Chapter 49: Two Fronts
Nanaba slices through the nape of the four meter titan as it collapses onto the ground; next to it she spots the half eaten remains of some poor scout or garrison troop.
"Damn it." She muttered from her vantage point on a house's chimney. She looked up to see her squad cutting down the remnants of the first wave as the garrison teams begin to retake the artillery positions, quickly moving the metal shells and placing one in the cannon.
In the distance she spots the Beast titan watching them, squatting down flanked but his half ring of fifteen meter titans. She gripped the handles of her ODM gear just a bit tighter.
You'll pay for what you did…
"Aye, Nanaba." Came a voice behind her, she turned her head to Gelgar behind her. "Looks like we've almost got this place locked down." He commented "You should regroup with the others."
"Right, tell the others to maintain their positions and cover Rico's men." Nanaba ordered "And keep moving around, we can't let the Beast see us concentrated in one spot, you remember last time."
"Yeah." Gelgar responded, he fired off his cables and zipped away.
Nanaba fired her hooks to a nearby building as she hopped back to the small wall that shielded the horses. As she reached the barrier she flew over it and landed inside; a mass of horses were tied to the hastily nailed posts as the wounded were quickly ferried inside and soldiers refueling their gas quickly jumped over and back into the fray.
She spotted the others officers along with Ed and Armin huddled together as they surrounded a table, she rushed over to them.
"Squad leader Nanaba, glad to see you're alright, whats the situation?" Ian asked, looking up from the map, a rushed half ring of pebbles surrounded the map town as "X's marked the positions of artillery crew.
"My squad have been able to retake the positions we previously had to fall back from." She then turned to Rico "Your teams are now operating the cannons once more."
"Thank you, Squad leader." Rico replied, they both turned back to the others.
"Where's Captain Levi?" Nanaba asked.
"He's still ordering the others." Ed replied. "He said he wanted to keep an eye on things." Nanaba nodded.
"We still have to think about taking out the Beast titan, we can't stay like this forever; the causality numbers keep rising and we have no idea how many of their own forces they have to their disposal." Rico stated
"Rico's right." Klaus replied "We should move more artillery pieces to the front and focus fire on the Beast, knock the bastard out and end this."
"No!" Nanaba interjected aggressively "That's what it'll want; if we group our forces in one location then it'll aim its shots there, by the time we'd had moved enough of our cannons to the centre they'll notice and it'll be too late."
"If we stay in our current positions the Beast titan will pick them off anyways." Mitabi argued.
"I have to argue in favour of Nanaba." Armin interjected "From our experience at Utgard, the Beast titan initially weakened and tested our defences with the first wave, the second attack was entirely focused on one side, putting what remained of the 104th on one side played in the Beast titan's advantage even if it did make sense for us in the moment."
"Exactly." Nanaba responded, she placed her hands on the table and leaned in slightly "Ian, I've been under siege by that titan before and it wants us to play the obvious move."
"If the Beast titan is smart enough to set strategic traps for us then it'll find a way to deal with our current strategy." Marlene stated.
"That's true, but from past experience, our current strategy isn't falling into the same traps he laid in the previous attack." Nanaba stated "If we have to attack the Beast titan then I recommend we should do it from a position of strength."
A sudden series of booms caught their attention as they snapped their heads back to the wall, dust falling off it. "Beast titan's throwing rocks at us." Ian said, very quickly a fast chain of explosive bangs followed nearby.
"Right now we're making it difficult for it to do anything; throw rocks or overwhelm us with titans." Nanaba added.
Suddenly the ground underneath them shook violently, the pebbles on the table jumped and fell off as everyone else either stumbled or trip over to the ground. The horses tied to the posts and rails began to panic as a deafening explosion choked the sound of everything around them.
"What the hell was that?" Ed exclaimed as he regained his balance, he turned around and picked up Armin from the ground.
"That came from inside the district." Rico stated as she turned towards the blocked entrance into Shiganshina, a mass of smoke blocking the view into the district.
"The Colossal titan…" muttered Klause.
"It's inside the district." Marlene added.
"Alphonse!" Ed yelled out, he placed his hands on his head and he looked into the gap of the blocked entrance "Eren… Mikasa… oh God…" He reached over to the handles by his side as he almost ran off.
"Stop!" Ian grabbed him by the shoulder. "You're needed here!"
"Needed here?" Ed questioned "The Colossal titan probably just wiped out the others, my brother and my friends could be in trouble or worst, I've gotta be there!"
"Commander Erwin told you to follow Captain Ian's orders." Rico reminded him "You' have your orders."
"You think I'd care about that right now?" Ed threw back almost confused; he shrugged Ian's hand off.
"Wait." A voice demanded behind them, Levi landed onto the ground and walked towards them "Erwin told you, Armin and I to stay here and take on the Beast titan."
"Captain, my brother, Petra, our friends are in danger." Ed argued.
"You don't trust your brother?" Levi questioned "You think he's not capable of surviving, after everything we've been through?"
"Of course I do but I can't ignore this, you gonna tell me just to get on with it?" Ed questioned "Aren't you scared or worried about them?"
"Armin" Levi called out "You worried about your friends?"
Armin didn't answer at first "Yes… Captain." He replied hesitantly.
"Me too." Levi stated "And are you going to break rank just because of that?" Levi inquired further.
"No, Captain." Armin replied.
"Same here." Levi agreed, he looked back at Ed "I get it, how could I not, but we just have to put faith in them and carry on."
The violent rumbling died down, the sound of the house above them collapsing turned silent, however in the distance the sound of a deep and low thud echoed through the cellar followed by low rumbles.
"Lights, we can't anything in here." A scout said, the sound of footsteps echoed loudly as they search for candles or a lantern.
"Hold on." Nifa said, there was a sound of rustling as a shining stone suddenly appeared, illuminating Nifa as it pushed back the darkness to the edges of the room. "Alphonse could you break this into smaller pieces?"
Alphonse approached the Nifa, she handed him the crystal, Alphonse placed his palms together, and the crystal between them, as it broke off into three smaller pieces. Alphonse handed one to Nifa and other to a different scout.
"How many of us are here?" Nifa asked. The group huddled closer as Nifa counted them, whispering the numbers "seven." She spoke out loud. "No one's injured?" she asked, a small choirs of no's followed "Good, let's find a way out of here; hopefully the others have made it too."
Alphonse, carrying a shining stone in his hand, began to wonder around the cellar, looking for the caved in entrance, he could make out the faint outline of a wall in front of him as he stepped closer, before he turned away he felt something crunch underneath his boot, he looked down to small stained cream rocks underneath them. There was a sickening feeling in his stomach as he spotted more of them, long slender, stained and decayed.
Bones…
"Oh no…" he pointed the shining stone, following the trail of bones till he saw old and worn clothes covering it, as he followed the bones he saw the head of the skeleton, an adult, lying on the ground. And smaller bones wrapped in a buddle next to it.
Alphonse covered his mouth as he stared at it, his breathing slow but static, as a sickly feeling came to creep over him.
"Alphonse." Nifa said he felt a hand grab his shoulder; he turned his head away from the bones and to her. "Horrible…" she commented in her sigh.
"They were trapped down here… when the titans came…" Alphonse muttered weakly. He shut his eyes softly as he clenched his hand. "We… we can't let something like this happen again."His last words spoken with the resolve he began to feel.
No one… No one should have to go through this… No one should have to die like this…
"Nifa!" called out one of the scouts "I found the entrance but it looks like the wall of the house came down on it."
"Alphonse…" Nifa said Alphonse walked over to the stairs; the wall of the building had completely fallen over the cellar entrance. Alphonse placed the stone down on the step as he brought his hands together, placing them on the fallen wooden wall. Flashes of blue light gleamed off him as a massive hole was blown through the wall, pieces of wall scattering off to the side as a burst of light flooded the bottom of the basement.
They all covered their eyes as it adjusted to the light. Alphonse lowered his hands slowly from his face as he turned his eyes back to the sky and the surface.
As he looked to the sky he noticed it very quickly. There was no sky.
Above him was smoke, thick grey smoke, shielding his view of the sky and on the surface was fire, everything's on fire.
Alphonse took in a short intake of breath and began to cough violently; he went a few steps down the stairs and back to the others.
"Whats happened?" Nifa asked.
"Fire" Alphonse coughed "Everything's on fire."
"We were not that far from the center of it." A scout commented "A lot of the houses near it must have been completely torched."
"it's almost suffocating being up there." Alphonse said as he caught his breath. He then unhooked his cape "We should probably take masks if we're gonna move around." He dropped his cape on the floor, placing his hands together and onto the cape, breaking it into long pieces of cloth. Everyone gathered around and picked up a piece of cloth wrapping it around their mouths.
"Ready?" Nifa asked.
"Yes" some said as the others nodded.
"Alright, let's move." Nifa said, leading the way "Let's try and find the others." They walked up the steps and onto the surface.
The air was heavy, black specs and flakes drifted in the air as the heat of the flames pressed against them as the sound of rock and scorched wood was knocked away or crunching under their feet.
"Stay close!" Nifa yelled.
Underneath them the ground continues to rumble every couple of seconds as the sound of crashing and crackling fire.
"We need to get out of this smoke." yelled one of the scouts.
"Just keep moving!" Nifa yelled.
The air around them began to get a bit lighter and the smoke thinner until it was clear, they rushed out of the smoke gasping for air.
"We're out, thank god." commented one of the scouts.
Alphonse pulled the mask off his face as he took deep breaths of clear air.
"C'mon we still have to find the others." Nifa said, rallying them. She took out the handles of her ODM gear and fired her hooks onto a nearby intact building. The others followed her as the ascended from the ground.
Alphonse eyes immediately went to the colossal titan, standing gargantuan among the burning field of houses. He had only half of it back in their battle at Stohess, but standing here… it truly did live up to its name. The skinless titan which looked as though it could reach up into the sky like Father did trying to reach the truth.
"Dear God…" muttered one of the scouts watching.
"We don't have time to watch." Nifa reminded them "Keep an eye out for the others!" They quickly began to zip away, jumping house to house.
"Nifa, should we fire a flare?" said one of the scouts.
"We might as well try." Nifa replied "Hopefully any survivors will see it through the smoke." One of the scouts took out their gun as they loaded a red flare into the chamber before pointing it up to the guy.
A loud bang went off as a trail of red smoke reached above the clouds. Not a few second later did another red trail of smoke ascend from the rooftops of a street in a couple streets away before a third went just a couple more streets away from the last.
"That must be them!" cheered one of the scouts.
"Thank God." remarked another.
"C'mon let's move." Nifa ordered with a smile on her face. They all quickly flew towards the centre, in sight was a large black haired titan carrying a few others.
"Eren!" Alphonse called out
"Alphonse!" Jean called out, waving at him and the others. Alphonse quickly spotted the others, the rest of his squad all hanging off of Eren.
Just past them the sight of another titan jogging towards them, its head down slightly just at roof level, approached them.
"Mina! Hange!" Petra called out. Mina carried with her other scouts while some circled around her, before stopping just before them, kneeling down before one of the houses.
"You guys survived!" Connie exclaimed, shocked but clearly relieved.
"We thought we were the only ones." Sasha almost cried.
"Nifa, you lived!" Hange yelled out happily.
"Hange, Moblit!" Nifa called as she reunited with her squad.
Alphonse looked at Mina who turned her head to him; he only smiled as he nodded his head to her.
Thank God…
"Let's take a quick head count." Hange called. They huddled in closer as Hange began to count them, there was a glum look on her face as she went over the tally "Looks like about half those in the district survived the Colossal's appearance.
"What do we do now?" Jean asked.
"We take down the Colossal titan." Petra declared.
The Beast titan sat down on the ground, watching his smaller titans attempt to break through the barriers and get cut down ruthlessly by the irritating flying humans or he's line of titans getting picked apart by the artillery.
He looked at his legs, now his left foot was a smoking stub along with his left arm and was lying something far away from him.
Guess I should consider myself lucky they didn't hit my head The Beast contemplated, he looks back at his right hand, just a wrist and half a palm.
"War chief." A raspy loud voice yelled to his side, the Beast turned its head to see the cart titan once again run up to it.
"Looks like they got me again." The Beast commented almost jokingly. "I should be thankful they're focused on killing my titans first before me." He looked back at the town "Still… Can't say I'm not frustrated about how this situation is going."
"Perhaps we should deploy Porco and have him wreak havoc on the enemy's lines." The Beast suggested as he looked down at the barrel behind him. "I'd much rather have him mop up the enemy forces or catch any runners."
"War chief, how many smaller titans do we have left?" Pieck asked.
"Less than half a wave left." The Beast replied.
"Send the entire force onto the left side, just across that river." Pieck suggested "I've scouted their defences further and that side seems to be the most sparsely fortified."
"Is that so…" The Beast titan commented.
"If we can overwhelm their left flank, even just push them out of the other side of the river then we've narrowed their area of operations by close to half." Pieck advised.
"A brilliant idea as ever, Pieck." The Beast titan complemented. "We'll still have to neutralise or distract the other artillery pieces; however this is where our 'friend' may come into play." The Beast suggested.
"Not Porco?" Pieck asked.
"No, let's not revel all our cards just yet but…it is time for a strategic substitution, wouldn't you agree, perhaps a new batter?" it joked, a toothy smile on its face.
"A baseball joke?" Pieck asked, the cart titan rolled its eyes.
"You all should really join me playing catch sometimes." The Beast commented "Now, inform our friend that its time and be sure to brief them on the situation."
"Of course, war chief." Pieck replied the cart titan's head then ticked up slightly to the sky, its eyes narrowing slightly. "A few red flares, a signal perhaps?"
The Beast titan tilted his head up and noticed the three red trails of smoke stretching into the sky.
Perhaps I'll need to send Porco in sooner than later.
The Armoured titan sits up, the pieces of debris and rubble, sliding off his body or pushed to the side. The back of its neck explodes into a large cloud of smoke as Reiner emerged from its nape.
Reiner pulls the nerves attached just below his eyes with a wet snap. He climbed over to the Armoured titan's shoulder, looking around him.
The fires around him looked to now be dying down, revealing the utter destruction Bertholdt had unfolded onto the district. The Colossal titan towered over what was left around it as marched towards the district entrance into Maria, smoke emanating from its skinless body.
The air was heavy and thick from the smoke, yet Reiner took in a deep breath. "Bertholdt…" he muttered as he stared at the colossal titan. "I… failed Annie." His mind went back to the Female titan. "I'll have to apologise to her father, but I won't tell your father about your death too, I'll bring you back home to him."
He climbed down the body of the decaying armoured titan, jumping onto the ground.
He looked around, surveying his surroundings.
Before Bertholdt could transform, they scattered off he thought to himself Whatevers left of them will try to launch a counterattack.
He waded through the rubble as he wondered around.
Whatever they're gonna do, I've got to stop them or at least mess it up somehow, still… His mind wondered back to both Eren and Mina, not with a sense of regret but curiosity and the memory of their new weapons…
The long spear shaped weapons which they blasted into his eyes.
Whatever those weapons were it broke through my armour, damn near could have killed me if Bertholdt hadn't shown up.
He climbed over a fallen stone wall.
I'll have to be careful, can't ignore the others if I'm going into a fight against those two.
He crouched down and slowly moved through a broken roof of a toppled house.
I can't take those two alone his mood turned bitter slightly I guess I'll have to call in Porco here too.
Suddenly there was a distance bang, Reiner looked up through a hole in the roof to see a trail of red smoke.
He crawled out and stood up into the open, two more red trails decorated the sky as a very distance sound of zipping cables passed through the low rumbling of the colossal titan.
Armin snapped his fingers together; a burst of fire struck the nape of a five meter titan, crashing into the destroyed rubble of the building. The garrison and scout troops continued to mop up the remnants of the titan wave.
His eyes scanned the area around him, Mitabi's side of the battlefield. He quickly noticed that the scattered buildings that they used to anchor themselves was becoming fewer and fewer.
This side of the town is structurally becoming weaker Armin observed even if we reinforce this area with more troops we're at risk of becoming overrun in the next wave.
He watched as a scout cut down a lone titan.
I wouldn't want to divert Ed's attention from the centre, so I'll have to make the defences myself, we'll just have to make it passed this wave.
"Arlert!" called out one of the troops, grabbing his attention "Mitabi wants to see you." Armin pulled out the handles of his gear as he fired the cables and began to jump and glide towards the other officers.
Just near the river, the remaining buildings were clumped around keeping their artillery pieces hidden.
"Arlert." Mitabi called out, surrounded by other garrison officers.
"Lieutenant." Armin replied.
"Have the remaining titans been eliminated?" he asked.
"Still a few ones left wondering around but it's safe to say the wave has passed." Armin replied.
"Good, we could use to opportunity to regroup." Mitabi stated
"Lieutenant, if I may, I don't think we're strong enough to handle another wave." Armin observed "We've been losing buildings on the outer side, enough that our artillery is under threat of exposure."
He thought back to the titan, lurking around collecting stones and…watching them…
Does it know?
"I'll need to rebuild some of our physical barriers if we need to hold out any further." Armin informed them.
"We can have the men cover you then." One of the officers suggested.
"We'll have to act quickly, we don't know if our enemies might have figured it out too." Armin told them.
Just a second later, a flurry of gunshots interrupted them; they looked up to the sky to see seven red flares just to the side of the town. There was a low rumble shaking the ground and ringing in the air, followed by a avalanche of yelling and cries, a garrison troop quickly landed onto the house near them.
"Run, we're been overrun!" they yelled, sudden a titan crashed into the house the garrison troop was standing on and grabbed them, slamming them into the roof.
"Move now!" Mitabi ordered, straining his voice. The all grasped and fumbled for the handles of their ODM gear.
Armin fired his hooks onto a nearby house and reeled forward as a titan crashed through the house where the officers stood, crushing some and then grabbing Mitabi before he could escape, more titans began to crashing forward swarming their position.
"Mitabi!" Armin yelled, he pointed his fingers at the titan grabbing him.
"No!" Mitabi yelled "Run, alert the others! Go Arlert!" the titan which gripped Mitabi then chomped him in half with his large teeth. Armin could only watch in horror at the sight, he turned his gaze upwards to the horde of titans as scouts and garrison soldiers flied around in a vain effort to stem the tide.
"Fall back!" came an order.
"Everyone to the river!" Armin yelled he pointed his fingers at a horde of titans and snapped them, he didn't try to focus on a path; anywhere would do, as a large explosion burst into the centre and knocked down a group of titans. "Go now!" he watched as what remained of the eastern side's coalition of soldiers began their retreat, before he began his he stared at the titan horde for a few more seconds… spotting the crawling titan lurking once more on the edges of the ruins of the town.
They knew… he swung away towards the river, cursing himself for not noticing their weakness first and now destroying that intelligent titan when he had the chance.
He watched as they hopped over the river to be greeted by other soldiers waving them in as artillery pieces were set on the edge.
"Move! Move! Move!" commanded one of the garrison troops on the other side.
Armin zoomed over the river and rolled onto the other side.
"Armin!" a voice called out, he looked up to see Ed running towards him, he grabbed Armin's arm as he helped him up "What the hell happened?"
"Focused attack, they overwhelmed us." Armin tried to explain quickly "Ed, you need to fortify the other side, titan horde is coming down on us."
Ed quickly let go of Armin as he ran over to the side of the river, he planted his hands onto the ground as an array of large pikes sprung from the ground just as the titan horde came charging in.
They impaled themselves onto the spikes as they tried to cross the river, a barrage of shots were fired onto the horde. The shells tore them apart as chunks of titans were thrown into the air with the smoke.
Armin fired along with them, burning any of the titans which tried to break through, a pile of smoking titan corpses littered the other side of the river and within it, clogging the flow.
A bellowing roar suddenly echoed across the region as the titan wave came to a halt, falling back into the rubble as they stayed there. In place guarding the other and watching them.
"What happened?" demanded Hannes running in as more garrison troops converged onto their position, staring at the other side of the river as
"Hannes…" Armin said breathlessly, exhausted by the ordeal as the adrenaline began to wear off. "Mitabi's dead…we just lost our entire left flank…"
Nanaba looked through the telescope as she watched a fifteen meter titans fill in the gaps of the ring which still surrounded them; he circled around the ring, quickly noticing the small gaps in their line, individual spaces now left.
"They're running out of titans." Nanaba noted, handing the telescope to Gelgar who quickly looked through the telescope.
"Thank God, here I was thinking their numbers were limitless." Gelgar commented "Still hard to figure out whose winning at this point, us or them."
"If they hadn't overwhelmed us on the left then, I'd say us." Nanaba replied. "But if everything until now was just it gauging our defences then we don't know if they're miles ahead of us."
"Yeah, we have to stay on our toes, can't get complacent." Gelgar "C'mon, enough scouting, meet with them others and find out our next moves, I'll hold down this area."
"Be careful, Gelgar." Nanaba told him.
"I know what I'm doing." Gelgar remarked with a smug smile.
Nanaba sighed softy before gliding away back towards the command centre and over the small wall. She noticed the other officers huddled around the open table as they listened to Armin.
As Nanaba approached she spotted the map; a mass of objects crowed the left side of the town, signifying its occupation.
"The entire wave just came down on your side." Ian summarised. "Have the titans crossed over?"
"They did try initially but it looks like they're holding their position." Armin replied.
"Mitabi ordered you to run?" Rico asked, looking down solemnly.
"Yes… I'm sorry." Armin apologised.
"Don't apologise." Rico replied, a stern to her voice as she continued to look at the map.
"We just have to make sure we win this." Ian stated.
"We have to go for the attack!" Klaus argued "We've already lost our left flank, if the enemy are now focusing attacking us then they'll hit us again."
"No, we should still hold out." Nanaba argued back "We've lost the left side because of a surprise attack, but we're more fortified now."
"We can't guarantee that a targeted attack on any position can hold out either." Rico stated "We sit here then we run the risk of another attack breaking our defences."
"What if that attack was their last one?" Nanaba stated "I've monitored the titan line around us, they're running out of titans to even fill maintain the ring."
"So we're winning then even if we lost a section of our defences?" Rico questioned.
"I don't know, but they're not benefiting from this strategy." Nanaba clarified. "If the titans on the other side aren't crossing the river than their 'orders' must be to hold and narrow our operations."
"The Beast titan could be goading us to openly attack or retake our position." Marlene commented.
"I think we should just hold." Ed spoke up "If we go for the attack then who knows the people we'd lose, we're suffered enough losses as is so let's try keeping it to a minimum."
"If the titans are running out of numbers then we have the advantage to launch our own attack." Klause argued. "We can't afford them the time to regroup and-"
Suddenly there was a distance sound of thunder across the sky, near the location of the beast titan.
"What was that?" Ed muttered "Another shifter?"
"There were four mugs but… I thought that must have been the Cart titan's." Armin muttered.
Suddenly a garrison troop dropped down from the wall. "Captain Ian!" they shouted "A fifteen meter titan is heading our direction!"
"A fifteen meter? Just one?" Rico asked.
"Its- its- Its carrying a hammer!" the garrison troop panicked.
"A hammer?" what?" Ed replied, he ran towards the wall and ascended it to the top, Armin following him. As he reached the top he pulled out his telescope, spotting a small white humanoid shape in the distance, growing closer to them.
As Ed peered through the scope he got a good view of it; its entire body was covered in a white… armour, revealing only its face through slits in its helmet. In its hand was a hammer, a long hammer.
"Is that a war hammer?" Armin commented as he observed it too. The titan stopped only half way between them and the titan line. Placing them base of its hammer on the ground as it stared at the town.
Watching them.
It lifted its hammer off the ground before slamming it back down.
Not a second later large thorny white spikes burst from the ground as buildings were split in half and the artillery positions were knocked over or destroyed.
"It's aiming for the artillery positions!" Yelled one of the scouts.
"Everyone move now!" yelled one of the garrison troops, as a flurry of troops began to move inwards.
"How the hell…" Ed muttered watching stunned. "How can it…"
The rest of the officers stood on the wall watching at white spike pillars broke through the ground and completely disrupted their outer line.