Hey guys, I'm back with the new chapter! Sorry for the delay, but writers block and IRL kept me busy. Now though, I plan to finish this story once and for all! Huge shout-out to my very good friend ArcyAnderson for beta-reading this chapter!
Enjoy! :)
Having the element of surprise meant that Eren could prepare for Lara Tybur far in advance.
Even though he was holding the capital of Marley under his control, it wouldn't be for at least another few hours before the opposing main forces arrived. It gave him plenty of time to scout ahead and set up his line of defense. After all, Eren knew Lara had to meet him head-on. She did so in the past and she would be doing it again. ''The difference this time is that for once, I have the advantage,'' Eren thought as he peered over the many fancy buildings that made up the metropolitan area of Marley's capital.
It was a stark difference from the poor appearance of Shiganshina and the rest of Wall Maria's districts, with its beautiful homes and shops lining the gorgeous white pavements. The expensive brick that made up the foundations and red-tiled rooftops almost seemed to shine brilliantly under the bright sunrays. In between the buildings, small and picturesque canals with crystal-clear waters ran throughout the city. All of it gave off the vibe of a small and peaceful paradise, weren't it for the destruction Eren had caused alongside the other titan shifters already. An inevitable byproduct of a battle.
Eren situated all his companions around vantage points across the city, with only his stepmother Dina remaining at his side for now. They stood defiantly in the middle of the city as if to give off the message that they owned the place. The mountain range—which was a natural defense overlooking the city—was big and imposing, but Eren was sure Lara would have no trouble getting over it. As Eren waited anxiously, the wind blew eerily around them.
''If we stick to our plan, we should take Lara off-guard entirely and finish her off without too much trouble,'' Eren reasoned to himself even though his nerves refused to go down. He clenched his fists and squinted his eyes to see if he could spot any sight of the imposing War Hammer Titan already, without much success. ''She's the last hurdle. And if the plan might fail, we have back-up after back-up,'' he continued to reason. There was just no way Lara should stand a chance. So, Eren didn't quite understood why his nerves got the better of him.
Next to him, Dina appeared to sense her stepson's growing discomfort and reassured him by gently placing a hand on his shoulder. ''I fully understand how you feel, Eren,'' she thought lovingly. ''When I was in that coma back at the battle on the Reiss' farm, I saw what you experienced inside the paths.'' Her eyes softened with kindness as she nodded her head. ''You never gave up. Even after failing hundreds of times. Your resilience and willpower are what gave the founder Ymir the strength to keep on trying as well.'' Dina turned her attention back to the mountain sides. ''If there's anyone in the world who can stop the hatred of the world against Eldians, it's you, Eren.''
This evident boost in confidence was just what Eren needed. He relaxed his tensed muscles somewhat and gave a slight nod to his stepmother in return. He was more than ready to face whatever Lara could throw at him and this time, he'd succeed. His large titan body got into a battle-ready stance when he squinted his eyes and saw something appear on the summit of one of the distant mountains. Two giant metallic-like hands that shone under the sunrays and whose grip cracked the rocks under them became visible, followed soon by the ominous head of the War Hammer Titan itself.
Eren froze for a moment. ''Much how like Bertolt appeared all that time ago…'' Eren thought with a grimace as pictures of Shiganshina's destruction and swarming by titans flooded his mind. The War Hammer Titan wasn't nearly as imposing as the Colossal Titan, but Lara was an experienced titan-shifter, and that made up for it plentifully. The way she stood at the peak of the mountain proudly, quite literally looking down on them made Eren grit his teeth. ''She's not carrying her weapon of choice,'' Eren noticed sharply with narrowed eyes. Instead, she made what looked like a round and metallic snowboard for herself. With all the experience in the world, she jumped from the peak and threw her make-shift snowboard downward so she landed on it and skated down the snowy mountaintop without much effort.
Lara's movements were almost regal and relaxed as she made her descent, pushing away large swaths of snow from her path relentlessly. Even when the snow melted away and made way for sharp pebbles and jagged rocks, Lara didn't slow down whatsoever. Within just a few instants, she reached the foot of the mountain. The only thing that remained in her path was the small valley and the farmland between the city and the mountains. The War Hammer Titan kept going unabated and completely ignored the trees and farmhouses in her path, ripping through them like they were rotten bushes and measly obstacles as she rode through them. In a matter of seconds, she reached the walls of the city and gracefully jumped over them. While in the air, she took her make-shift board in one of her hands and landed on her feet with a loud thud, which rattled most of the city and shattered nearby windows of houses and buildings into a million pieces.
Lara stood at her full height and observed her surroundings as the dust and debris from her impact settled. She noticed the multiple titan-shifters situated all around the city and appeared relatively unimpressed. Her azure eyes darted from side to side as she made a quick count and confirmed all of their titan shifters were present at the city except the Colossal Titan. She gave a slight and courteous bow to Eren, who was standing a few hundred meters away from her.
''Eren Yeager,'' Lara acknowledged with a booming and feminine voice. ''You have caused Marley a lot of trouble.'' The round construct under her arm burst into an azure shroud of light rippling with yellow lightning as it broadened and thickened into a hardened shield, which fastened tightly to her arm. She paused and raised her shield high into the air as another blast of azure energy burst on her other arm, which swiftly coalesced into a fitting blade of hardened titan flesh to go along with it. She gripped its handle backward while bending her knees slightly in an aggressive stance. ''However, this is as far as you'll get. The time for talking is over. Now, come at me with all you've got!'' she roared challengingly.
''Yes, I will,'' Eren thought defiantly as his face turned into a dark scowl, ''the time for talking is over. We will settle this, right here, right now!'' Eren gave a titanic roar as he charged at Lara with all the intent of killing her on the spot, causing the ground to quake and the buildings around him to rattle. His fists glowed as he hardened them with a crystal-like layer in anticipation while the War Hammer Titan patiently waited for his attack. The overconfidence in Lara's stance was almost mocking. She appeared calm with her makeshift shield raised and her blade drawn behind her back to slash at Eren at a moment's notice. ''This is very strange, however,'' Eren noted. ''She came all this way alone and intends to fight with just a sword and shield? There's got to be more to this, I better be careful.''
Eren growled and focused completely on his opponent. ''Lucky for me, I know that you're not hiding in your nape,''he thought as his thunderous steps rattled the roof tiles and rippled the water in the picturesque canals. ''So, all I must do is…'' Eren's swift punch reared up with all the force he had accumulated in his monstrous charge. The moment he swung his hardened fist forward, it released a thunderous boom that shattered every window in the city as he broke through the sound barrier. Lara had just enough time to adjust her shield and posture to block the incoming attack, only to fall completely for Eren's feint. ''…This!'' he finished, shifting his weight accordingly by ducking and spinning low to the ground in a sweeping kick with his leg. He knew she wouldn't watch him harden his feet and it worked out splendidly.
Lara was completely taken off-guard, as her legs were left wide open in her defensive stance. Eren's foot connected with her shin, smashing through it with a sickening crack and bending it in a way it wasn't supposed to. The remaining force of the kick swept Lara off her feet and sent her crashing into the nearby houses, which shattered into a plume of dust and debris upon impact, and caused her to drop her choice of weapons in the process.
Eren quickly picked up the sharp blade with a loud roar. He grabbed the War Hammer Titan by the ankle and paused for a moment. There was supposed to be a life-cord which connected her main body to her titan so he could cut it. Yet, there was none in either foot. ''Where is it?'' Eren hissed to himself as he scanned her body in frustration, only to hear a slight chuckle coming from her.
''Eren Yeager, that was a formidable opening move,'' Lara praised curtly as she stood to a crouch and turned her upper body around, not at all rattled by what happened. ''However, if you think I left myself vulnerable, then you have learned nothing!'' Her words resounded imposingly throughout the city as a bolt of lightning vibrantly formed a large protrusion of a thick three-pointed spear in her arms, aimed straight at Eren's chest.
''What…!?'' Eren questioned in disbelief as Lara thrust the spear forward and stabbed cleanly through his exposed torso until it came out of the other side. A confident smirk edged on Lara's grilled mouth while Eren cursed himself under his breath. ''She did hide herself in the nape after all!'' he growled as his expression turned into a murderous snarl. He instinctively grabbed the pole of the spear with his hand while tightening the grip on the dagger with his other hand. Steaming-hot blood dripped from Lara's spear as Eren tensed and tried to find his footing again.
Luckily, Eren didn't have to face the mighty Lara Tybur all by himself. The thundering quakes of quickly-approaching footsteps told him enough. He only had just enough time to look to his left and see Dina coming to his aide at full speed.
''I promised you would never be alone again.'' Dina's claws elongated with a shrill screech and sharped as she jumped high into the sky and raised both of her arms above her head. She let out a deafening war cry and pounced on the War Hammer Titan like an angry lioness. Her claws slashed downward and hit both Lara's face and her arms as she landed on top of her in a booming collision that threw up billowing plumes of smoke all over again and cratered the pavement below them with a small quake that reverberated through the area.
Dina's claws were almost as sharp and hard as those of the Jaw Titan. As such, Lara's arms and face suffered long gashes all over them while the pole of her spear broke in multiple pieces, freeing Eren from her grip. ''Be as mighty as it's claimed that you are,'' Dina thought, roaring in an intimidating matter as she brought her claws down on Lara's face again, slicing through her plated armor as if it were wet paper, ''We still outnumber you eight to one!''she finished her thought with a final uppercutting slash, ripping through the flesh of Lara's neck all the way to her face with so much force that she beheaded the War Hammer Titan in the process. A violent gush of steaming blood and the harrowing sounds of ripping flesh echoed throughout as Lara's large head flew away from her torso like a bowling ball and smashing through multiple damaged houses, leaving a line of devastation in its wake.
Lara's titan seized to move and slouched underneath Dina, who was panting and only now realizing what she had done. ''I… I decapitated her,'' she thought incredulously to herself. ''If she was in the nape, did I just rip her to shreds?'' She blinked and gave Eren a look of disbelief, who was equally as shocked. ''Wasn't Lara very powerful? How come we defeated her so easily then?'' Dina didn't understand, and from the looks of it, Eren didn't either.
''Something isn't right. Lara's always been a nuisance, and now she goes down this quickly. If this really was all it took to kill her, why haven't I been able to succeed before?'' Eren grumbled to himself as he removed the spear from his torso. Potent jets of steam emerged from his gaping wounds due to his titan working hard to heal the extensive damage in his chest. He slowly got up as his eyes scanned the area yet again for anything suspicious. No sign of Marley's army yet and, with the speed they were travelling, he knew it was still going to take hours before they arrived. The rest of his companions had watched the battle from afar, not abandoning their posts until Eren said so. It seemed they were equally as unconvinced that the War Hammer Titan had gone down already.
''We'll worry about that later. Right now, we need to secure Lara and make sure she won't transform again,'' Eren reasoned with himself, slowly making his way through the wreckage to where the War Hammer Titan's head rested. He reached down and roughly picked it up, only to hiss and recoil at the creepy grin on Lara's slashed face. ''Something is horribly wrong. Lara's body isn't here, and there was no life-cord. How… was this titan moving?''
''Eren Yeager,'' Lara's severed head spoke as if she was still completely conscious, causing Eren to jump in surprise and drop it onto the ground from the startle. The head rolled unceremoniously for a bit until it stopped and looked eerily at him and Dina, ''you're not the only one with tricks up their sleeve.''
Immediately, the entire ground started to shake ominously, as if something massive was approaching. Eren growled as he slammed his foot onto Lara's decapitated head for good measure, crushing it with a gush of steaming blood. He returned his attention back on the mountainous side that Lara had approached from previously. ''There's no way that…'' Eren hissed, only for him to widen his eyes like saucers when two metallic hands appeared over the summit and another War Hammer Titan's head rose to peer straight at him. ''What the…''
He looked back at Dina and she confirmed his suspicion; Lara's body was nowhere inside the Titan they had just taken down. ''You don't mean…'' as Eren eyed the mountains again, he had to do a double take and guffawed in complete surprise. Now there was not one, but two extra War Hammer Titans looking down on him!
The mountains rumbled and massive rock slides and avalanches crashed down from the towering summits as more pairs of hands joined them. That amount grew to three… five… ten… twenty…
Eren's heart beat rapidly in his chest, the nervousness he had been fighting back returning tenfold as he looked at his opponents staring back at him creepily. ''She can multiply herself!? How is she even controlling them!? Where is Lara herself!?'' Eren thought with growing dread, taking a few steps back while still holding Lara's dagger from before. Eren raised his fist in the air, the signal for everybody to get ready for the massive battle which was about to unfold.
''It seems our opponent has a few tricks up her sleeve as well,'' Erwin noted while calculating the odds of their survival. The ground was shaking powerfully as twenty War Hammer Titan's rushed down the mountain, imitating a mini-rumbling that even had Eren intimidated for a few seconds. Erwin squinted his eyes and looked at his surrounding companions. ''Lara has fully committed to sacrificing the capital to defeat us. There's no way she's contemplating casualties if she's unleashing this upon us. If we want to win, we need to be strategic and stay in groups or we'll die one by one.''
Nodding to Hange, she climbed on top of his back to peer at the pure destructive army approaching them like an apocalypse. ''This isn't going as Eren has planned,'' she spoke gruffly within her titan. ''Lara possesses abilities he wasn't aware of.'' She stayed silent for a few second as the War Hammer Titans equally split off in groups of four. Connie and Sasha protectively stood in front of Ymir's more vulnerable titan while Eren and Dina took the front and braced themselves for impact. ''They're going to overrun the city and try to defeat us with raw power. We can assume they will have flawless team work as they're controlled by the same entity. We'll have to play off our strengths if we want to beat them.''
Erwin's monstrous titan stepped forward with tremendous force, his scales rattling the pavement beneath while he growled so deeply that it resonated throughout the entire city. Two groups of four War Hammer Titans approached them, each of them wielding different weapons, from whips to hammers, to swords and maces, and even to crossbows. ''Eight against two. They can easily overwhelm us if we're not being careful. However, Lara has never seen us before. She doesn't know our powers, but we do know what she can do,'' Erwin noted sharply. Finally, he let out a deafening roar worthy of a monster of his size.
It didn't seem to intimidate the War Hammer Titans in the slightest. Like an oiled machine, four of them started to flank Erwin and Hange in a swift movement. Two took a more frontal approach while leaving open the center for the final two who used ranged weapons. Raising their armored crossbows, they pointed them forward and shot thick arrows the size of pillars aimed straight at Erwin's face. The two arrows whizzed in the air with such velocity they made a noise akin of a whirling missile.
Hange was quick to react. Unfolding her wings within her hardened carapace, she jumped off Erwin's back, with the extra velocity making her go high in the sky. She lowered her massive horn and faced the two incoming arrows head on with practiced precision and, with a little bit of instinct inherited from her titan, threw her head up sharply. The resulting movement made the two arrows collide with her horn and shatter them to dust. ''Amazing!'' Hange squealed like a little girl out of pure excitement. ''Erwin! Did you see tha—Ack!''
Her sentence abruptly died down when the spiky end of a War Hammer Titan's war hammer smashed into her body gruesomely, its impact so severe it created a small shockwave all around it before Hange flew through the air like a shattered ragdoll, smashing through buildings, and leaving total carnage behind.
''Hange!'' Erwin shouted through gritted teeth while facing the War Hammer who had just utterly swatted Hange's titan away like it was an annoying fly. Breathing in thickly, Erwin unleashed a potent flamethrower from his opened maw which made the sky turn bright blue from the heat it radiated. The blue flames roared through the air, melting off the pavement and surrounding buildings as they enveloped the War Hammer Titan completely, its strength so encompassing that it incinerated all the houses behind the War Hammer into ashes and started a big and potent fire that spread for many city blocks. Not much of the War Hammer remained as the flames crackled at the hardening and melted it along with the titan's flesh into a big pile of goop and lava.
Erwin didn't keep up his attack for long, electing to save precious energy. Seeing that he had defeated one of them, he tried to turn his attention to the four flanking him and the one at the front. Two of them had spears who were about to impale him like he was a fish. ''I need to prioritize them considering that if they hit me in my neck, I'm done for.'' He knew doing this would leave him completely open and vulnerable for the other three. Never mind the two in the back which had reloaded their crossbows. ''With Hange down, it's one versus seven momentarily.''
Shaking his head mentally, Erwin shifted his weight using his tail and whipped it at the incoming War Hammer Titans and the spears they carried. Their forward thrusts meant as soon as his large tail made contact, it was pierced through at multiple spots. His scales did little to stop them, allowing Erwin to note Lara's titan hardening was superior to his armored scales. Yet Erwin did not let this deter him as he managed to smack both Titans with his tail and blast them away like a couple of hockey pucks. He grimaced as he bled profusely, not having time to dodge the other attacks coming his way.
A roar escaped his maw as a whip with multiple blades raked across his torso, ripping large pieces of flesh out of his body in a steaming bloodbath. Another War Hammer Titan stabbed him right in his side, with her forward momentum making him lose balance as he threatened to fall over a crumbling building. He hissed as he eyed the final advancing titan rear back her immense war hammer, intending to blow his head cleanly off his torso.
Sasha knew that within the next few minutes, chaos would inevitably erupt all around them. Four of the War Hammer Titans had split off from the main force and approached them in rapid succession. ''It's do or die now,'' she thought, gritting her teeth and readying her Attack Titan. Possessing it meant she had a very special connection with Eren. She knew it was because of her strong mental willpower and resolve as a hunter that he'd chosen her to wield it; seeing all of Eren's past attempts to resolve the endless conflict put a strain on her not everybody would be able to handle. Still, it made her more determined to succeed. ''This time, Eren, we will not fail!''
Sasha eyed her partner, Connie, and saw how he was protectively standing in front of Ymir to shield her. Lara chose for long ranged piercing weapons to engage them. All four of the incoming War Hammer Titans were carrying spears with multiple sharp tips. It was clear she wanted to target Connie's incredible hardened armored titan since he couldn't move much and deal an accurate blow by going straight for his neck from afar. ''She thinks Ymir and I won't pose much of a threat, but,'' Sasha thought while materializing her crossbow with a dazzling flash of yellow lightning, ''she underestimates how strong I am!''
With deadly accuracy, Sasha aimed and fired a single bolt towards the incoming War Hammer Titans. Lara didn't even bother to dodge; she was fully confident she could take the attack, only to be surprised when the bolt had such raw force when it hit one of her titan's necks that it lobbed her head right off her torso with a gushing spray of heated blood. The defeated War Hammer Titan crashed haphazardly to the ground, creating smoke and dust while the other three advanced on without care.
''Great job, Sasha!'' Connie thought appreciatively, ''now I can just...'' His sentence died in his mind while his eyes widened like saucers. He hissed in pure surprise as the fallen War Hammer Titan threw her spear through her smoke cover with such velocity that Connie could only look and watch as it soared through the air and impaled Sasha cleanly through her chest. She stumbled back several thundering steps, clearly just as surprised as Connie was while Lara gave them no time to recover whatsoever and pressed on her attack. ''The audacity of this bitch!''
Connie roared and crouched low to the ground with his shoulder pressed forward, ready to bash the remaining three War Hammer Titans into oblivion. ''You're going to pay for that!'' he thought angrily as he dashed forward. His massive footsteps rumbled the ground with such force it felt like he was causing an earthquake as strong as Lara's twenty titans did put together. He was confident his armor would protect him from any strike, so when one War Hammer Titan deftly evaded him, he instead kept going and focused on the other two and rammed into them with his full force and weight.
Endless cracks formed on their armored bodies as the silver hardening trademark of the War Hammer Titan shattered upon impact and forcefully blasted away like they were made out of paper, with both of their bodies tumbling helplessly through the air like ragdolls and destroying multiple blocks of houses and canals until they came to a skidding halt under nothing but debris and severed limbs. It created so much ruckus that it felt like a bomb had gone off in the middle of the city. Connie smirked, admitting he'd be surprised if they were be able to get up after that. ''That should teach them to—agh!''
Connie froze as an immense sharp pain suddenly flared all through his torso, making him lose the feelings in his legs completely. ''What is—'' he thought before he spewed out blood, his eyes slowly turning to the right before he spotted the single War Hammer Titan he had previously evaded.
She was holding the spear with a cutting smirk on her face; she'd thrusted the weapon exactly between the joint lines of the armor on his neck and managed to cleave his lower body completely off his torso. ''I can't… hold on…'' Rapidly, everything started to turn black for Connie, his consciousness giving in to sweet sleep while his massive legs gave out to him.
Lara simply withdrew her spear with a gush of heated blood and saw Connie go down abruptly, his body creating a rumble that almost shook Ymir off balance and left a deep indentation on the ground. She gasped as she saw both Sasha and Connie gravely injured. It would only be a matter of minutes before the remaining War Hammer Titan finished both off.
''I can't let that happen!'' Ymir thought while eying Lara with pure rage in her eyes. ''After all that we went through, I won't end it like this!'' While she was significantly smaller and weaker than the War Hammer Titan still standing strong before her, she wasn't about to back down. ''Eren has taught me well! I can take on one of them on and save my friends!''
Powering herself up mentally, Ymir swiftly dashed toward the War Hammer Titan who was thrusting her spear back to cleave Connie like a cheap piece of meat and rammed into her side. The sudden impact threw Lara off, making her spear impact Connie's thick armor instead where it crumbled to nothing but scrap. Knowing that she had her speed and smaller size to her advantage over the lumbering and slower War Hammer Titan, Ymir climbed on top of Lara and tried to slash at her neck, only doing minimal damage to her as she did so. ''This armor is tougher than I thought. That's right, I don't need to defeat her. Sasha and Connie already managed to take care of three. If I stall long enough, they'll heal so they can finish the job and then potentially help our other allies!'' Ymir thought smartly.
However, during her thoughts, she hadn't expected for Lara to react so quickly. The War Hammer Titan reached out to her, grabbed her by the neck and the torso, and threw her to the ground violently. The resulting impact left dust flying everywhere and left a sizeable crater while Ymir gasped in her titan, lying there battered and broken. ''How!?''
Ymir could only look at her adversary with widened eyes as she formed another spear into existence with a dazzling flash of azure and yellow lighting to finish her off for good…
Imma try my best to update this story once a month until it is completed! Please leave a review if you enjoyed it or if you have any constructive criticism for me! See y'all next time!
~Syrup