"OPEN FIRE!"

That was more or less the only command given to the soldiers atop the Walls of Shiganshina as they laid down an unending barrage of cannonfire, saturating the area below them with very little mercy.

With all the strength in her upper body, a single soldier loaded a cannonball into a cannon that was being manned by one of her cohorts, and once it was loaded, her fellow soldier opened fire, sending the round hunk of metal soaring through the air, where it impacted the ground not too far from the feet of a Twelve metre Titan. The shockwave did make it stumble, however, slowing it down for a few precious seconds.

Beside them, another cannon opened fire, sending a shot barreling straight towards another Titan, a Five metre, and on impact, it reduced the beast to nothing more than a red stain on the ground, eliciting a cheer from the cannon manners as they high fived one another before hastily returning to their duties.

"C'mon! We can't dally any more than necessary! We need to buy time for the civilians to evacuate!" proclaimed a single soldier, a member of the Garrison Brigade, as he loaded a shot into the cannon that he was manning, and as he did so, his partner took aim with the emplacement and opened fire, sending the round projectile careening towards their target, a Fourteen metre, which was splattered by the blast. Its death was enough to make the duo grin as they continued onwards with their defenses, though they all knew that it was for naught.

They knew that, regardless of how many Titans they splattered on this day, this would still be a major defeat, as they had no way of sealing the breach in Shiganshina, and before long, they would run out of ammo, and when that happened… they'd have to join the fight directly, something that none of them were really looking forward to.

'Damn those Titans… damn that Colossal Titan!' thought a single soldier as he let loose another blast, one that missed a Three metre Titan by mere inches before it slammed into the ground and created a crevasse that was no less than twenty metres long. Upon missing his shot, the soldier slammed his fist into the side of the cannon and moved to reload it, though as he did so, he found himself remembering… it.

It had quite literally appeared out of thin air, and when it did, it appeared with a vengeance. A massive, Sixty metre tall Titan with red flesh and a piercing green gaze, the uncreatively named Colossal Titan had decimated the gates of Shiganshina with nothing more than a single kick of its leg, and not even a moment later, it vanished in a cloud of steam, leaving the soldiers present to witness its debut both horrified and speechless.

Those feelings would not last, however, as they were quickly thrusted into combat. The Garrison stationed atop the wall of Shiganshina laid down blanket fire on any encroaching Titans that were approaching the breach in the district, and at ground level, soldiers, mainly Survey Corps that were deemed suitable for combat, and the more skilled Garrison assisted in both evacuation and in dealing with the Titans that were entering the distinct en masse.

'I hope they're doing better than us down there,' thought another Garrison as he heaved a cannonball into his cannon and opened fire, shooting down a Ten metre with relative ease, before he grinned and moved to reload, though before he could do so, the soldier paused when he took note of something… odd in the distance. Or more specifically, it looked to be a massive cloud of smoke that was being kicked up into the air by a rapidly approaching entity.

Narrowing his eyes in confusion, the soldier tried to focus in on what that thing was to little avail. To rectify this, he swiftly reached into his military coat and pulled out a pair of standard issue binoculars and looked through them, and when he did, he found himself widening his eyes as he nearly dropped his binoculars out of shock.

"W-W-What the fuck…?!" proclaimed the man as he focused in on the encroaching figure once more, and when he did, his already widened eyes widened further when he got a semi-good look at what it was. A massive 'Titan' made of iron and steel, the approaching entity was… hovering in the direction of the breached wall of Shiganshina that very much surpassed the speed of even the fastest of Titans! At this rate, it would reach them within the next minute, maybe even faster!

"Hey, what the Hell is that?" inquired another soldier not too far from the first, with him staring at the inbound cloud of smoke left in the 'Titan's wake, though before he could even get a good look at it through his own set of binoculars, a shot was released, with the aforementioned blast soaring straight for the inbound 'Titan' all the while. Upon noticing this, the soldiers present all turned towards the culprit, only to see that it was a female soldier taking aim with her cannon.

"Who cares what it is?! SHOOT IT!" proclaimed the soldier as she let the shot off, and within seconds, it hit her intended target, prompting her to pump her fist in triumph. Likewise, her fellow soldiers blinked a little at that strange anomaly as they tried to figure out what the heck that… thing even was, though before their thoughts could get out of hand… the dust and dirt that was ejected into the sky after the cannonball had impacted its target was abruptly dissipated, with the 'Titan' that was struck by the blast leaping out of the smoke, seemingly undamaged and still making a beeline for the breach in Shiganshina.

"The Hell?!" proclaimed one of the soldiers present as another shot was fired upon the 'Titan', one that was very easily dodged as it veered to the left. Two more shots were let loose, and likewise, they were avoided with very little issue as the thing hovered to the right and then to the left with very little difficulty, with either cannonshot impacting the ground beneath it all the while.

"How is it so fast?! Is it predicting our attacks or something?!" demanded a bespectacled soldier as she let loose another shot, one that missed almost entirely as it crashed into a spot far from the 'Titan' they were aiming at, though on the bright side, it did kill a Three metre Titan that was behind it.

"Don't be ridiculous! Titan's aren't forward thinking! They don't even fucking think! It's just getting lucky, that's all!" responded another soldier as he took aim with his cannon and got ready to fire. He couldn't be too sure of where it was going to evade, though he could certainly make a calculated prediction. Currently, it was less than a hundred metres away from the breach of Shiganshina, and if it got in… who knew how much carnage it could unleash on the fleeing civilians…

Narrowing his eyes as he timed his shot, the soldier abruptly widened them when he saw the 'Titan' evading to the left, and right as it did so, he forcefully repositioned his cannon so that it was aimed towards where it was dodging at and fired. The cannonball, propelled forwards by the combusted gunpowder within the combustion chamber, was sent soaring across the air at breakneck speeds as it flew towards the 'Titan', whose head had turned to regard it right as it had left its chamber. At that, the soldier found himself grinning.

There was no way it could evade this time!

And yes, his prediction was correct. The 'Titan' did not evade… rather, it simply raised its left arm up, which was wielding a strange sword-like weapon, and, with a single swing of its arm, it sliced the approaching cannonball in two. The two halves of the bisected cannonball flew past the 'Titan's' body and crashed into the ground behind it, exploding in impact, and as soon as the deed was done, the thing boosted forwards at maximum speed, avoiding several more shots from the soldiers that were not stupified by what they had just seen all the while.

"W-W-What the ACTUAL FUCK?!" was the only thing that the guy that fired the shot could say as he recovered from his initial shock, to which the soldier closest to him could only wince.

"I… I-I don't know…"

Meanwhile

"Their aim is off."

That was more or less the only thing that had left Mikazuki's lips as he almost effortlessly evaded the shots sent at him by the people at the top of the walls. The cannonfire wasn't particularly effective against Barbatos, all things considered, as, according to the data input he received, it would take a good few shots before any major damage would be sustained by it, even now, in its damaged state.

Regardless, Mikazuki still saw fit to dodge as many shots as physically possible, with him weaving his unit from left to right whenever necessary. The first shot that was fired at him had actually landed mere metres in front of Barbatos rather than impact it directly, and every shot that came after failed to even come close to striking it. He had to complement the shot that was fired at his unit right as it dodged, even if slashing it out of the air was something that took little effort to accomplish thanks to a mixture of the Alaya-Vijnana system, his natural reaction speed and the agility of his Gundam.

Vice versa, however, it seemed as though the speed and strength of his Gundam had stunned the people who were firing down upon him from above, as evident by the fact that they had momentarily stopped raining cannonfire down upon him. Using this to his advantage, Mikazuki slammed down hard on the cockpit steppers of his unit, in turn firing off all thrusters at max power. The resulting thrust placed a lot more G-Forces on Mikazuki's body than he would've liked, though it had its desired effect, as the Gundam moved so quickly that it became nothing more than a blur, and within a moment's notice, it had entered the breached wall.

The smoke that remained by the breached wall, having been ejected after it had been breached in the first place, was swiftly dispelled when Gundam Barbatos boosted straight through it, with some of the smoke still clinging onto its chassis as it entered, granting it a rather dramatic smoke effect as it burst through. The momentum that the Gundam had built up along the way had launched it a lot further away from the breach than it would've liked, with it coming to a complete halt about twenty metres away from where Mikazuki had intended to stop in the first place, but regardless, he couldn't complain about it in the slightest as he sighed victoriously.

As he recovered from his entrance into the interior of the wall, Mikazuki felt a small surge of data flowing into him via Barbatos' end of the Alaya-Vijnana system, with it being in relation to the area they were now in. As he took this information in, Augus had also made a quick scan of his surroundings via the optic-to-cockpit visual feeds, and what he saw… surprised him, to say the least.

As one would expect, there were multiple buildings gathered around the area, all of which looked to be incredibly primitive in appearance, reminding the pilot of the buildings that were found back in Chryse. Likewise, the buildings were all packed incredibly close together, telling him that this was a densely packed community, or at least it was a densely packed community at one point. Now, it was all but abandoned, with no signs of life to be seen or detected by his unit's sensors.

Information provided to him via Barbatos' initial scan of the area told him that the area he was in was completely encased by a massive, Fifty metre tall wall, something that was… strange to him, to say the least, but then again, it wouldn't be the strangest thing that has happened to him in the past 24 hours. The scan had also alerted Mikazuki to a wall that stood by the northern end of the district he was in, one that had a gate with the side of a woman's face engraved onto it, telling Mikazuki that this was not the only walled off community in the area, prompting him to rub his chin thoughtfully as he wondered…

'Can Barbatos jump that high…?'

His thoughts were rather swiftly interrupted, however, when the on board radar pinged, snapping him out of his mild trance as he turned his attention down towards it, with him raising a brow shortly thereafter when he took note of just how many entities were within the radar's range. The radar itself had a maximum range of about 750 kilometers, which was above average in regards to long range tracking systems, though due to the damage sustained by the unit in the Edmonton battle, its damaged sensors had forced the maximum range to be cut down to half of what it was capable of.

Despite this, however, the radar system was still sensitive enough to pick up on movement spanning over fifty kilometers away from where the Gundam was standing at, and based on these readings, there were about ten other entities that stood over three metres in height wandering around the interior of the wall. More than half of these entities seemed to be naturally drawn towards the eastern side of the wall for reasons unknown to Mika, whilst the remaining half simply wandered aimlessly around the west.

One entity in particular, however, was incredibly close to Barbatos, with it coming closer and closer towards it with each passing second, and not long after, Mikazuki felt the ground beneath his unit tremble a tiny bit, just enough to be noticeable, as it walked into view from behind an abandoned house, granting Augus a good view of it all the while.

It was one of those large humanoids again, go figure. Mikazuki had seen quite a few of these back when he was tailing those adults back here, so he was a little used to their presence by now. This one was lankier than most of the others that he had the displeasure of seeing, however, with it possessing exceptionally long arms and legs and a rather small body, giving it a somewhat uneven appearance, so much so that it was almost comical in a rather twisted way. Currently, it was facing away from Barbatos as it stared off in the opposite direction aimlessly.

Considering how it has yet to notice him, Mikazuki did very well consider sparing this one. He may very well seem like a rabid dog on a leesh to most, but even he had some sense of morality towards even the most mindless of oppositions, and as such, he turned his attention back towards the main cockpit monitor to examine it curiously. Before he could focus on it completely, however, Augus saw the large humanoid thing turn towards him rather abruptly, so quickly that it had honestly caught him off guard.

And… well, let it be known that Mikazuki was never one to feel queasy, but even so… when he saw what was in this large human's mouth, the boy felt himself growing rather pale as his mind struggled to piece together what he was seeing. One couldn't really blame him for his delayed reaction to the sight before him, however, as no one, not even Mikazuki, could process it properly in such a short amount of time.

That large human… it… it had a smaller one in its mouth. Its teeth were wrapped around the person's stomach like a vice as they struggled to free themselves from its jaws, though it was rather clear to Mika that it wasn't going to happen anytime soon, and he didn't even need any audio confirmation to know that the person trapped in the large human's mouth was scared out of their mind.

And then, before Mikazuki could even vocalize his shock at what he was seeing… the large human snapped its jaws shut, in turn slicing the person straight in half. Thereafter, the pilot could only watch with his mouth slightly agape as the disembodied torso of the person fell to the ground, and as soon as it landed, the person wheezed out their last few, dying breaths before going completely still, leaving a slightly shaken Augus to process what he had just saw.

To say that this was… unexpected, would be a gross understatement, and by all means, Mikazuki was not one to feel upset over the death of another. Hell, he had been responsible for the deaths of so many people in the past that it would've been rather comically hypocritical for him to actually feel bad about it, especially when it was someone that he didn't know whatsoever dying… but even so, something about the display he had just bore witness to seemed… different, so to speak, and it didn't take long for Mika to realize what this difference was.

Whenever he had killed someone, Mikazuki always had a reason behind it. His reasons may have been fickle at times, with it ranging from protecting himself and his allies to him merely following Orga Itsuka's orders… but whatever his reasoning was, he had never killed anyone without a substantial reason. His gun may have taken the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of people by now, but they had always done something to warrant him firing upon them.

As for this… this thing, however… it was very obvious to him that it had killed that man for no reason whatsoever. Mikazuki could've attributed the casualty as it simply looking for food, similar to an animal, but that notion was wiped from his mind when he saw the look in the vile beast's eyes. There was no emotion behind those lifeless orbs screwed into its skull. No thought behind its movements, no ambition behind its actions… no reason for it to have killed that person.

It had killed because it wanted to… and it had done so in the vilest way possible… and now, the damn thing was stomping its way towards the Gundam, which remained practically motionless as its pilot sat within its chest, completely silent and with his eyes shadowed by his bangs.

Not many things could really piss Mikazuki Augus off. He did pride himself as someone who remained calm and composed through even the worst of situations, after all. But as with most others, even he had his limits, and by all means, he was very well reaching them. The Edmonton battle, waking up in an unknown environment, his failures at contacting Tekkadan, him not knowing if his friends were alright… it had all piled up on his seemingly endless patience, little by little, pushing him towards his breaking point.

And now, he was watching this… thing, this lifeless piece of shit, something that had eaten a man for no reason whatsoever… something that had killed someone for no reason other than self appeasement… it was more than enough to snap what little patience Mikazuki had right in half as he jerked his head up and glared at the large humanoid with a glare that could very well burn through its soul, if it even had one to begin with.

There were many things in this world that Mikazuki could tolerate, but amongst the small list of things that he couldn't… was him tolerating those that killed or hurt others for no reason whatsoever. Those kinds of people were lower than low, and if he could do something to them… if he could kill them, then he'd damn well take action.

And as such, when the large humanoid began charging at him, Mikazuki responded in kind by grabbing onto his unit's arm controllers and jerked it backwards. As he did so, he loosened his grip on the manipulator controller, in turn causing the unit to release its grip on its Longsword, before he jolted the arm controller forwards once more, and he had done so with such force that he may or may not have broken the sound barrier with Barbatos' manipulator.

Right as the Gundam's arm unit jerked forwards, the large humanoid lunged at it, with its arms spread out and its mouth agape, as though it were trying to pin Barbatos down. The thought of it doing so was more than enough to make Mikazuki scoff at just how… impossible that outcome was, and not even a moment later, his unit's balled up manipulator impacted its intended target.

Flesh peeled away and bones caved in on themselves as the Gundam's manipulator slammed straight into the large humanoid's face, and within seconds, its skull had caved in on itself. However, the force of Barbatos' punch had caused its balled up manipulator to go past its head, and not even a second after it had eviscerated the skull of the monster, the unit's fist slammed itself into the large humanoid's torso through its neck, with its manipulator bursting out of its back mere seconds later, bloodied and with steam licking at its edges.

"..." no words were uttered as Mikazuki raised the Gundam's leg unit up to kick the motionless body of the large humanoid off his unit's arm, with him not caring to be gentle at this point as he watched it drop to the ground lifelessly. Upon hitting the ground, the lifeless body of the large humanoid bounced a little as it remained motionless, and not long after, Mikazuki raised a brow in confusion as he watched its body dissolve into nothing.

It took the large humanoid's body less than a minute to disappear completely, with it dissolving into steam in seemingly no time whatsoever. Hell, even the blood had dissolved into nothing as well, something that confused Mika, to say the least, though he didn't care enough to question it for now as he tapped the cockpit monitor of his unit impatiently.

He was still pissed off, however, something of a rarity when it came to someone like him, but honestly, one couldn't really blame him for feeling this way, as his situation was far from a good one. He was only human, after all, and regardless of how strong or patient he was, even he had limits to how much bullshit he could take, and he had long since gone past them by now.

He needed to vent his irritation out somehow. He needed an outlet for all this anger… and by all means, he had an incredibly effective one laid out right in front of him, with all of them taking the form of large human shaped monsters that lacked a soul…

Elsewhere

"We have a Titan coming in at nine o'clock!"

"I'm on it, Captain!"

"I'll back you up!"

"Careful! Don't let any of them fall onto the civilians!"

"Shit! We lost the right guard! We need backup by the north!"

"INCOMING!"

To say that it was utter pandemonium… would be an understatement, and whilst Levi Ackerman prided himself with being an incredibly levelheaded person, even when in dire situations like these, even he had to admit that the bleak situation that they were in was slowly but surely getting to him.

Even so, he refused to let himself lose his faith, not only in himself, but also in his comrades, as he boosted onwards, propelling himself through the air like a short human projectile via the use of his Omni-Directional Maneuver Gear. Flanking him were two other soldiers, a femme fatale with ginger hair and brown eyes and that blonde soldier that Ackerman had spoken with a little back in their previous expedition, and in near perfect sync, the three of them boosted straight towards a charging Fourteen metre Titan.

Levi, being the most experienced of the three, was the fastest moving of the bunch, and with his impressive speed and agility, he found himself boosting past the Titan, with his small frame darting through the gap between its legs. The Titan had stopped briefly as it leaned down to attempt to grab Ackerman out of the air, though it was unable to do so.

Whilst it was still leaning downwards, the other two soldiers flanking Levi darted in and zeroed in on the achilles tendons of the Fifteen metre. Upon confirming that they would not miss, the two swung themselves in for the killing blow, and with a single swing of their blades, they slashed deep into the ankles of the Titan, causing it to fall forwards. It had managed to stop itself from falling flat on its face by holding its arms up, though that didn't stop Levi from swinging back around and launching himself up into the air, where he repositioned his body and launched his Maneuver Gear anchors towards the back of its neck.

What came next was near instantaneous. Levi reeled himself in with such speed that he had become nothing more than a blur in the eyes of his cohorts, and with a single, powerful swing of his blades, he had not only sliced into the Fifteen metre's nape, but he had also decapitated it. Landing on one knee as soon as he passed the Titan's neck, Ackerman remained silent as he watched the beast's head bounce to a stop in front of him, and thereafter, he swung his blade off to the side to rid it of the dissipating steam. Dramatic, sure, but even he needed to indulge himself in theatrics from time to time.

"Captain, we're pleased to report that we have taken out the last Titan within the vicinity. It would be in our best interest to support the other regions," reported the blonde soldier as he and the ginger landed close to their Captain, ignoring the dissipating Titan corpse all the while. At that, Levi nodded, with him seeming rather confused all the while, something that the ginger haired woman took note of.

"Is something wrong, sir?" inquired the young woman curiously, and somewhat worriedly, to which Levi shook his head.

"No, Petra. It's just that… there's less of them than I expected," admitted Levi flatly as he stared off into the distance. This felt rather odd, to say the least. Ackerman, despite being no expert on Titans, still knew enough about them to know that they would always attack the areas that were densely packed with humans, almost as though they were guided by a sixth sense of sorts.

This detail mattered a lot to him as Levi, alongside the squad he was working with, were defending a rather densely packed region of Shiganshina, specifically near the eastern ravine, which was the civilian evacuation point in the district. Ackerman himself led a team of twenty men and women, five Survey Corps and the rest being Garrison, and though their job was, thus far, not as intense as they had initially expected, they were still pushed to their limits and beyond in order to ensure the safety of the evacuating civilians.

Having lost three good soldiers at this point, Levi found his spirits slightly dampened by the fact that they had perished under his command, though, rather than be consumed by it, he made use of this anger to harden his resolve in delaying the Titan approach, if only by a little, as he led his men onwards, and, within the first few minutes of the Titan invasion, they had taken down at least twelve Titans, mostly via coordinated assaults, though some of them were taken down solo by Levi, which showed just how large the skill gap between him and everyone else really was.

At a certain point in time, however… the Titans suddenly just… stopped showing up. Or more specifically, there were less of them funneling in towards the eastern side of Shiganshina, which was rather odd, as Hanji, who despite her eccentricities was still considered to be an incredibly reliable source for all things Titan related, and several of her cohorts had suspected that the Titan onslaught would've been relentless. So to see it relent, if only by a little… was rather strange to Ackerman. Worrying, even.

"Now that you've mentioned it, sir… the Titan advance seems to be… slowing a little," muttered the blonde soldier as he stared to the side, where a Three metre Titan was taken down by a coordinated assault between three Garrison soldiers. Likewise, in the distance, a Thirteen metre could be seen crashing down onto its face as a close-by team, led by Hanji, eliminated it. As the two aforementioned Titans crashed down onto the ground, the blonde rubbed his chin as he wondered what was with the sudden decrease in Titan volume… not that he was going to complain about it, of course…

"Not that it's a bad thing, Eld. I'd rather not die out here today," commented the ginger haired woman, Petra Ral, as she smiled up at her comrade, Eld Gin, who rolled his eyes at her budding naivete as he nodded in mild agreement. He knew that the less Titans, the better… but at the same time, this didn't coincide with any of the behavioral patterns that were documented on them, and as such, it was a cause for concern.

"I know… but even so…" muttered Eld thoughtfully as he trailed off near the end of his sentence, with several possible scenarios bouncing around at the back of his head all the while. Before he could form a somewhat conclusive answer to his thoughts, however, everyone present found themselves gasping as the ground beneath them shook intensely, and as it did so, in the distance, a massive trail of smoke could be seen rising up into the air. "What the…"

"Cannon misfire, perhaps?" suggested Petra, just as optimistic as ever as she stared up (slightly) at Levi, who appeared mildly skeptical as he narrowed his eyes in focus.

"Unlikely. The cannons aren't aimed down at the district," rebutted Eld as he pointed up at the aforementioned cannons, and as he did so Petra blushed in embarrassment at being wrong whilst the blonde continued to speak. "Wasn't a purple flare shot up around that part of the district…?"

"Yes, it was," responded Levi almost immediately as he contemplated investigating the issue on his own, though alas, his duties as a soldier won out as he relented and waved his comrades off. "But it doesn't matter. Our job is to protect this point of the district, not to investigate a possible cannon misfire. Get back to your duties, both of you."

Ackerman's orders had left no room for argument, and as such, his comrades simply nodded and did as they were told, with the both Eld and Petra swinging off to assist the other teams that were probably struggling against the Titans. Levi was soon to follow them, though not before he turned back towards the source of the rising cloud of smoke and wondering…

Could it be responsible for causing that…?

Elsewhere, a few moments prior

"They're not that tough."

That was more or less the general consensus that hovered around Mikazuki's mind as he fought against these large human things, and by all means, he was doing quite a good job at it, something that was to be expected, considering how his Gundam quite literally outclassed these things in every way, shape and form.

With a quick jerk of the arm controllers, Mikazuki had Barbatos swing the Wrench Mace off to the side, sending it careening towards one of the large humanoids in the area. Unsurprisingly, the large human stood no chance against the mace as it was quite literally torn to shreds by it, with the portion that was struck, the upper torso and head, quite literally disappearing into a cloud of red mist after the Gundam had struck it.

Thereafter, the unit reversed the momentum of its swing before it brought the Wrench Mace up and over its head, and thereafter, it sent it barreling down towards a Five metre humanoid with reckless abandon. On impact, the humanoid was not only eviscerated, with it becoming nothing more than a dissolving red stain on the ground, but the concrete beneath it had caved in on itself, with the damage being so severe that spiderwebs of damage extended outwards for several metres without end.

Conversely, however, whilst the downwards swing was very much an impressive display of power on Barbatos' part, the attack had also left its Wrench Mace embedded into the ground. It took the unit quite a bit of effort to wiggle it free, though before it could do so, another giant humanoid rushed at it. This one was Fifteen metres tall and somewhat muscular, and though he doubted it, Mikazuki didn't wish to risk this possibly stronger humanoid damaging his Gundam, and as such, he turned to face it for now.

Right as it was about to reach it, the giant human raised its arm up to swing at the Gundam, prompting its pilot to respond by jerking back on its arm controllers, in turn making the unit jerk its entire body backwards, resulting in the giant humanoid's attack missing its intended target as it stumbled forwards from the apparent force behind its attack. Taking advantage of this, Mikazuki pushed down on one of the arm controllers within the cockpit, and as he did so, the Gundam brought its Longsword down onto the giant human's arm.

The sharpened edge of the Longsword sliced through the arm of the giant human like a hot knife through butter, and before long, the limb fell to the ground as the beast recoiled in apparent pain. Before it could stagger out of the Gundam's range, however, the unit brought its arm unit up and slammed the Longsword's pommel straight into the beast's face, and on impact, it caved in on itself rather severely, forcing it to fall onto its back shortly after.

Deeming it to be incapable of fighting back, or just dead as not many things could reasonably survive having their skulls caved in, Mikazuki turned his attention towards another group of giant humans slogging towards his unit. There were no fewer than three of them approaching his unit from that direction, and if he didn't have his Gundam to assist him, Augus reckoned that he'd be a little frightened by them. But as things were now, the boy simply huffed a little to himself in annoyance as he stepped down hard on the cockpit steppers.

As he did so, the thrusters and Land Boosters attached to his unit burst to life, boosting the Gundam onwards in the process. The unit charged straight towards the three large humanoids, with Mikazuki disregarding the Wrench Mace for now, as it brandished its Longsword, and as soon as it was within range, Barbatos raised its arms up and brought the edge of the weapon down onto the one closest to it, a Fifteen metre.

A single swing of the blade was more than enough to slice it in half, lengthways, and as the two halves of the beast fell onto the ground with equally disgusting plops, the Gundam slammed its foot into the ground, in turn halting the momentum built up in its charge, and turned to swing the Longsword at the other giant human in its way. This one stood at Thirteen metres and attempted block (either that or it was just trying to attack) the Gundam's sword swing, though it was all for naught as, with little to no issue, the sharpened edge of the weapon slashed through its arm and cleaved straight into the bottom of its chin, resulting in the front portion of its face being sliced straight off in the process.

The Thirteen metre, perhaps on instinct, brought both its hands up to its missing face and clawed at the exposed flesh beneath it, not that Mikazuki really cared much about it as he turned Barbatos' attention towards the last member of the pack, a Five metre humanoid, and simply aimed at its head with the unit's Autocannon. With a simple push of a button, a 170mm Gatling Round was send flying towards the Five metre's head, and as to be expected, the Autocannon round pierced its skull with very little issue, with the back of the monster's head exploding outwards as the bullet slammed into the ground behind it and carved a small crevice into the ground in the process.

As the headless body of the Five metre was sent soaring backwards from the impact, Mikazuki turned his unit's attention towards an approaching pack of large humanoids, all ranging from Five to Fourteen metres in height. Their eyes were all locked onto his Gundam as they approached it with wide grins on their face, but truth be told, outside of the instinctual sensation of unease that rippled through Augus' body at the sight of those inhuman grins, they didn't instill much in the way of fear into the pilot.

Without much care, Mikazuki pulled back on one of his unit's arm controllers, in turn causing Barbatos' Longsword wielding arm to be pulled back as well. And, after some quick aiming, assisted by his Gundam's on board targeting system and its Alaya-Vijnana system, Mikazuki jolted the arm controller forwards, in turn swinging the Gundam's Longsword wielding arm forwards with immense speed.

At the last possible second, Mikazuki loosened his grip on the innermost grip of the arm controller, and as he did so, the digits on Barbatos' manipulator loosened, in turn causing the unit to release its hold on its Longsword. Thereafter, the bladed weapon went soaring towards the group of large humans, and after a few milliseconds of travel time, it made contact with the small group of big humans.

The Longsword, having been thrown at an angle, ended up spinning after it was thrown, and as a result, it was able to cleave through more than one of those large humans before coming to a stop. The first to be struck by the blade was a Twelve metre humanoid, which suffered a (seemingly) fatal injury when the blade slashed its chest. A Ten and Nine metre were cut in half by the passing blade, and a Fourteen metre had the unfortunate luck of having the Longsword be embedded in its stomach, and the momentum that was behind the initial throw hit it at full force, sending it flying backwards with the force of a minor earthquake.

As luck would have it, the Fourteen metre that was stabbed had ended up flying into another large humanoid, a Twelve metre, that was lazily walking up from behind it, and on impact, the Twelve metre staggered backwards a fair bit before the Fourteen metre's body slid off it. Thereafter, it took a moment to regather its bearings as it turned back towards its target… and right as it did, its lifeless eyes remained unchanging as it saw that the Gundam was now mere metres away from it.

Not even a second later, Barbatos' arm unit sprung out towards it and clasped down onto the beast's skull with very little issue. Raising it up into the air, Mikazuki had his unit lift it upwards before it was slammed down into the ground, and on impact, a massive cloud of dust was ejected into the sky.

"Hmph…" was the only thing that Mikazuki had bothered to say at that point as he stood Barbatos up from within the cloud of dust that it had inadvertently created upon chokeslamming the giant human. Staring down at the radar, the boy found himself scoffing a little when he saw that the entire area was essentially cleared of giant humans at this point, though with that being said, there were still quite a few of them funneling in through the breach in the wall, something that made the pilot grimace a little in mild annoyance.

This was turning out to be a battle of attrition, one where quantity went up against quality, and by all means, though his Gundam held the upper hand against these big humans, there was only so much he could do until this battle grew too much for him. He couldn't spend the rest of his time fighting these things. He needed to find a way to get to a relatively safe area…

… he needed to get over that wall…

Just barging in wouldn't do him any good, that much was obvious. Though the wall was most certainly thick, Barbatos could still very well break into it with minimal issue. But he would not be getting any rest if he did that, mainly due to the fact that he would've caused another breach and also because these humans would have hunted him down to the ends of the world for trespassing.

Speaking of the humans, Mikazuki has encountered a good few of them during his rampage around the place. These aforementioned normal humans were rather interesting, Augus had to admit. They seemed to be part of a military brigade of sorts, with green jackets with varying emblems on their upper arms and backs. Their equipment was equally as interesting, twin boosters that fired out anchors that allowed them to swing through the air with incredible speed. The application of their equipment reminded Mikazuki quite a bit of Barbatos' Land Boosters, a thought backed up by the unit itself, who agreed with Augus' conclusion via a gentle 'nudge' through the Alaya-Vijnana system.

For the most part, the normal humans around here seemed to be incredibly fearful of him, even if some of them seemed rather awestruck by his unit. Some did attempt to attack the Gundam head on, having (somewhat rightfully) deemed it to be a threat to them, though those attempts almost always ended in failure as the unit could very easily outpace them. They were lucky that he wasn't as mindlessly bloodthirsty as these large humans were.

After a few brief encounters with these humans, however, they seemed to have chosen to avoid his unit outright, having deemed it to be too dangerous to get too close to, a notion that both pilot and Mobile Suit agreed upon. They did fire a purple signal flare into the sky before they stuck to observing his unit from afar, however, and even now, Mikazuki was unsure of what it meant exactly.

Before he could dwell too much on such menial topics, however…

BOOM!

Without warning, the sound of a heavy explosion rattled the entirety of Shiganshina, and in its wake, the key players of all sides were quick to turn towards the source of the explosion.

Their first response to the loud noise was to turn towards the source, with Mikazuki Augus turning his Gundam's head unit towards it with a confused expression whilst, on the opposite side of the district, the Survey Corps and Garrison widened their eyes in shock when they saw the smoke rising from the gates leading into Wall Maria.

"I wonder what happened there," muttered Mikazuki absentmindedly as he retrieved his unit's Longsword, with him having it pull it out of the back of the Titan's body with very little issue. He was surprised to see that, despite its rather severe injury, the beast was still alive, though he rectified it by stomping his unit's heeled foot down onto its head. On impact, its skull caved in on itself as the concrete beneath the unit's foot unit cracked significantly, though it didn't really bother Augus too much.

It wasn't as though this place was going to get a fixer upper anytime soon, after all.

Meanwhile, as Mikazuki considered investigating the source of the explosion, the soldier groups present in the eastern wing of the district gathered around to discuss their next course of action, and before long, they settled on sending their better soldiers to investigate the source of the explosion. It was a risky move, that much was obvious… but if that sound was caused by what they thought it was… things could turn bad very quickly.

Thankfully enough, however, the evacuation efforts were already nearing its conclusion, with over three-fourth of Shiganshina having been shipped out and into Maria by now. They needed only a few more precious minutes to wrap things up here, and as such, they could spare some of their men to investigate.

And as such, a small group led by Erwin Smith was dispatched to investigate the cause of the explosion. Levi Ackerman, Mike Zacharius, Hanji Zoe and Moblit Berner were amongst the few who followed him onwards, and as they swung from building to building, towards the gate to Maria, which was obscured by smoke, Moblit couldn't help but pale a little at the possible implications that all this held.

The rest of his team, however, kept their heads held high as they boosted through towards the gates to Maria, and as soon as they were close enough to it, they halted their approach and landed on a building that was situated close to the gates. Upon landing, Erwin found himself paling a little at what he saw before them, and though Levi would've usually taken this opportunity to throw a passive aggressive remark at him, even he was rendered speechless at the sight before them.

"How in the world…" muttered Levi, clearly shocked at what he was seeing as the rest of their team walked to their sides and took in the sight before them as well. Moblit looked rather close to a panic attack at this point as his legs threatened to give way beneath him, and likewise, Hanji paled immensely as the group watched the cloud of dust that clouded the gate of Maria from view settle.

And once it did… they saw that the gate of Maria… was completely gone. In its place was a new breach, one that was just as big as the one placed in Shiganshina… and upon seeing it, everyone present felt their hearts sink all at once as they realized what this meant.

They had lost an entire Wall to the Titans… and if the loss of Shiganshina hadn't struck a massive blow to mankind's side of this war, then the loss of Maria would very well have done so.

Whilst a good majority of the soldiers present remained slack jawed at the sight before them, however, Hanji found herself focusing just enough to take note of a figure behind the smoke that clouded most of the breach in Maria. A Titan, no doubt, one that was standing up from its formerly crouched position as it stood within the confines of the breached Wall. Upon seeing it, Zoe, at first, felt herself growing intrigued by the beast, with her identifying it as the Titan that had breached Maria in the first place. But within seconds, her intrigue was replaced with barely contained fury, anger at the one that was responsible for breaching the wall in the first place, and before anyone could even turn to look at her, the bespectacled woman, having acted on emotion rather than logic, leapt off the side of the building and began making her way towards the Titan.

"Captain!" exclaimed Moblit as, on instinct, he began to pursue his superior as well, and as he did so, Levi snapped out of his stupor and followed suit, with him grimacing about Hanji's rash decision making all the while. As for the rest of the squad, however, they remained behind, uncertain on what their next course of action should be as they watched the three boost off, though as they did so, Mike sniffed the air and grimaced at what he smelled.

"Have you anything to report, Mike?" inquired Erwin without even looking at his subordinate as he spoke, to which Zacharius nodded.

"It's a Titan… but at the same time, it smells different from one," commented Mike thoughtfully as Erwin nodded. They weren't dealing with a normal Titan, not by a longshot, and though it was rather hard to believe that a Titan, abnormal or not, could breach the wall, the events of the past twenty-four hours have shaken Erwin's belief in what was and was not a Titan, especially that lecture with Hanji in regards to that white and grey 'Mechanical Titan' and the alleged Sixty metre Titan that breached Shiganshina in the first place.

"I see. We'll provide support for Hanji, Moblit and Levi. Those that aren't confident in yourselves, fall back and report this to the higher ups. We need to begin the evacuation of Maria, ASAP," ordered Erwin, and at his command, more than half the team he was leading dispersed, leaving him with no more than ten soldiers present. He nodded towards them, a silent acknowledgement of their bravery, before he lunged off the edge of the building, leading the charge into battle all the while.

And as they charged onwards, Mike found himself sniffing the air once more… and not a moment later, he wondered why the smell of foreign metals and otherworldly gases lingered in the air…

"Captain, slow down, please!"

Moblit's pleas were, as per usual, completely ignored by Hanji Zoe as she bolted through the cloud of smoke, and as she darted in, she held onto her Anti-Titan blades tightly as she closed in on the Titan that had presumably caused the breach in the first place.

If she were not as pissed off as she was, Hanji reckoned that she would've been geeking out over it. This Titan, a Fifteen metre one, had a patch of silver hair atop its head and what appeared to be armour covering the length of its body. The concept of an armoured Titan tickled her inner Titan fangirl something fierce, but as things were now, she was too furious to acknowledge it.

Many of her compatriots saw Hanji as a goofball, someone who took things lightly at every turn, a person who was willing to compromise a mission just to satiate her perverse curiosity. And, while most of those claims were true, deep down, Zoe's reckless behaviour and commitment to Titan research was all done for the sake of her comrades.

She did truly care for them, and for each and every loss they sustained whilst out on an expedition, she would always blame herself for lacking the data required to save them. To her, the soldiers within the Survey Corps were her family, and she'd do her damndest to keep them safe.

And as such, when she acknowledged the fact that this Titan… this monster was the one responsible for the breach in Maria, the home of many Survey Corps that she knew by face, if not by name… well… to say that it pissed her off would be an understatement. So much was lost because of this accursed thing, and she was going to dig its grave, even if it was the last thing she did.

"Captain!" bellowed Moblit as he watched his superior swing in for a slash, aimed directly for the Titan's nape, and with a decisive swing, she swung both her blades right at it…

… and not even a moment later, she found herself landing on the ground not too far from where the… Armoured Titan stood, and as she landed in a crouch, she found her righteous anger swiftly being replaced by dread when she realized that both her blades had been snapped at their base after her attempt on the Titan's life had failed.

"Holy…" began Hanji, shocked at just how tough the Titan's natural armour was, though before she could fully process that thought, she had to snap out of it when she saw it pull its arm back to strike at her. With a gasp, she got up to her feet and launched her Maneuver Gear anchor towards a nearby tree, with her using it to propel herself forwards, just in time to avoid being crushed beneath the Titan's fist. It made an attempt to strike at her again, though before it could do so, from behind it, a projectile came soaring past its face, and as soon as it did, the aforementioned projectile exploded.

What followed next was a powerful flash of light, strong enough to temporarily blind the Armoured Titan as it recoiled in apparent pain, with both hands covering its eyes as it stumbled backwards. Hanji found herself blinking in surprise at first, though not a moment later, she found herself smiling a little when she saw Moblit holstering his Flare Gun.

"Captain! Are you alright?!" proclaimed Moblit in a panic as he swung down towards his superior, who blushed a little in embarrassment as she nodded, seeming rather grateful towards her assistant all the while.

"Yeah… I… may have gotten a little pissed off back there, though," apologised Hanji awkwardly as she stared at her assistant, who nodded in understanding as he allowed his shoulders to slacken a little, though before he could get too comfortable with their situation, the two of them perked up when they heard the Armoured Titan staggering towards them, prompting them to turn towards it and gasp when they saw that, whilst still blinded by the signal flare, the Titan was indeed stumbling towards them.

The two were able to get out of its way before it crushed them beneath its feet, however, and within moments, they found themselves latched onto the side of a sizable tree as they observed the Titan from afar.

"This one seems different," observed Hanji with a grimace, with her taking note of how fluid the Titan's movements were. Even when half blind, it moved with enough fluidity to make it almost indistinguishable from a regular human, and its posture was too similar to one as well. Moblit took note of this as well, prompting him to ask the question that they were both thinking of on impulse.

"Do you think it's related in any way to that Titan, Captain?" asked Moblit curiously, and though Hanji did seem to put some thought into his question, she ended up shaking her head.

"No… even if there are similarities, this one is still too… different in appearance for me to draw that conclusion. But one thing's for sure, it's dangerous…" responded Hanji, sounding rather serious for a change as she watched the Armoured Titanregain its vision, and upon doing so, it almost immediately turned to face the two soldiers, with its lifeless white eyes glaring daggers into both of them all the while. "... and it's probably mad at us."

And, right as those words left her lips, both Hanji and Moblit were forced to dodge as the Armoured Titanswung its fist at them. The tree that they were once latched onto was flattened by the Titan's attack, and the ensuing shockwave sent both soldiers spiraling through the air.

Whilst they recovered from their disorientated state, however, the Armoured Titan stood itself back up and got ready to turn towards Hanji for a third shot at her life. Before it could rear itself up to do so, however… the small yet imposing figure of Levi Ackerman appeared before its face, with his eyes burning with malicious intent as he pulled back on both his sword-wielding arms.

Narrowing his eyes as he closed in on the Titan, Levi grimaced and focused his upcoming swing on a small gap on the Armoured Titan's cheek, a tiny chink between its armour plating, and, thorugh a mixture of luck and skill, he was able to slash at it with his blades. The cut wasn't anything too deep or fatal, though it was still enough to disorientate it as it flinched and held a hand up to its new cut.

As it was distracted, Levi swung himself down to Hanji and landed without much issue. The bespectacled woman moved to greet her comrade with her usual smile, with her readying a thanks all the while, though before she should do so, Ackerman sheathed one of his blades before he jumped up and slapped Zoe over the head, nonverbally reprimanding her for her stupidity.

"Yeah… I deserve that one," lamented Hanji as she rubbed the back of her head awkwardly.

"And a lot more, but that's besides the point," mumbled Levi, with him grimacing as he turned back towards the Armoured Titan, which had turned towards the two and clenched its fists, seemingly ready for a tussle. Ackerman took note of this sign of aggression, and as he did so, he glanced at Hanji. "Anything you can gather from this one?"

As he asked, the Armoured Titan lunged at them and swung its fist in their direction, and on impact, a massive shockwave was created as a mixture of dust and dirt was launched into the air, though not long after, both Hanji and Levi leapt out of the aforementioned cloud, with their jumps being aided by their Maneuver Gear all the while. The former appeared a little worried at just how close they had come to dying whilst also growing more and more interested in the Armoured Titan's uniqueness whilst the latter didn't seem to care at all.

"It's smart! Almost human level, almost!" responded Hanji, almost nonchalantly as she fired her Maneuver Gear anchors towards the Armoured Titan's shoulder. One of her anchors failed to grapple on, with it instead bouncing off the armour plating, whilst the other managed to snag onto it, albeit barely, allowing her to yank herself towards it with very little issue. Likewise, Levi fired his anchors towards the Titan's forehead, with him using it as leverage to launch himself up and over its head all the while. "The armour is tough, strong enough to break our blades if we try to attack it! But there's clearly gaps in the armour! Its elbows, knees, ankles, wrists, shoulders and hips are the key points to target!"

"Thanks for stating the obvious, Hanji," drawled Levi as the two of them launched themselves behind the Armoured Titan's back, and as they did so, the aforementioned Titan snarled beneath the plating that shielded its mouth from view as it turned on a dime to launch its fist at either one of the soldiers. As luck would have it, Levi was the one being targeted, though he remained uncaring as he narrowed his eyes in focus.

His narrowed eyes quickly widened as the fist drew within two metres from him, and in response to its approach, the Elite twisted his body in mid air, with him arching his back as the punch approached him. The result of this was the Armoured Titan's fist just narrowly missing him, with it coming close enough for Ackerman to feel its knuckles brush against the back of his jacket, though before the Titan could even acknowledge that its attack had missed, Levi grimaced and began rolling down the length of the Titan's outstretched arm.

He rolled down the length of its arm until he had reached its elbow, where he righted himself back up once more before he kicked off it, jumping past the Armoured Titan's head all the while. And, for the briefest of moments, the Elite soldier made eye contact with the Titan, whose armoured eyes widened a little in shock at the speed and agility put on display by the soldier. Ackerman, on the other hand, remained completely neutral as he zipped past its head, and before he could land on the ground, he forced his entire body to turn in mid air before he fired off both his Maneuver Gear anchors.

Both anchors were able to latch themselves onto the Armoured Titan's back, and with a simple push of a button, Levi began to reel himself in. His target was the Titan's nape, and though the armour plating covering it was no doubt incredibly powerful, Ackerman had faith in his abilities, so much so that he swung his blades towards it without any hesitation whatsoever.

And on impact, they shattered. Levi's blades cracked on all their seams as the Elite swung at the Armoured Titan's nape with all that he had… and at the same time, two incredibly deep cuts appeared on the armour plating covering its weak point. By all means, Ackerman, despite having lost both his blades in his attack, had sliced deep enough to reach its flesh, as evident by the drops of red that were falling from beneath the armour plating, though it wasn't enough to bring the Titan down, as evident by how it growled and staggered forwards in surprise.

Before it could recover from its stagger, however, Hanji swooped in and followed up on Levi's initial attack by striking at the Titan's knee. Her attack didn't connect entirely, as the base of her blade ended up bouncing off a small plate of armour, though it was enough to make the Titan stagger a little more, and likewise, Moblit, who was unsure on how to assist in combat, fired off three flares in rapid succession, with the first being another Flash Flare that temporarily blinded the Armoured Titan whilst the other two were fired from two different Flare Guns, with their colours being Black and Purple, respectively.

As the flares rose into the air, and as the Armoured Titan recovered from its second bout of blindness, the rest of Levi, Hanji and Moblit's team arrived on the scene, with Erwin leading the charge in all the while. The blonde's eyes widened in shock as they saw what their comrades were going up against, though that shock was quickly replaced with conviction as the Senior soldier motioned for his men to split up.

"Spread out and observe that Titan from all sides. If an opening presents itself, then strike. Aim to kill or to weaken it enough for potential capture!" ordered the blonde senior as they boosted onwards, and at that, everyone present nodded and did as they were instructed to, with Mike remaining by Erwin's side as they headed onwards. "Mike, is there anything you'd like to tell me?"

"This one smells putrid," was the only thing Mike offered as he narrowed his eyes at the Titan in disgust. That wasn't a good sign. Zacharius only ever used that word to describe those whom he thought to be irredeemably evil, things that had to be killed, no matter the cost. To him, Titans always smelled disgusting, but that was always the end of the story. Nothing ever smelled putrid to him… not until now…

"Understood. We'll take it down."

Moblit was, for the lack of a better term, scared.

Granted, that was usually his neutral state of being, but that emotion had been heightened significantly at this point in time. He was worried for the sake of his Captain, he was horrified of what this Armoured Titan could do, he was unsure on how he could properly support his team… and he was also hoping that he had enough Flash Flares in stock to blind the Titan enough times to keep it from focusing too heavily on any of his allies.

Simply put, this was all a nightmare for him, one that he readily took on as he grimaced and launched himself up into the air. As he did so, the Armoured Titan seemed to shrug off its temporary blindness as its eyes refocused on the soldiers that now surrounded it, and as it did so, Moblit loaded his Flare Gun and took aim with it.

Rather unfortunately for him, however, the mild click of his Flare Gun didn't exactly go unnoticed by the Armoured Titan, as it turned towards him after he had loaded it in. Its glassy, lifeless eyes bored straight into Berner's soul as it grimaced at him from behind its mouthplate, and in an instant, it made an attempt to swing its fist at the soldier, who gasped at its unexpected agility.

Just barely, Moblit was able to evade the strike, even if it did come close enough to knock against one of his Maneuver Gear holsters. In his panic, however, he had inadvertently dropped his flare gun, prompting him to grimace a little as he pulled a spare from inside his jacket. Silently, he was thankful for having the foresight to always carry two of these after being Hanji's assistant for so long, though outwardly, he simply grimaced as he fired a Black Flare at the Armoured Titan's face.

The flare smacked its forehead before the black smoke began to surround its head, obscuring its vision as it recoiled and swung its arms around to try and disperse the smoke. As it did so, however, the other soldiers present swooped in to strike at it. They were unaware of the Titan's armoured nature, however, and as such, a good majority of their blades had shattered on impact, save for Mike, whose sensitive nose allowed him to pick up on the fact that the Titan's outer shell was close to impervious, and he was able to slice at the back of its knee, giving it a deep cut that forced it down to one knee with a snarl.

Whilst it was briefly incapacitated, a blonde soldier, Eld Gin, swooped in and made an attempt to strike at the Titan's nape, though much to his shock, his blades broke on impact, prompting him to kick off the Titan's back and circle it with a grimace.

"What in the world is this thing even made of…" questioned Eld, stupefied at just how resilient the Titan's outer shell was as he stared down at it.

"It seems to be an incredibly hard variant of keratin! Like our nails, for instance! It's very much possible that its 'armour' is just multiple layers of fingernails stacked on top of each other to provide protection!"

"Gah! Hanji?!" proclaimed Eld, having been taken off guard by the aforementioned woman's sudden appearance behind him as he turned to face her, and at that, she blushed and giggled in spite of their situation.

"Sorry! But seriously, aim for the gaps between its joints. Certain areas have some gaps in them as well, but it's not recommended for you to strike there unless you're a hundred percent confident with your abilities," advised Hanji, with her tone of voice shifting from jovially playful to dead serious in the blink of an eye. Eld found himself sweat dropping at how abruptly her attitude could change on a dime, though regardless, he got over it relatively quickly as he nodded and boosted back into the fray (after replacing his broken blades of course).

This time, Gin targeted the ankles of the Titan, with him gritting his teeth as he attempted to slice its achilles tendon. However, due to how erratically the Armoured Titan was moving due to being surrounded, his strike missed by a millimeter, with it instead rebounding off the edge of an armour plate rather than slicing into its flesh. Eld grimaced at this as he swung himself up in the air for another shot at the Titan, though right as he did so, he heard a disgusting splattering noise, and with it, he turned to see that the Armoured Titan's fist was raised, and it was balled up in mid air.

Drops of blood could be seen dripping down from within its balled up fist, and when it unraveled its fingers, Eld, and a few others, could only watch on in shock as the body of one of their comrades fell onto the ground, lifeless. Her Maneuver Gear had been crushed and her body mangled beyond comprehension, leaving her as a sight too gruesome for any of them to behold.

In a rage, another soldier attempted to strike at the Titan, though whilst blinded by anger, they only managed to fly face first into the Titan's palm as it swung it at them. On impact, they splattered against it, having been turned into nothing more than a red stain on the Armoured Titan's palm, before they were thrown to the ground, discarded like a piece of trash.

"Why you…!" proclaimed a voice that Eld recognised as belonging to Petra Ral, prompting him to turn towards the source with widened eyes, just in time to see the aforementioned woman boosting towards the Armoured Titan top speed from behind. Her usually gentle eyes carried behind them no small amount of rage as she did so, with her conviction having been brought about by the deaths of her two comrades, and once she was close enough, she fired off both of her Maneuver Gear anchors towards the back of the Titan's neck…

… though before either anchor could latch on or bounce off the armour, the Armoured Titan, in an absurd display of speed and agility, spun around to face Petra. Her once narrowed eyes widened in shock as she watched it grab onto her anchors with one of its hands before pulling her towards it, and, in a spur of the moment decision, Ral grimaced and severed both her Maneuver Gear wires with one of her Anti-Titan blades.

The result of this rather reckless act was her being sent flying out of control through the air, with her soaring up above even the Titan's head, as she widened her eyes in shock. At this height, a fall would more than likely be fatal for her, with the best possible outcome being her dying on impact whilst the worst was her breaking everything in her body on impact.

Luckily enough for her, however, her fellow soldiers didn't seem keen on allowing her to die or become a vegetable just yet as, right as she was launched into the air, Moblit was able to load a Flash Flare into his spare Flare Gun and fired it at the Armoured Titan. The Titan was able to see it coming, however, as the Flare Gun discharge wasn't exactly silent, but as it raised its arm to shield its eyes from the flash, Levi took this opportunity to fire his Maneuver Gear anchors towards the Titan's outstretched arm and used it as leverage to swing himself up to Petra.

With a combination of ungodly luck, incredible skill and the precision that only an Elite like Levi could achieve, Ackerman was able to snatch Petra out of the air before she could even begin to tumble to an unsavoury death. Granted, it was rather embarrassing for the two of them as the diminutive soldier had to grab her in a princess carry, though it was better than nothing…

… or so they thought, as, right as the Elite was about to try and slow their descent, the Armoured Titan spotted the two of them and began to rear its fist back to strike them down. Both Petra and Levi widened their eyes at this, and likewise, the other soldiers present all moved to assist them before they could become nothing more than twin stains on the Titan's fist, though it was rather obvious to everyone present that they wouldn't make it in time.

And then… Hanji's ears perked up as she took note of the somewhat familiar sound of thrusters in the distance, and likewise, Mike's nose scrunched up as he picked up on the scent of an otherworldly metal.

Not a moment later, everyone was thrown backwards…

… and without any shred of hesitation, Mikazuki jolted one of Barbatos' arm units forwards and slammed the snout of the Wrench Mace into the side of the large Armoured Human's waist, sending it flying all the while.

Aside from the sound of that big armoured thing falling to the ground in a roll, things were utterly silent, with the Gundam remaining in an offensive stance whilst it lowered its Wrench Mace in silence. As it did so, however, Mikazuki took note of how there were people surrounding him. He didn't recognise most of them, though he did notice the mildly familiar face of that bespectacled woman standing on the ground, staring up at his unit in awe.

"..."

Embarrassingly, Mikazuki had not noticed the normal humans standing around until now. When he had moved to investigate the hole in the wall, the first thing that the sensors and radars picked up were that big armoured humanoid standing behind all that smoke, and as such, Augus had lashed out and attacked it without any hesitation. He had no stakes in whatever battle was going on between the normal and large humans, but after seeing what the latter were capable of, he found it best to eliminate them whenever possible.

After he had smashed into the thing with the force of a meteor impact, however, Barbatos' more sensitive scanners alerted him to the normal humans that were present, and it was then when he acknowledged the fact that he was surrounded. Not that it really mattered, of course, but even so… things had the possibility of going wrong at any given time, and even if the chances of him being taken in were incredibly low, Mika really didn't want to take any chances…

… and whilst the pilot remained in his cockpit, wondering what his next course of action should be, Hanji Zoe found herself squealing in delight as she stared up at it in shock and awe.

"Oh my god! It… it's that Titan!" proclaimed Hanji with glee as she and the rest of her team stared up at the 'Titan' with their eyes wide and mouths agape. The only ones that didn't seem too worried about its presence were Hanji, Levi and Moblit, even if that last one was visibly shaking, and though they were less on edge than the others, Erwin and Mike seemed rather… unsettled by the presence of the thing as it remained motionless.

"W-What the fuck is this…?" muttered a soldier that stood close to where Eld was. Tanned skin and with a hairstyle that curved up into a tip, the blonde recognised him as Gunther Schultz, and in response to his question, he simply shook his head.

"I… I don't know," muttered Eld as he kept his gaze glued onto the massive machine's chassis, though shortly thereafter, he turned away from it when he heard the Armoured Titan stir. Shockingly enough, it had survived its launch via the other 'Titan's' Wrench Mace and was getting back up to its feet, seemingly ready to combat it despite it being heavily outclassed. Its hands were balled into fists as it assumed a defensive stance.

And in response to its challenge, Gundam Barbatos simply pointed its Longsword at the Armoured Titan, issuing it a challenge as it stared it down, one that was met when the much shorter Titan charged at it. Raising its fist up, it made a gambit at the exposed waist of the unit, with it intending on immobilizing it via its weakest point.

What it didn't account for, however, was for the unit to respond to its attempt with lightning fast reflexes.

Within the blink of an eye, and before the Armoured Titan could even grab onto one of the unit's waist pistons, Barbatos slashed at its arm with its Longsword, with the absurdly sharp edge of the weapon slashing through the beast's armour with very little issue. Thereafter, the Armoured Titan's eyes widened behind their protective membrane as it watched its severed limb fall to the ground, and likewise, the soldiers present all appeared beyond shocked to see such a thing happen.

And as for Mikazuki Augus, he simply snorted as he had Barbatos lift the Wrench Mace up and slam it into the Armoured Titan's torso. The jaws of the weapon held it tightly, even as the Titan attempted to free itself from its grasp, and as soon as it clamped down on it, the Gundam forced its much shorter opponent onto the ground as the weapon's internal chainsaw mechanism roared to life, with the serrated teeth of the hidden blade slicing into the Titan's armour all the while.

It took all of five seconds for the chainsaw to bypass the Titan's armour, and not even a moment later, the sound of flesh being torn asunder could be heard as the chainsaw ripped into the Armoured Titan's flesh. The beast roared in pain as it attempted to free itself, but it didn't get far before it was split in two by the chainsaw.

The fact that the Titan was still alive, even after having been bisected, should've been a surprise to Mikazuki, but after killing so many of these things, he couldn't bother to act surprised in the slightest. Instead, he simply frowned as he watched the thing attempt to get away by crawling backwards, away from Barbatos, with its one remaining arm, an attempt that was thwarted when the unit raised its leg unit up and slammed it down onto the Titan's arm. The unit's heel crushed the Titan's forearm beneath it as it roared out in pain, and shortly thereafter, the thing was silenced when Barbatos slammed its other foot unit down onto its skull, presumably killing it in the process.

And then… things became silent.

The soldiers present couldn't comprehend what they had just seen.

The Armoured Titan had been a ferocious opponent. It took down two of their own within the blink of an eye and posed a big enough threat to some of their best, so much so that Levi was almost killed in action alongside Petra.

And yet… here this thing was, this… 'Titan', a Titan amongst Titans no less, which had killed it in less than a minute. It wasn't even a battle… it was a one sided slaughter. It had torn the Armoured Titan apart in record time, and if that was anything to go by, then if it were to attack them next, they'd stand little to no chance against it.

So with all that in mind, it was rather understandable to see all of them, aside from a few individuals, flinch when the 'Titan' abruptly turned to face them with its cold, unblinking green eyes. Its face was unreadable, with its 'mouth' etched into a permanent frown, and though it appeared… damaged, the display they had just witnessed told everyone present that, if it wanted to, it could kill all of them within a moment's notice.

But even so… rather than engage the soldiers in battle, the 'Titan' simply released a cloud of steam from the vents that lined its body, with it coming out so intensely that it nearly knocked some of the soldiers onto their rears whilst temporarily blinding the others, and whilst it was still cloaked in steam, the strange devices attached to its hips and legs roared to life, emitting blue flames all the while.

The soldiers present gasped as the blue flames threatened to send them flying off their feet, though Hanji, being who she was, was able to resist the kickback as she remained rooted to the spot with a frown on her face, and she was able to watch as the 'Titan' began to hover backwards, deeper into the confines of Maria, as the rest of her team recovered from that blast of steam. Once they did so, the soldier she knew as Eld stepped forward, eyes wide and mouth agape.

"After it!" proclaimed Eld on instinct as he feared for the lives of the civilians within Maria, though before any of them could follow through with that order, Erwin stepped forward and stopped them.

"No. While it does pose a threat for now, we must still focus on the bigger picture, all of you. We must assist in the evacuation of Maria before we pursue the Titan, and, if at all possible, we must either kill or capture it," spoke Erwin, with his tone of voice offering no room for argument as he spoke. Everyone present seemed skeptical at first, especially Hanji as she glanced over at Smith, though he was quick to offer her a swift blink disguised as him having an itchy eye, and at that, she seemed to get what he was trying to say, prompting her to nod a little as he continued to speak.

"Those who are unable to fight, retreat for now and assist in the evacuation efforts thereafter. As for those who still have some fight left in them, go and gather up as many troops as you can and evacuate the closest villages and towns. We have a job to do, am I understood?!"

"YES SIR!"

And even as he boosted away within his Gundam's cockpit, Mikazuki couldn't help but scoff a little as he offered that heavily eyebrows blonde man a quick glance before he turned his unit's head back towards the path ahead.

'He's not that bad of a leader.'