I ended up being skilled, but not incredibly, with the 3DMG. But hand-to-hand was a very different story. The natural skill I had, alongside the intense training at all stages of my life, had turned my body into a fighting machine. I took blows easily, the pain being easily ignored, and fought back even harder. None matched me. I simply plowed them with brute force generally, because I was beyond built from two years of nothing but training with James.

James was a good teacher. He was different from my father, but good nonetheless. He focused more on aggression than the calm approach my father had taken. But the two were very alike for some things, and I could see what made them such good friends.

James had comforted me during the years without my father, who was presumed dead. No one ever saw him, and although he said he was just leaving we all knew he was gone, probably forever.

But let's not dwell on the sad parts of life, let's instead focus on the now.

My hand-to-hand skills were very different from my 3DMG skills. I didn't rank first, but I was far closer to first in hand-to-hand. I was strong, very strong, and 3DMG training only enhanced that strength. As well, fighting had always been a part of my nature. I just sort of knew when to block and when to lunge and when to just overpower. Shiganshina boxing wasn't very competitive though, more friendly. It was sort of like men's club, and no one went onto tournaments in the inner walls. My father was the head of it the place, defeated rarely and far too skilled for anyone in there.

But my father and James had trained me. And I could easily bring down anyone here. Anyone except for one person.

"Alright Eren, this is the tenth time today. I think we're done here." Annie Leonhart said once she was tired of taking out Eren Jaeger in a single blow.

"Annie...no. Eventually... I will win!" Eren's enthusiasm to continue only seemed to improve with each defeat, although he lasted shorter each round.

"I'm serious Eren, you're gonna start to hurt yourself if this continues. And after all, I really don't feel like wasting my time with people here. No one's gonna beat me." Today was the second day of hand-to-hand training, and so far only Annie had really distinguished herself. I had fought a few matches but they were more akin to wrestling than actual combat. I hadn't really showed any skills as a fighter though, and I didn't plan on it until my chance to fight Annie.

"How can I beat you if don't train against you? You are the best, but the best way to become the best is to fight the best."

"That's not true…" You could tell, Annie was getting slightly tired of Eren's unyielding determination. In fact, so was I.

"Hey, Eren. You should probably take a short break anyway, it's not healthy to push yourself to the limit all the time. And after all, some of us would like to test themselves against the best." I smiled. It was devious acting like a really great friend giving some advice when actually you just wanted them to stop doing something so you could do it.

Annie looked at me, her gaze was quizzical. She glanced between me and Eren, before settling on me with an intense stare. I met her with full force.

"You know what?" She said, "I think I'll take one more fight for today. How about you Angel?" Her tone was mocking. She was aware that I was also undefeated, but I guess she presumed it was by pure strength alone as, I'll be honest, it had been.

I smiled again, "Yeah, why not?"And then I pushed off of the log I was sitting on and went to take Eren's place. I assumed a very sloppy boxer position, an offensive one, trying to trick Annie into a false sense of security.

I slid forward, a serious expression covering my face. All of the sudden, It felt no different than a boxing match where you can use your legs. Everything felt very comfortable.

I was approaching in a very dangerous way, completely exposed to strikes from almost any angle. I was banking on the fact that Annie wouldn't attack first, that when I lunged I would assume a perfect position and surprise her enough to take the advantage. And that's what I did.

I slid forward until I pretended to stumble over a rock when I was very close to her. She seized the chance and moved in. She threw a kick towards the place my legs would've been if I hadn't had perfect balance and jumped backwards. My sloppy position morphed a posed coil, springing to action as I leaped forward in a straight jab towards her. She was surprised but responsive, and threw herself to the side in perfect timing. I missed her, but now I was close in, and my boxing nature came through.

The dangerous thing within this match was that I couldn't take blows. I was resilient to pain, but Annie did not focus on causing pain and breaking you that way. Once she had you, she was going to simply bring you down. Her blows didn't carry nearly weight to cause damage, and so trying to do that would simply place her in a position to let me have the advantage. She knew that, as well as I did, and so she danced around, looking for the moment to get close and overpower her.

I spun to face her again, merely a couple feet apart, and threw my hands up in an offensive posture. The crowd, which had suddenly appeared after my near defeat of Annie, gasped as I uncoiled towards her again. Her shock had faded, and now she was in complete defensive mode. The two of us had morphed into incredibly elegant fighters, from my sloppy form and Annie's uninterested blows.

Her hands came up like lightning, blocking my attack by throwing it to the side. However, now I was even closer. My arms moved in close to my body, and I started to throw light jabs to push her back a bit. Behind her was the same log that I had been sitting on, and If I could push her against it was over. She still wasn't sure how to combat me, and she stuck with a very defensive posture, backing up and blocking. She tried to throw the occasional punch but I forced her to step backwards each time.

She could tell that if she didn't figure out something soon she was on the ropes. And then she made her move. She stepped forward out of the blue, dodging my jab by going to the side and then throwing as many light punches she could towards me. All of the sudden I was the one backing up.

So I switched to heavy hits, and threw one powerful punch after the other as I danced back. I didn't hit her, not until she leaped to the side and tried to kick out the back of my knees. It worked, she hit out the back of my knees and I went down. She relaxed, assuming that I was done fighting. However, boxing teaches you to stand back up.

I rolled and threw myself towards her from the ground. This caught her by surprise, and she was too late to dodge it. In a last ditch effort, she threw her hands up and blocked it. The problem is that I threw punches heavy enough to break through last ditch block attempts. She went flying, and landed on the ground pretty hard. But she only rolled once.

The crowd was stunned. And then they were wild.

I walked over to where Annie had landed. She was still on the ground, nursing her defeat. I offered her my hand. She took it.

And threw me to the ground as she pulled herself up. I was surprised, and hit the ground pretty hard. Annie looked down at me and smiled. "Never offer your hand to the enemy." She said, as she offered her hand to me. I took it.

When I was standing, she looked at me, "Still don't understand where that form came from. I wasn't expecting a boxer to suddenly appear out of the position you had been in."

"That was my plan, surprise and confuse." She nodded.

"Yes, well, see you around, Angel." Were her final words to me before she left. We fought a couple times after that, but that day was the only time I ever beat Annie Leonhart.