of lovely people for the Titans to eat. Jean sighed heavily, realising the possible repercussions of even one Titan reaching the building. He and the other trainees would have to look after these new arrivals for now, but they'd better be worth it.
Levi led his group past the clearing group and up the stairs to the Teleport Gate. It was the highest point on the building – and in all of Trost, save the sides of Wall Rose – and so they would be able to gauge the threat better. Meanwhile, Erwin had already left with members of the Survey Corps including Hange and Mike in order to take down some of the nearby Titans. Flanked by Eld, Gunther, Oluo and Petra, Levi looked out to across Trost from the archway, assessing the situation.
"How did this many..." Petra trailed off. This was becoming normal for them, after the hole in the wall, the evacuation of the citizens. Levi looked to her reassuringly, although Oluo was not as understanding.
"I've killed more than there are out there." He exclaimed, able to hide his slight anxiety; even they might struggle with this many. But there was no option but to fight. Petra didn't react, didn't retort: she knew it was his coping method, but she could not join him this time. She was scared.
"Everyone ready?" Levi added after a short pause. His squad nodded to him one by one, and so he proceeded. "The trainees have been given the job of looking after our new arrivals inside. Erwin, Hange and Mike are all leading squads further out, but our job is to take down any of the fuckers that get within two blocks from here, to protect them. Any questions?" With that, he looked from one set of eyes to another. He could sense the anticipation, but there wasn't time for that. Finally, Levi concluded "Let's go."
The five of them jumped through the archway, initiating their 3D Manoeuvre Gear.
Level 100: Trost. Outskirts.
Mike shot his 3D Manoeuvre Gear grappling hook into the side of a building, swinging round it towards a couple of bald 7 metre class titans who were bumbling down what used to be a market street. As he approached – the wind rustling through his hair – he unsheathed a blade in each hand; his 3DMG redirected itself in to the back of the nearer Titan's neck with a sickening thud of tissue, and he zoomed towards it, slicing its skin at the nape of the neck in a bloody, fleshy spray. The 3DMG then cut into the back of the head of the Titan in front, causing the neck to give way slightly and the Titan to lose balance, falling into the street on top of its fellow, dead, Titan.
Skilfully, the Survey Corps soldier managed to remove his grappling hook from the falling Titan and shoot it into the side of another building: this flung him towards the wall, which he then jumped over, landing on the cracked tiles above. He took this moment to look around, already knowing what he'd find thanks to his acute smell: Titans. There were Titans in many of the surrounding roads, and roughly half were converging towards the Central Building.
Level 100: Trost. Great Hall.
The trainees could see the Titans approaching the building. They knew that Levi's Special Operations Squad was directly protecting them and the area they were in, but they were still intimidated, still scared. They surrounded the clearing group on all four sides; one side had Jean, Marco and Connie, another had Armin, Mikasa and Eren, the third had Sasha, Bertolt and Reiner, and the final had Ymir, Krista and Thomas. They were each watching what was unfolding, assessing the situation, preparing their 3DMG. They had been told briefly by Erwin not to leave the building, only to slice the hands or faces of the Titans if need be to drive them back.
Suddenly an abnormal 10 metre class began to run at the building. The Special Operations Squad had been dealing with a few that were reaching the other side of the building more slowly and were unable to react. 'They aren't gonna make it' Mikasa thought to herself, gripping her blades tightly. Before she could move, there were other footsteps.
Sasha began to run form beside Bertolt and Reiner, jumping through the air and shooting her grappling hook into the arm of the Titan, and swinging round into its back; this enabled her to trap the arm behind the back of the Titan, leading its shoulder to the side and causing it to run down a side road. As it passed the edge of the building, she unlocked the grappling hook, kicked off the Titan's back and landed in the archway. As she landed, Levi dropped out of the sky in a corkscrew spin with his blades out, slicing the nape of the neck of the abnormal Titan, causing it to stop running and fall forwards, landing face first on the concrete floor. The players took a collective sigh of relief, the immediate danger being having ended.
The players had been defended by the skills of the soldiers they'd just met; soon, they'd have to defend themselves against these giants, with their vacant faces. Vacant faces that would, no doubt, consume some of those within Trost before this death game was over.