Hey guys, here's the next chapter! Hope you enjoy! :3 Shout-out goes out to my good friend ARCEUS-master for beta reading this chapter. It is very much appreciated, as always! :D
''Titans!'' Speech
''Titans!'' Thoughts
The ground quaked with merciless resolve as monstrous streaks of yellow lightning bolts ignited all around the beast and cart titans in a wide arc. Even under the bright rays of the sun, the piercing flashes were blinding as heaven-shaking shock-waves spread across the land and violently rattled trees and grasslands alike. The harrowing roar of one-hundred Eldians forcefully shifting into mindless titans at once was ear-deafening and near soul-crushing. Everywhere, they dropped down on the ground like a bombardment, crawling around, trying to find their footing or otherwise just getting tangled up in each other among the thick veil of scorching steam they naturally generated. The faces they made ranged from deranged grins to straight up looking like they were completely drunk. Some were only five-meters tall, others were a whopping twenty meters tall, but one thing they all had in common: Zeke had complete control of them.
Connie and Sasha shifted uncomfortably inside their titans at the sudden opposition. This wasn't something they had practiced for and as such, they were logically a little nervous. ''This might turn out very bad,'' Connie thought, standing in front of Sasha protectively. While these titans couldn't do much against him, one of those twenty-meter-classes could easily take out Sasha if it got close. The worst they could do to him was immobilize him. ''But that means I can't protect Sasha anymore,'' he realized with dread, looking at the general direction where he knew Eren was hidden for orders.
Sasha too was sweating inside her titan. This was supposed to be an easy fight, not a dangerous all-out war that could potentially take her life. ''What do we do now? There's no way we can keep all of them off of us,'' she thought direly, her heartbeat quickening. She saw that Connie was nervous too, if his protective attitude was any indication.
The scene of one-hundred titans looking at them creepily alongside the beast and cart titan was eerie, to say the least, especially when Zeke let out another roar. The mindless titans all began to charge at them like feral animals, causing the ground to rumble like with an earthquake. Some ran like they were lunatics, others like they were completely out of it and others still used both their hands and legs to sprint at them crazily, intimidating Connie and Sasha for some very crucial seconds. Luckily for them, Eren, along with Levi and Erwin, were quick thinkers.
Only with the distinct yellow lightning and resounding thunderclap of a third titan shifting were they brought out of their stupor. Eren's attack titan was menacing and his roar powerful. He wasted no time hardening his fists and charging at one of the leading twenty-meter-classes and punching it straight in its face. The resulting blow made the titan's head violently explode from its torso as blood and a gush of scalding steam flew everywhere. Its body dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes, crashing lifelessly against the grassy soil. The moment Eren had taken down the first titan, vertical maneuvering equipment was used from both directions as Levi's and Erwin's team came out of their hiding spots.
''Charge!'' Erwin shouted bravely, drawing a sword and raising it high as he flew across the air. ''Protect our fellow titan soldiers, don't let them get close! Advance! Shinzou wo sasageyo!'' His team followed suit behind him, roaring like proud lions as they shot their hooks into the stampeding horde of titans.
Levi was the first to reach a titan, zooming past its neck like a bullet and slicing its nape perfectly. It resulted in the titan falling down comically, its everlasting grin still present on its face as it died. The titans behind it got tripped up, falling down over each other and slowing down part of the horde considerably. ''You heard the commander!'' he shouted with a loud snarl on his face to his team, already focusing on the next titan. ''Don't let them get close!''
The bravery of their team gave Connie and Sasha hope. She nodded her head once towards Connie before charging her arm crossbow again, shooting it at the incoming titans. The potent bolt pierced straight through the head of a ten-meter-class, completely ripping it to shreds. It fell down lifelessly while the bolt continued its trajectory, penetrating a second and third titan behind it and severely crippling them.
Eren looked at Connie and crossed his arms, signaling him to advance. ''I will defend Sasha, you will be more efficient right in the chaos of battle,'' he thought, backing off while Connie smirked.
''Time for me to do some damage!'' He roared deeply, charging straight at the approaching titans like an angry bull. An oblivious fifteen-meter-class tried to meet him head-on. Unfortunately for the titan, Connie's exoskeleton was made of such sturdy material that he simply tore through its body like it was made of wet paper. Boiling blood splattered everywhere as the titan disintegrated into a bloody pulp while Connie charged on like nothing had happened, swinging his fist into an uppercut against a twenty-meter-class.
His fist hit the titan with so much strength that he split the titan's head in half, the force carrying his arm straight through his head. The momentum shift ripped the remaining tissues that were still connecting the titan's head with its body cleanly off, sending what remained of its head flying high in the sky while its body flipped forwards awkwardly, crashing to the ground below and crushing a pair of unaware five-meter-class titans into a bloody mess.
Meanwhile, Eren had made his way towards Sasha to defend her against any titan that may break through Connie and the soldiers' line of defense. She looked at him gratefully, firing off another powerful bolt at a ten-meter-class. Its head popped like an overripe watermelon the moment Sasha's bolt hit it, making the titan's momentum come to a sudden halt. Its body crashed and flipped over the ground a few times, kicking up grass and mud everywhere until it eventually slid to a complete stop.
Immediately after, from the smoke, an abnormal five-meter-class jumped up like a frog. Cross-eyed and its tongue lolling out of its mouth, it leaped at Sasha with its superior leg muscles at speeds that completely caught her off guard. Shrieking in reflex, she put her arms in front of her body in a desperate attempt to defend herself. However, the moment it was going to bite her and pierce her flesh with its sharp teeth, Eren's hardened foot met it in a powerful low kick.
The smaller titan simply exploded into nothing but blood and flesh, completely covering Sasha's titan in the boiling-hot remains of it. Eren sighed deeply and thanked his quick reflexes, seeing that Sasha was all right. ''I'm not going to lose you a second time,'' he thought to her resolutely. Getting back into the game, he roared as another titan approached them.
Zeke was watching the battle unfold with wide eyes. His muscles simply refused to work when another unknown titan had shifted to help out the presumably armor and female titans, as well as about eight highly trained soldiers that were deftly flying in the air with contraptions he'd never seen before, easily slicing up his titans like they were cheap meat.
''Zeke, what do we do now?'' Pieck asked him urgently, feeling completely lost at the sudden reinforcements the two titans had gotten. Honestly, she knew that if they didn't do anything, it would only be a matter of time before all of their mindless titans would be defeated.
''Get in close and try to shoot down those soldiers,'' he ordered her. ''They're all occupied with holding off the titan horde, so you should have an easy time taking them out. That will keep those other three titans busy for a little while longer. I'll see if I can flank them and attack them from the rear.''
Pieck nodded her head, rapidly darting into the battle while the Marleyan soldiers inside her battle armor cocked their machine guns, ready for action. Once Pieck had disappeared inside the mass of titans, Zeke started to walk to the right and away from the heated battle, grabbing more chunks of the stone wall as ammunition in the process while a thousand questions raced through his mind. ''Who are they and how did they know we would come to Paradis island?''
The obvious answer was that they somehow captured Marcel, Annie, Reiner, and Bertolt. That would be the most logical explanation as to why they had the armor and female titan in their procession. ''They probably tortured them and then had some of their soldiers eat them to get their titan powers,'' he thought as anger crept in his system. "Worse, that means the jaw and colossal titans could provide them backup any moment now. That would be extremely dangerous."
Still, that wouldn't explain all of it. For example, Paradis didn't have any titan fluid to his knowledge, other than the royal family who possessed some to carry on the founder. But then, it wouldn't make sense they'd use what little they had on soldiers if they could have just as easily made the founder eat all of them to gain their powers.
Then there was still the fact they knew he was coming to Paradis down to the day. Even if Marcel, Annie, Reiner, and Bertolt had told these Devils everything, they wouldn't have known when Marley would've ordered for him to do a follow-up and brief them about the situation. ''Unless they've managed to get spies into Marley in that time-frame,'' Zeke pondered to himself.
That was still a very unlikely scenario. The people of Paradis were kept oblivious by the king. As such, they'd never even seen the ocean before. Their technology would be limited severely, so for them to find out the truth about the world, kill all the titans on the island and develop boats that would prepare them for his arrival on such a tight time-frame was simply ludicrous.
''Unless somebody already possessed this knowledge,'' Zeke reasoned with himself, not liking this idea whatsoever. He knew very well that it could be a possibility. Since gaining the power of the beast titan, Zeke started to realize that every Eldian was connected by invisible paths with each other. Moreover, these paths would span across time and space, too. ''Could it be somebody acquired the knowledge in advance and somehow acted upon it?''
If that was true, then it still wouldn't make any sense. This knowledge would come in dream-like states; visions, if you will. Why would any oblivious Eldian act upon such ludicrous dreams? They simply wouldn't understand it. ''Then… maybe it was not an Eldian?''
This wouldn't work either. Both the Ackerman family and Azumabito family who weren't affected were wiped out and since they are not Eldians, they couldn't have gotten this information. ''It had to be an Eldian, but not any Eldian, a knowledgeable one with vast experience,'' he thought as he made his way around the battlefield. He let his eye rest on the unknown third titan far in the distance, who was expertly protecting the female titan. ''It didn't show up immediately, only after I used my trump card. Could that be the attack titan?''
If that was the attack titan, it would make sense that whoever was controlling it could have been the one who possessed the knowledge necessary to take down Marcel, Annie, Reiner, and Bertolt. ''Could it be the attack titan possesses the knowledge of future events?'' Again, it made a lot of sense in Zeke's mind and was the only logical explanation for this well-coordinated ambush, because something of this magnitude had to have been prepared months in advance.
Zeke didn't get much time to think any further as a white light suddenly blinded him. ''What…'' An enormous explosion detonated in front of him, knocking him cleanly off of his feet while his entire body got burned in the process. The beast titan landed several dozen meters back in a heavy crash that kicked up dirt and mud in all directions, with smoke rising from his body as his healing factor kicked in, desperately trying to repair his burned flesh. At first, he thought it was a bomb, even though that didn't make any sense whatsoever. However, the moment he opened his eyes, he wished it would've been just a bomb.
Blocking his way was none other than the almighty colossal titan, though it didn't look like the colossal titan as he remembered it whatsoever. It was far bulkier and an immediate hailstorm lowered the temperatures drastically to freezing point all around it. Even though whoever was controlling it had shifted fifty meters in front of him, the explosion was still potent enough to hurt him severely. Looking down on him like he was nothing more than a disobedient little child that needed to be reprimanded, the colossal titan moved his enormous feet, making Zeke back off quickly less he'd be stepped on like he was nothing but a petty insect. The shock-wave bounced the beast titan up in the air, who quickly tried to get up on his feet and create distance between them. ''Well,'' Zeke thought, snarling and cursing under his breath, ''I think my theory might be correct.''
The utter chaos that ensued after the battle began had both teams of four split up. Mikasa was grimacing as a weird, ten-meter-class which looked more like a praying mantis than anything else approached her menacingly. Its face was oval-shaped while its eyes almost popped out of its skull, large and round, staring into seeming nothingness. It had both of its wrists fully flexed while sitting in a squat position, awkwardly shuffling forwards. ''An abnormal,'' she thought to herself, knowing those could be very dangerous because of their sheer unpredictability.
''Armin!'' she shouted over the sound of battle, knowing the blonde-haired boy was close by. He was currently finishing off a fifteen-meter-class, blood covering his entire body as he raced towards Mikasa's side. Despite looking like a serial-killer, Armin was completely calm. ''Mikasa, are you all right?'' he asked her, concerned for her well-being.
She nodded her head and instead pointed one of her blades to their slowly advancing opponent. ''I might need some back-up on this one,'' she explained. No sooner when she had said this, the praying mantis titan cocked his head almost ninety degrees clockwise and then leaped forward, making both Mikasa and Armin widen their eyes and give a small start.
They jumped out of the way with their vertical maneuvering equipment as the titan crashed unto the spot that they had been standing on just a mere second ago. Mikasa wanted to retaliate by slicing its nape now that it was in a disadvantageous position, but soon realized with horror that it had a second jaw at the back of his face. ''What…'' she thought with a disgusted, startled grimace.
She couldn't change her trajectory as the titan extended his neck backward to crunch her down, only for Armin to fly into her just at the nick of time, making the titan's second jaw snap at nothing but air. Mikasa's whole body felt numb for a moment as she realized Armin had just saved her life. She couldn't feel anything around her until Armin shook her out of it.
''Mikasa!'' he shouted urgently, ''distract its first jaw and I'll finish it off!'' Armin hoisted her to her feet and was already in the air again, making Mikasa quickly follow suit as her limbs cooperated once more.
''Right!'' she yelled through the thick layers of smoke the battle created. The praying mantis titan got up from its spot, its head cocking dumbly before it leaped and snapped at Mikasa once again. This time, she was prepared and moved out of the way efficiently. While the titan was mid-jump, following Mikasa around, it never saw Armin coming from below, slicing its nape lethally. The titan crashed ungracefully on its face, spasming awkwardly a few times before it stopped moving.
''That was way too close,'' she thought, her heart beating uncontrollably against her chest. ''I need to be careful.'' As she thought this, she could hear the distinct sound of heavy machinery shooting its ammo through the smoke. ''The cart!'' she realized, widening her eyes as Armin landed next to her.
''Do you hear that?'' she said to him.
He nodded his head. ''Sounds like trouble, remember what Eren and I have taught you about machine guns. Keep moving and don't sit still,'' Armin suggested.
Mikasa loved how much the blonde-haired boy had grown. Even though he was very afraid and nervous before the battle began, he used all of that to turn it into bravery. His brain worked a mile a minute and the excellent strategist inside of him turned him into a formidable foe on the battlefield too.
While navigating through the dense steam, Mikasa quickly realized her teammates were in a lot of trouble. Oluo, Eld and Gunther were desperately trying to avoid the bullets fired at them while the cart swatted her claws at them as if they were annoying mosquitoes. They were getting pretty tired and the only way they had held out until now was because of the cover provided by the steam, making the Marleyan soldiers fire wildly and randomly.
''Don't give them a quarter!'' Pieck roared fiercely, encouraging her soldiers to keep on firing. Mikasa grinned; their distraction meant Armin and her could use their secret weapon. She had every bit of confidence that it'd work, but before she could get in a clear shot, a random bullet which had ricocheted off of the ground drove itself into Armin's upper arm.
He gave a cry of pain as he lost his balance and crashed into the ground, hurting his arm further as it bent in such a way that it normally couldn't. ''Armin!'' Mikasa yelled worriedly, changing her trajectory so she could help Armin out. He had fallen perfectly in front of the snout of Pieck, who looked stupidly at his hurt form. Like the deities had delivered him on a silver platter, he had dropped out of the sky before her. She hadn't even realized a fourth soldier had joined to aid the other three she had been hunting amidst the chaos of battle.
''Well, if this isn't perfect,'' she thought cheekily, opening her jaw and making sure to chew thoroughly before swallowing whatever was left of him down. Mikasa was never going to make it, even if she used her secret weapon, she wouldn't be able to save Armin. She cursed loudly at her own short-comings. He had just saved her life and she couldn't even save his in return.
Pieck was sure of this as well. In fact, she was so focused on scooping up the defenseless Armin in her jaw that she completely ignored the large shadow looming over her. In hindsight, she probably should've reacted to it. Instead, a large and armored foot delivered a devastating kick on her side. Like she was nothing but a hockey puck, she slid across the ground, all the soldiers on her back immediately being knocked unconscious while she herself sported a large gaping wound on her midsection.
''Connie!'' Mikasa yelled, her face immediately brightening. Honestly, she had never been happier to see him in her life. She flew down towards Armin to support him, who was sweating profusely and keeping his eyes closed.
''H-how bad is it?'' he mumbled to Mikasa, nausea threatening to overwhelm him. His left arm was bleeding profusely from the wound and it probably was fractured on multiple places. She quickly closed off the wound with some band-aid, while Oluo, Gunther, and Eld landed in front of Armin as well to support him.
''Just a scratch,'' Mikasa lied, leaving Armin in the hands of Levi's personal team. ''Please tend to his wounds. I'm going to finish what Connie started.'' She flew off in the general direction Connie had kicked the cart titan, her eyes burning with rage.
Pieck was just barely recovering from that massive blow until two small projectiles were shot into her side, sizzling dangerously. ''Huh…'' she thought in confusion, until the projectiles exploded violently, destroying her battle armor and blasting her body to smithereens, killing the soldiers on her back. Only her head was still intact, meaning she was still alive and breathing, but her titan was rendered completely useless. Hissing, she wanted to eject out of her titan, but Mikasa landed perfectly on her nose, her eyes dark and murderous.
''You tried to eat one of my best friends,'' she hissed darkly, venom dripping from every syllable she uttered while the barrels of the thunder spears she'd just fired off were still smoking. ''Let's see how much pain I can inflict upon you before you pass out.''
Pieck could only look on in absolute fear as Mikasa started to cut her out of her titan.
Not far from their location, Levi and Erwin were locked into a fierce battle with four twenty-meter-class titans. Standing back to back against each other, swords drawn since they were cornered, they waited for their moment to strike. One of the titans with a perpetual angry snarl on its face reached down to grab them. However, the moment he tried to do so, Levi shot a hook in its shoulder, slicing up its entire arm as he reeled himself up. The titan hadn't even time to react as Levi wheeled around to cut its nape, making it fall down haplessly.
A second titan looked on dumbly at the spectacle, only for him to find his demise by Erwin letting out a loud war cry, blades drawn to slice the titan open. He had used the opportunity to shoot himself in the sky, landing his blades perfectly on the nape of the titan and killing it efficiently.
This, apparently, seemed to enrage the other two titans. They clapped their hands together to squash Erwin and Levi like flies, one targeting Erwin and the other Levi. While both dodged the attack pretty easily, Levi didn't take into account the resulting sonic boom of the titan's hands clapping together.
He grunted as he was blown off his feet from the force, not sustaining any significant damage. Unfortunately, another ten-meter-class was grinning down on him maniacally, his jaw already opened to munch on him like a juicy snack. Even with Levi's inhuman reflexes, there was no way to get out of the way in time. He was already formulating a plan to slice himself out of the titan's mouth, but like a guardian angel, Petra descended from the sky and made quick work of the titan, saving Levi from a potentially deadly situation.
The titan dropped down heavily in front of him and while Levi's expression stayed painfully neutral, from the inside, his heartbeat was quickening for her. He knew he'd developed a crush on Petra, but since he was her captain, he had ignored those feelings until he had had a very eye-opening conversation with Eren. Needless to say, he was pretty certain he was going to pursue her after this battle had ended.
Right now, though, he had more pressing matters to attend to. Those being helping Erwin out, as he was struggling to fight off two titans all alone at the moment. ''Petra,'' he commanded her, ''stay close.''
A very light and cute blush appeared on her cheeks as she nodded and followed Levi's lead. She backed him up perfectly as Levi shot through the sky lethally, giving Erwin some much-needed breathing space as he sliced through one of the twenty-meter-classes effortlessly. Petra followed it up beautifully, like she was a living extension of Levi. He gave her the boost she needed to propel her forwards, her aim immaculate as she finished off the other titan.
Erwin smiled gratefully at them, his fatigue clearly showing as he breathed in deeply. The battle was clearly taking a toll on all of them, but at least they were making progress. ''How are the others doing?'' Erwin asked. The chaos all these titans created gave them excellent cover to finish them off smoothly and efficiently.
''No clue, but I trust they'll be doing fine,'' Levi responded confidently. He had handpicked all of them and so far, they hadn't disappointed him. He was pretty sure they could stand their ground on their own. ''I have to say, that beast titan is every bit of cunning as Eren made him out to be.'' Levi tsk'ed as he admitted this. He didn't want to, but fighting off one-hundred mindless titans wasn't something they had prepared for.
''This means our surprise attack on Marley goes up in smoke too,'' Erwin stated. ''Those boats that were docked probably have already left the island at this point, meaning Marley will be warned about our rapid advancement very soon.'' It was an unfortunate set of circumstances, but one they could do nothing about.
''All the more reason to get into contact with Hizuru as soon as possible,'' Levi responded, unconsciously standing in front of Petra protectively in case a titan would suddenly jump at them.
''Let's clean up these titans first,'' Erwin suggested, before multiple loud zipping sounds whizzed past them at incredible speed. They looked around in confusion, wondering what just happened, until Levi realized what was going on with widening eyes.
''Duck!'' he shouted loudly, pulling down Petra with him as Erwin followed in tow. Not as soon as he'd said this, another barrage of rocks whizzed past them.
And that's it for now! We're in the midst of the battle, people! Did you guys like it, love it, hate it? Review please! They make my day and I love to read and respond to them! :D Next chapter we'll see Jean in action against Zeke, as well as the conclusion of this battle and this arc! Until then! :3
~Syrup