Mikazuki could admit to being adaptable when in combat.

He's been in many situations where he had to improvise, and making shit up on the fly was usually how most large scale battles ended up as the battlefield tended to be incredibly chaotic. Nothing could ever be relied upon to stay consistent when in combat, after all.

With that being said however, Mikazuki couldn't exactly find himself getting used to having Bertholdt Hoover, of all people, within the cockpit alongside him. It was a situation that took some time to get used to, but all the same, and much to his relief, Bertholdt had not sat on his lap like one would expect. Rather, he stood near the back of the cockpit, squeezing himself into the cramped segment next to the cockpit chair, as he watched Mika pilot his unit.

He didn't look comfortable in the slightest, though he never did voice that out as he watched Mikazuki pilot his Mobile Suit with a curious look in his eyes, with him knowing that this was probably the best, and the safest, option he had at survival for the time being.

"It must be rather difficult to control Barbatos, huh?" observed Bertholdt as he held on for dear life as the unit veered to the left and then back to the right to cleave a Fifteen metre in half with its Longsword, and by the time both halves of the aforementioned Titan had fallen to the ground, the Gundam was already half a kilometer away from it.

"It's not too difficult. Barbatos always tells me what to do, especially if I do something wrong," responded Mikazuki flatly as he kept his attention on the optic-to-cockpit interface of his unit, where he took note of another purple flare being shot into the air as he boosted onwards, a sight that really ticked him off as he kicked down harder on the leg steppers for his unit, something that increased his Gundam's speed by a good five percent, causing Bertholdt to jolt back a fair bit as it accelerated.

"Gah! What do you mean it tells you what to do?" asked Bertholdt awkwardly as he regained his marbles, eliciting a raised brow from the pilot as he leaned forwards to push the arm controller units forward as well. As he did so, he made his Alaya-Vijnana visible to Hoover, who paled a fair bit at the sight of the tube that connected the pilot to his Gundam. "F-Forget I asked."

"Already done."

The pilot didn't state it outright, but at the same time, it was fairly obvious what he meant with this statement. Similar to how Eren controlled his Titan form, Mikazuki controlled Barbatos as though it were an extension of himself, albeit with much more efficiency and power. That thought in of itself was more than enough to make the tall guy shudder as he acknowledged just how much damage both the Gundam and its pilot could dish out if given the chance, especially with just how connected they were beyond surface level.

Rather quickly, however, Bertholdt snapped himself out of his brief, trance like state when Mikazuki had Barbatos jerk it's one of its arm units upwards, in turn uppercutting a Twelve metre Titan high up into the air with its Wrench Mace all the while. Shockingly enough, the Titan had not been killed by the initial impact and was now flailing its arms about as it descended, and in response to this, Mika raised one of his unit's legs up and, when it was within range, he launched it forwards, kicking the falling Titan in the back of its spine all the while.

Berdholdt winced a fair bit as he watched the Titan's torso quite literally disintegrate as the Gundam's foot came into contact with it, and shortly thereafter, the unit stomped its foot unit back onto the ground as Mikazuki tapped the cockpit monitor several times over. Bertholdt had no idea what the guy was inputting into the unit's mainframe, though he opted not to ask about it specifically as the pilot flicked the screen to the left and brought up the on board radar.

"Not too many Titans around here… but there's a lot of them gathered close to the ambush point," muttered Mikazuki, who had, with help from his unit via the Alaya-Vijnana system, recalibrated Barbatos' radar to visualize a much wider radius as he stepped down on the leg steppers, causing his Gundam to boost onwards all the while. Bertholdt didn't know of this, however, as he raised a brow and peered down through the optic-to-cockpit monitor of the Gundam.

"Ambush…?" echoed Bertholdt curiously, causing Mikazuki to realize that he had said that part out loud without wishing for it, prompting him to add on with a scowl.

"It's nothing," assured Mikazuki, more or less lying through his teeth as he spoke. Bertholdt didn't seem too convinced, though he knew better than to grill Mika for info. The last time someone tried that, they ended up in an involuntary, three day long nap!

"I… alright then… say, just out of curiosity, is there a way for anyone that… isn't you to use this Gundam?" asked Bertholdt, sounding genuinely curious as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, to which Mikazuki huffed in amusement. Such a strange, and honestly unnecessary, question, one that he had already answered back at that courtroom all those months prior… but even so, it wouldn't hurt to assure the guy that he hadn't been lying back there, he supposed. He was rather jumpy, after all, and he'd probably get paranoid over the unit being stolen if he didn't confirm this, one way or another.

"No. I didn't lie when I said that I was the only one that could pilot Barbatos, Bertholdt," assured Mikazuki noncommittally as he glanced back at the aforementioned junior, who seemed mildly relieved at this thought as his hand rested atop the handle of one of his sheathed Anti-Titan Blades. "The key to Barbatos is something that only I have… if I die, Barbatos will die with me."

"Oh… I see. Well then, I guess it's important for us to keep you alive, huh?" commented Hoover as he tightened his grip on his Anti-Titan blade handle briefly, only to loosen it after a brief few seconds as he leaned forwards to look the pilot in the eye. Vice versa, however, Mikazuki narrowed his own at Bertholdt as he resisted the urge to grimace at him. Him reaching for his blades was a motion that was not lost to him, but even so, he attributed it more to Bert's jumpiness more than anything.

The guy was a bundle of nerves, after all, and even the smallest of things could set him off. For all he knew, Bertholdt had probably seen a Titan out of the corner of his unit's optics and gotten antsy for the briefest of moments…

"I guess," responded Mikazuki as he dismissed Bertholdt's behavior as nothing more than a mild bit of anxiety on the latter's part, with him checking the fuel left in the Land Boosters all the while.

Thanks to some effort on both Mikazuki and Hanji's part, the Survey Corps were able to refuel Barbatos, albeit not perfectly. The difference in fuel quality between that of this world's and that of Earth or even Mars was evident, seeing as how the initially 100% fuel meter was already down to a 62% in such a short amount of time; Barbatos had stated that, were they using some of the higher quality fuels of Earth or Mars, the unit would have been running at 80% at minimum, and likewise, there was a noticeable drop in speed when the unit was boosting onwards, propelled by this new thrust. Not totally detrimental, but still noticeable enough that Mika found it annoying.

Sometimes (read: a lot of times), he wished that he was back in his home proper… though he didn't dwell on that for now as he turned back to the issue at hand. He had to act fast before more of the formation was torn to shreds by the Female Titan's rampage, and with a mild grimace, the pilot stepped down, hard, on the accelerators of his unit, blasting the thrusters at maximum strength all the while. The unit blurred a little as it shot forwards like a bullet, and the only thing that kept both Mikazuki and Bertholdt from being turned to paste via the G-Force were the dampers within the cockpit and their own resilience.

And evidently enough, Mikazuki was much more resilient than Bertholdt, as the latter was thrown back quite a bit by the sudden acceleration… though then again, the tall guy was standing whilst the shorter one was sitting.

"..."

'Do pilot privileges even exist?'

"...!"

'Sure.'

Elsewhere

The sound of the inbound Titan's footfalls were the first indication to Team Levi that their prey was well within a hundred metre radius from them, and though they had psyched themselves up for this very moment, none of them could attest to being calm about this situation as they rode onwards, with Levi himself appearing the calmest of the bunch as he led the charge, though that in itself came as no surprise to anyone.

Less than fifty metres away from their current position, Team Mike and Research Team Hanji were both watching their rear, ready to intervene should the Female Titan get too close to them for comfort, but at the same time, in order for this plan of theirs to work, they would have to hang back unless absolutely necessary. With the failure of Mikazuki and Barbatos in stopping the Titan's advance, everything now rested upon the shoulders of Team Levi to lure their target to the ambush point, and though the soldiers were mostly confident in their abilities, they still had to admit that the pressure being put on them did form multiple pits in their stomachs.

Eren especially, as he was the youngest soldier present. He had no idea how to work under pressure as intense as this, and as he rode onwards, with the sound of the Female Titan's encroaching footfalls growing louder and louder by the second, the young man began breathing in and out heavily as he realized what his failure would entail. Not only would he die for nothing, but hundreds of soldiers' sacrifices would've been for naught. He had to see this through, he had to ensure the completion of this plan of theirs!

Evidently enough, Eren's breathing had been a little more intense than even he could comprehend, as, after a few seconds of heavy breathing, Eld called out to him and held a hand up to give him some orders. The blonde senior motioned for Eren to focus on him at the moment, a sentiment that was fine for now, as they were riding down a straight path, so Levi did not ask for him to stop.

"Eren Jaeger, focus! Breathe! In, one two three, out, one two three. In, one two three, out, one two three," instructed Eld as gently as he could in their current situation as he stared at Eren reassuringly, and to that, Jaeger did as he was told, with him working on his breathing to calm himself down all the while. He took five breaths in tandem with his superior's instructions before his heart rate finally calmed itself down a tad, and at that, he nodded in appreciation to his senior, who grinned a fair bit at this. "Don't forget, kid, a nervous soldier is a clumsy one, and by all means, a clumsy soldier is just as good as a dead one. Try practicing those breathing techniques to keep yourself calm, or at least as calm as you can get in that situation, when we get back to Karanse, you got it?"

"... you're confident about us all going home, aren't you?" muttered Eren, with him almost smiling as he acknowledged Eld's optimism, something that seemed out of place in their bleak situation, though it was still better than being pessimistic about the whole ordeal, he supposed.

"Confidence in oneself, in one's allies and in the outcome of an Expedition is something that the best of the best need in order to survive. I have faith in our coordination, in our Commander's plan, and in Captain Levi's leadership, and as such, I have faith in us returning to Karanse. Together," answered Eld as optimistically as he possibly could, to which Jaeger smiled just a bit, and likewise, Petra and Gunther smiled as well, with the former finding the blonde's optimism to be contagious whilst the latter simply shook his head as he acknowledged the faith that the blonde had put in all of them at this point.

Oruo, on the other hand, simply snorted and chose to not share what he had in mind in regards to Eld's optimism, though he did at least appreciate the sentiment in the guy's words. Trying to raise morale was always appreciated, after all.

Meanwhile, Levi… well, he didn't really react to Eld's assurances that much, though with that being said, the very edge of his mouth did twitch upwards a fair bit as he acknowledged the sentiment behind his words. The guy would make a fine replacement for him, should he ever fall in combat, Ackerman thought, though for now, he dismissed that grim notion as he shook his head and refocused on the path ahead of them, with his gaze darkening a little when he noticed how the footfalls were drawing closer and closer.

And before long, the sound of a Maneuver Gear boosting into the fray could be heard as a single soldier swung out of the foliage behind them, with them flailing their arms about intensely as they did so. Crying out in terror, the soldier caught the attention of several others, including Team Levi, who, sans Levi himself, turned to glance over at them, and for the briefest of moments, their gaze locked onto the Eren's specifically as they widened their eyes in panic…

… and not long after, a massive hand burst out of the trees behind the soldier, swiping at their body with the force of a tidal wave and reducing them to nothing more than a fine red mist. Their scream of terror had been cut off as this happened, and as soon as they were killed, the owner of the hand that had killed them, the Female Titan, jumped into view, startling Team Levi as they gasped and pressed their horses to pick up the pace.

"No…" muttered Gunther as he watched their fellow soldier die at the hands of the Titan, though his initial shock was quickly replaced with a massive surge of adrenaline as he realized that their target was now in range, and at that, Levi, rather flatly considering their current situation, issued a simple order.

"Faster," ordered Levi as he and his soldiers pressed onwards. They were less than a kilometer from the ambush point, and if they pushed on hard enough, they could make it there before being trampled… something that was much easier said than done as the Female Titan lunged at them, with its hand reaching for Eren all the while. The young man gasped in shock as the hand just narrowly missed him, though thereafter, he recovered from his terror rather quickly as he continued riding onwards.

"It's faster than I expected!" admitted Oruo as he pressed his horse to pick up the pace, which it did, though just not fast enough to really make a difference as the Female Titan continued to gain on them, and rather foolishly, Bazard chanced a glance back at the Titan to see how far it was away from them, only to wince when he saw that its cold blue eyes, or eye as only its left eye was visible at the moment, remained locked directly onto them as it pursued. Its lips were curved into an excited smile as it sprinted onwards, a smile that was too human to be on a Titan's face, he decided.

Before it could gain too much ground, however, reinforcements came in the form of two separate soldiers boosting in. Petra and Eren took notice of their approach as they turned to acknowledge them, and they watched on in hopeful silence, praying that they could catch the Female Titan off guard and deliver a crippling blow to it.

One of the two soldiers fired his anchors towards the back of the Titan's nape, fully intent on bringing it down right there and then in one fell swoop as it did so. However, before the shot could connect, the Titan jerked its body to the side, avoiding the shot entirely, before bringing its arm forwards to grab onto the wire. The soldier barely had enough time to react to this as the Female Titan yanked him forwards before crushing his body against a tree with its shoulder, turning him into nothing more than a red smear on its side in the process.

As for the other soldier, she widened her eyes in shock at the fate of her fellow man as she boosted past the Female Titan's body, though as she did so, one of her anchors failed to retract fully, and as a result, the Titan in question was able to grasp onto it and use it to yank her back towards itself. The young woman didn't even have time to scream as her entire body was met with the knuckles of the Female Titan, eviscerating her in one fell swoop.

"Tsk! Bastard…!" snarled Oruo, with him widening his eyes at just how quickly their support had been taken out as he rode onwards. "Oi, how much more ground do we have to cover?!"

"I don't know! Just keep riding!" responded Eld direly as the Female Titan gained on them. In a rather literal sense, it felt as though they were fleeing from Death itself as they rode onwards, and as each second passed, the swing of the reaper's scythe came closer and closer to the necks of Team Levi as they desperately tried to increase the ground between them.

Whilst the Female Titan was indeed tenacious in its pursuit of Squad Levi, the aforementioned group was just as determined, if not even more so, at fleeing from it. Whenever the Female Titan got close enough to execute a possibly fatal attack on the Squad, they would be saved by the timely arrival of a fellow Survey Corp or two, who would sacrifice themselves in order to allow for the team to increase the distance between themselves and their pursuer. They would've been lying if they claimed not to be distraught by the mere concept of them using their fellow soldiers as living roadblocks… but at the same time, they had no other choice if they wished to see the success of this mission.

With each death that came, however, Eren found himself grimacing deeply as the urge to simply transform and face off against the Female Titan intensified with each passing second. He knew that he had the power to, at the very least, delay the Titan's approach, but at the same time… he had direct orders not to do so…

The scream of another soldier, followed by another and another, however, was slowly but surely weighing down upon Eren's mind, and as the seconds ticked by, the Titan Shifter felt the urge to transform grow evermore. Why wasn't he doing anything? Why wasn't he ordered to do anything?! He had the power to stop all this pointless death, didn't he? So why-

Eren was rather quickly brought out of his thoughts, however, when he heard Petra screaming in terror, prompting him to turn and just in time to see the Female Titan lunging at the group with malicious intent. Its hand was outstretched and aimed directly at Jaeger all the while, and the manic look in its eye told him that it was elated to have him so close to it. However, before it could wrap its fingers around his body, a Survey Corp, out of sheer commitment to their mission, cried out in determination as he barreled onto the scene.

"NO YOU DON'T!" cried the soldier as he swung in and tackled the Female Titan's hand with his body, effectively stopping it from seizing Eren all the while. As he did so, he stabbed his Anti-Titan Blades into the Titan's palm, sinking them deep into it, before he kicked off its hand in order to swing to safety, though before he could do so, the Female Titan slapped its hand down onto his body, flattening him against the ground all the while.

"NO!" cried Eren mere moments before the man had been flattened, with his eyes widened to their limits all the while. Not a second after, the Female Titan squashed the man beneath its palm like a bug, and after scraping the blood off its hand, it wasted no time in leaping back up to its feet and resuming its pursuit. "No… that man… h-he…"

"He knew the risks, and he placed his life on the line regardless! Don't let his sacrifice be wasted, brat!" cut off Oruo as he gave Eren the side-eye, eliciting a grimace from him as he silently berated the deceased man's self-sacrifice.

Though his death had bought the Team a good few metres of breathing room, Jaeger still wished that he could've stopped it from happening in the first place, but even so, he couldn't dwell on it too much lest he wished to derail the plan.

"Kh… if only we didn't put so much faith in that Gundam," growled Oruo as they rode onwards, causing Eren to perk up as he glanced over at his senior. "That machine proved to be as reliable as a faulty set of Maneuver Gear…"

That thought in of itself made Eren feel uncomfortable. In a way, he did agree quite a bit with his tongue biting senior. Barbatos was an incredibly powerful ally, and Mikazuki himself was no slouch either, what with him being the second best in the 104th Cadet Corps, and when piloting his Gundam, Mika had shown time and time again that he was close to invincible, something that Jaeger could attest to thanks to him witnessing his unit's strength firsthand during the Preliminary Expedition. Likewise, Barbatos had shown itself to be exceptionally fast, so much so that it made catching up to any Titan, Abnormal or not, incredibly easy.

With all that in mind, to learn that it had allowed a single Titan, be they regular, Abnormal or even a Shifter, slip through its grasp was rather mind boggling and, considering how Mikazuki had asked to be placed in the Rear Guard in the first place, Mika's inability to actually halt its advance became much more embarrassing on his part.

Embarrassing… and just a tiny bit suspicious as well… though be that as it may, none of the soldiers present had the luxury of considering these suspicions of theirs as they rode onwards in a panic, so for now, they shelved those thoughts and focused on surviving.

"Save the lectures for later, Oruo, and focus on the present!" ordered Eld direly as Petra nodded in agreement, to which the man in question grimaced but nonetheless complied, and as he rode onwards, several more soldiers would fall in the process of slowing the Female Titan down, and with each soldier that fell, the Titan in question would only be drawn closer and closer to the Team as the seconds ticked by.

The situation only grew more dire before it subsided, with no less than sixteen Survey Corps in total losing their lives attempting to support the fleeing team. Each loss weighed down on Eren's soul to the point where he felt as though it would fall straight out of his chest… but he forced it to remain where it was as he grimaced and kept his attention ahead of himself.

Before long, however, Levi Ackerman abruptly sat up a little straighter atop his stallion and glanced back at his Teammates, who glanced right back at him as they took a moment to process what he was about to do, and when they did, they hardened their gaze and nodded firmly.

This was it.

"Shield your ears," ordered Levi, though before he could even finish that order, his Team had already brought their hands over them, prompting the short Elite to nod in satisfaction. They knew the ins and outs of this expedition thanks to weeks of rigorous preparation, and they didn't need to be told what to do twice at this point as they rode onwards, and though he had to fight the urge to smile as he glanced back at them, Ackerman was able to suppress that sensation as he reached into his coat and pull out a Flare Gun.

Aiming it skywards, the Elite took less than a moment to take aim before he fired, and as soon as he pulled back on the trigger, a powerful blast of sound emanated from the armament's barrel, with it reverberating through the entire forest all the while. Even with their ears covered, his Team, plus Eren, flinched at the suddenness and power of the sound blast, though the Female Titan seemed completely unphased by it as it continued with its pursuit.

The moment the Acoustic Flare was fired, and before the sound could even die down for that matter, a massive volley of five Emergency Flares were blasted into the air, two of which having been fired by Mike and Hanji whilst three others were fired further ahead in the forest path. The Team knew exactly what this meant as they pressed onwards, with them all praying that their stallions would get them out of the danger zone before it was too late.

Though it remained mostly unreadable as Levi fired the Acoustic Flare, when it had spotted the purple flares being fired up into the sky, the Female Titan seemed to grow more erratic as it narrowed its eyes dangerously at the fleeing group and redoubled its efforts in pursuing them, seemingly figuring out that they were planning something all the while. Eren found himself gasping a little when he saw the aforementioned Titan effortlessly swat away an inbound soldier with the back of its hand before grabbing onto the wire of another and swinging her into her fellow soldier, killing two birds with one stone all the while.

It did this without even slowing down, and that in itself terrified Eren to no end as he willed his stallion to go faster. Likewise, Petra and Oruo were taken aback by the Female Titan's display of power, though by then, they didn't really have to worry about it all that much…

In one final, desperate attempt to close the distance between itself and its quarry, the Female Titan grimaced and leapt itself high into the air, effectively lunging forwards as it took aim for the soldiers beneath it. Team Levi, save for their Captain, who simply stared in subdued shock, gasped at this as they began parting in order to avoid being trampled under the Titan's foot, and though they did avoid being crushed beneath its feet, the aftershock of the impact did send all of them flying.

Petra managed to reorient herself, if only by a little, from the initial impact, however, as she twisted herself upright and grimaced a fair bit as she turned to glare at the cloud of smoke and dirt that the Female Titan had launched into the air upon hitting the ground. Immediately thereafter, however, Ral also took note of the flailing form of Eren Jaeger, who lacked the skill to properly reorient himself fully as he flew through the air in a daze.

In an instant, Petra hardened her gaze and swung herself towards her junior. Swooping in swiftly, the Elite grasped onto Jaeger's waist with the curve of her arm and hoisted him away from the cloud of smoke, and just in time to as, mere milliseconds after she had done so, the Female Titan's hand burst out of the cloud of dirt and smoke, with it attempting to snatch Jaeger into its palm all the while. The ginger haired woman widened her eyes and gasped at just how close the Titan had gotten to getting the two of them as she boosted out of the Female Titan's range, and as she did so, she inadvertently gained its ire as it gnashed its teeth together and prepared another strike.

But before that could come to pass, however, the Female Titan seemed to take note of something… or rather… someone, latched onto the side of the tree closest to it. A singular soldier, hanging by its side with her cold gaze affixed onto the Titan's head. If looks could kill, her gaze would've already done so ten times over, and the sight of this soldier glaring at it in such a calm yet enraged manner… unsettled the Titan, to say the least.

And as such, it had also left the feminine beast open to a blast to the face via one of the soldier's flares. The aforementioned shot was a purple flare, one that it had grown accustomed to seeing at this point, though the fact that it was shot directly into its eye didn't help things whatsoever as its attention was quickly torn from both Petra and Eren and onto the flare that had just partially blinded it. On instinct, the Female Titan slowed its pace for the briefest of moments before it jolted upright and clawed at its eye to remove the obstruction, and when it did, it had secured its own fate.

"FIRE!"

The commanding voice of Erwin Smith rang through the entirety of the forest of giant trees, shaking the leaves themselves as he roared out that single command, and as he did so, the Female Titan widened its eyes when it felt a searing pain on its left thigh. Swiping its arm to the side, it dispelled some of the purple smoke that had gathered around it and saw that a multitude of hooked harpoons attached to thick wires had pierced its thigh, effectively anchoring it down to a point that was hidden behind the foliage.

In a panic, the Female Titan, having not expected for such a thing to occur, grimaced and yanked its leg to the side, hoping to free itself from its ensnarement. As it did so, the thing the opposing end of the harpooned wires were attached to flew into view, as did a multitude of Survey Corps that were manning it. An ensnarement tool, the Titan noticed, or more specifically, a prototype Titan restraining tool. Its host didn't know that they had made it past the testing phase…

… and right as it took notice of what it was, the Female Titan's host realized why it was there in the first place. They wouldn't have dragged that restraining equipment all the way out here for nothing… no, the Survey Corps had planned this out from the very start! They had fully intended on capturing itand its host, not kill it!

That realization came just a moment too late, however, as mere moments after it received that epiphany, a volley of harpooned wires were fired upon the Female Titan's back. Widening its eyes in a mixture of shock, anguish and pain, the Titan twisted back in an attempt to dislodge the harpoons from its back, only for several more volleys to be fired at it from all sides. The aforementioned volleys pierced various parts of its body, though they were focused primarily on its limbs.

The Titan was lucky enough to be able to bring one of its hands up to cover its nape, with it managing to shield its nape with both of its hands before the volley of harpooned wires ensnared it from both sides and reeled themselves back. By hardening parts of its body, the Female Titan was able to keep its arms from being pulled away from its nape and its legs from collapsing beneath it, though it wasn't able to do more than that as it suddenly found itself pinned down by the Survey Corps.

As the soldiers quickly gathered around it, the Female Titan's gaze darted around the area as it tried to get a beat on something, or rather someone. It grimaced in fury as it did so, with its pupils dilating in rage as it scanned the area frantically for a moment, and moments later, its eyes finally fell upon a few individuals in particular.

Although restrained, the Female Titan could still see Team Levi hanging off the side of a nearby tree as they observed it from afar. Oruo seemed to take some solace in the fact that they were safe from the Titan's wrath for the time being, though everyone else remained on guard as they glared at the blonde Abnormal in disgust and anguish.

Eren in particular seemed to have the hardest glare of them all. His fiery gaze told the Titan that, if he could, he'd slice its host out of their nape and strangle them to death with his bare hands. And, for as excessive as that might have sounded… the Female Titan's host couldn't fault him for that course of action.

They knew that, if they were in his shoes, they'd no doubt do the same.

"... it's still glaring at us…"

"Yes, Oruo, we know. We have eyes."

That comment was meant to come off as sarcastic, but honestly speaking, Eld's voice quivered a lot more than he had initially intended, and as such, it sounded more aggressive than he had intended as he grimaced and leveled his glare right back at the Female Titan.

Eld wouldn't deny it; the manic glare that was being sent their way via the Female Titan was… intimidating, to put it lightly, but at the same time, the blonde refused to allow himself to cower under the feminine Titan's gaze. He was an Elite, and if he were to flinch when glared at by a Titan, Abnormal, Shifter or not, then he reckoned that he didn't deserve such a title. The rest of his team seemed to agree with him on that, as they affixed their gazes unto the Female Titan with just as much ferocity as their blonde comrade.

Well, most of them did, anyway. Oruo was too tense to actually glare at the Titan in full, with his glare appearing half-hearted at best, so much so that Eren's, who was still being held by Petra, humorlessly enough, glare was almost twice as intense as his own. Eld made a mental note to tease Bazard to the depths of Hell and the heights of Heaven on that once they returned from the expedition.

Back on point, though, as most of TeamLevi hung by the side of a tree, Levi, who had broken off from his team, swung over to a secluded branch, one that Erwin was now perched on as he glared down at the ensnared Titan with a gaze of utter malice. Again, if looks could kill, the Female Titan would've been buried right about now. His gaze was only broken when he took note of Ackerman's appearance beside him, prompting him to turn and nod at his subordinate.

"Well done luring it here, Levi," thanked Erwin sincerely as he glanced down at the aforementioned midget, who scoffed as he turned to glare at the Female Titan, which was struggling against the wires that held it. Unfortunately for it, however, even with all its strength, it was unable to break free from the multitude of restraints that held it down. Hell, it could barely even move as it was pulled on from all directions, something that would've disgusted Ackerman were it not for the fact that he was glad that the Titan was quite possibly in agony.

It deserved it, considering what it had done.

"Don't thank me. Thank the soldiers that gave their lives, all the way from the Rear Guard to here," groaned Levi, sounding rather… disheartened as he spoke. Erwin nodded in acknowledgement of his words as he watched his fellow soldiers close in on the Female Titan, which was no longer a viable threat to any of them at this point. The blonde Commander silently hoped that Hanji was not amongst the first wave of soldiers that were closing in on the Titan, though considering just how enthusiastic that woman was, he doubted that he'd be so lucky.

"... yes, they carried out their duties with all that they had…" agreed Erwin sadly as he slouched his shoulders a little. He was not going to enjoy what was to come when they returned to Karanses with the whatever remained of the deceased, though this was an inevitability that they had to take into consideration, even with Barbatos on their side. "Levi, initiate phase 3 of the plan."

"Understood," responded Levi flatly as he jumped off the branch they once shared and swung over to his team, and right as he did so, Mike and Gelgar swung up to fill in the tiny void that Ackerman had left behind. The rest of Zacharius' Team were scattered about the field, with the sole exception being Tomas, who was off scouting for Barbatos' location.

"Sir," greeted Mike as he landed next to Erwin, only to turn and grab onto Gelgar's sleeve before he fell off the branch by mistake. The pompadour haired man thanked his senior as he was reorientated back up on the branch, and thereafter, the lightly bearded man moved to stand up beside the blonde.

"Mike. Report," responded Erwin, short, simple and to the point, so much so that it came off as blunt as he spoke. Gelgar flinched a little at his tone, though Mike simply nodded in response to this.

"The Titan is immobile, but it's best to remain on guard," said Mike, with him sniffing the air as he spoke. "It smells scared."

"I thought you always said that Titans smelled emotionless?" commented Erwin with a raised brow, with him recalling how Mike used to say that Titans always held a scent that was akin to the foulest of odors, and in response to this, the Elite simply nodded before explaining himself.

"Those were Titans without hosts. This one still stinks, but beyond that… this one also smells human. And it smells afraid," clarified Mike, with him grimacing a little as he commented on the fact that a human was behind the wheels of this Titan. What could've compelled them to turn against mankind, Zacharius wondered, to use their stellar abilities in favour of the opposing team, rather than for the benefit of their species…?

Such was a question that he doubted would ever be answered, at least in his lifetime, as he groaned and shook his head. Meanwhile, Gelgar, having heard what his senior had said, grinned and walked up to his side.

"I bet whoever's behind the wheels must be pissing themselves right about now. Getting caught up in a trap as intricate as this must've given their ego a big ass whooping," joked the pompadour haired man as he grinned. Mike, for his part, nodded in agreement with his words as he glared down at the Female Titan. "But… I still can't shake the feeling that a lot of this could've been avoided if Mikazuki had just…"

"Do not put the blame solely on Mikazuki Augus, Gelgar," cut off Mike as he glanced over at his junior, who winced a little before nodding. "Though both himself and Barbatos are powerful, we cannot forget that even they have limits. Whilst it is possible for them to have been able to stop the Titan in its tracks, the unpredictability of its movements made such a thing difficult to do."

"... you've got a point there. Doesn't mean that I'm not going to give him a good grilling once this is all over and done with," laughed Gelgar with a smile as he crossed his arms, eliciting an eye roll from Mike all the while. The bearded senior would've smiled if they were still back within the confines of the Walls, but as things were now, he remained stoic as usual as he turned to face Erwin.

"Besides the point. Your orders, Commander?" inquired Mike, to which Erwin rubbed his chin as he observed the Female Titan briefly. His attention was quick to snap from the Titan to the sky, however, when the Commander took note of an orange flare being fired skywards, and likewise, Team Levi took note of it as well. Smith watched as Levi motioned for his team to head in that direction, as they knew of only one person that made use of orange signal flares, and after they left, and after Gunther offered Levi a warrior's handshake as a sign of luck, Zacharius rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Should we remove the Titan's host, sir?"

"No."

That response came as a surprise to Mike, who blinked a little as he processed it. Likewise, Gelgar seemed to be taken aback by that statement as he raised a brow at his superior, though shortly thereafter, the seemed to get what their Commander was getting at as he raised one of his arms up into the air, signaling to everyone around them to back away, and for those manning the remaining restraining equipment to fire on his mark.

"An eye for an eye, Mike," continued Erwin, eliciting an understanding nod from Mikeas he exhaled sharply. He saw no reason to do this, no logical one at the very least, though he didn't let that stop him from watching as Smith swung his raised arm downwards, in turn ordering for the remaining harpooned wire reserves to be fired upon the Female Titan.

And not even a second later, the aforementioned Titan's body was pierced in several more spots. Its host felt as though their entire body had been dipped in boiling oil and forced to remain in there as the harpooned wires buried themselves in its body, though thanks to its host's prior training, it was able to withstand this torture, even as its flesh healed around the barbed harpoons, inadvertently causing them more pain all the while.

It just needed to wait for an opening… one that would allow it to escape from danger, if need be…

Elsewhere

Swinging through the trees of the outer layer of the forest came rather naturally to Tomas, what with him being a seasoned veteran when it came to both Expeditions and Maneuver Gear movement… but at the same time, he still found the sudden influx of Titans in the area to be somewhat worrying, to say the least.

'There weren't this many Titans just a few hours prior…' thought the Elite direly as he wondered what could've caused the sudden influx of Titans, though for the time being, he simply shook his head and glanced behind himself, where he saw no less than five other soldiers following him closely. Out of the bunch, Tomas recognised Nifa, Holger and Wim, all good soldiers in their own rights, though they were not as proficient in Anti-Titan combat as Tomas himself.

This impromptu team that followed Tomas was brought together for the express purpose of luring any and all Titans within the vicinity away from the ambush point as they couldn't risk any Titans closing in whilst they were distracted with the capture of their target. Tomas knew of five other teams present, all of whom were tasked with the same thing, and on one occasion, he passed by a team led by Lauda, one of Hanji's underlings, though aside from that, they remained mostly solitary.

By all means, Tomas' impromptu team was doing rather well for themselves. The Titans that they had encountered and lured away were mostly on the smaller end of the scale, and they had encountered no Abnormals thus far. Wim did seem to grow a little dissatisfied over having to flee so frequently from the Titans rather than fighting them head-on, though Tomas' word overruled his based on his rank alone, and as such, they continued on with their objective.

After a few moments of this repetition, however, over by the corner of his eye, Tomas took note of the silhouette of a handful of soldiers standing atop a trio of tree branches. Upon noticing this, he motioned for his temporary squadmates to investigate the soldiers alongside him, and with a unified nod, they swung up to meet the stranded soldiers within a moment's notice.

Imagine their surprise, or rather Tomas' surprise, when he saw that the soldiers present were all a part of Luke Sys' group. Or rather, ⅘ of them were a part of it, as the Elite didn't remember Sys departing with a blonde midget on his team. Regardless of the unexpected inclusion, however, the soldier and his gang were quick to group up with them, with Tomas himself landing on the tree that Sys himself was sitting on.

"C-Captain Tomas!" proclaimed Mylius when he saw the aforementioned soldier swoop in to join the resting squad, alerting everyone present to the group's approach all the while. Nac, who had been standing atop the same branch as the blonde soldier, jolted upright and nearly fell off it as a result, though the timely approach of Holger, who landed next to Tias and grabbed onto his collar, saved him from that embarrassing fate.

Likewise, Wim landed on a separate branch, one that Christa and Mina were sharing, as the two of them jolted upright at the sight of their seniors swinging in to join them. Mina herself had been sitting on the branch with her back leaning against the tree as she regained her strength from the treacherous journey that the Team was forced to undergo whilst venturing here, and she would've been lying if she claimed to not have almost stumbled as she stood up, only to be stabilized by Christa, who let the pigtailed soldier lean herself against her as she stood.

Nifa and Tomas both landed atop the branch that Sys was sitting atop, all on his lonesome, and when they got there, the latter winced a little at the state of his fellow soldier as he knelt down to check on his injuries. His wounds, those visible at least, seemed surface deep at best, with a few cuts and bruises visible on his arms and some on his face, though considering how hard Luke seemed to be breathing, Tomas reckoned that his injuries were beyond surface level.

"Tomas, it's good to see you again, especially in these trying times!" laughed Sys as he pushed himself off the tree he was leaning on to fistbump his comrade. Tomas grinned and accepted it in full, with him offering Luke a small smile all the while. Mina, Nac and Christa all smiled at this, and Nifa would've been lying if she claimed to not have cracked a tiny grin at the sight, though the moment was quickly over as Tomas nodded.

"I could say the same for you, Luke. How'd your team end up here, anyways?" asked Tomas, with him sounding sincerely curious as he glanced down to the base of the tree they were perched on. Several Titans were crowded near the bottom, all of which were just dying to get their greasy mitts on them at a moment's notice, and though it was hard to notice, the Elite took note of how there seemed to be no horses down there either. Squad Sys had likely abandoned their stallions some time prior in favour of using their Maneuver Gear, something that was understandable, though why did they move so deep into the forest, well into the radius of ambush point, when they could've simply remained near the outskirts…?

For his part, Sys appeared a little worn out as he gave a wry chuckle, eliciting a raised brow from Tomas all the while.

"Well… about that…"

Some time prior

The sight of the former training grounds over the horizon gave the entirety of Sys' Team, plus Christa, a bit of reprieve as they rode onwards, with their namesake spearheading the charge whilst Mylius took up the rear.

It had been roughly an hour since their initial run-in with the Female Titan, and things thereafter… they weren't exactly smooth, per say, but they were certainly less bumpy. There weren't that many Titans present along the way, something that did confuse the soldiers at first, though they learnt to appreciate that fact as they rode on.

Mina herself still shared a horse with Christa, with her looking somewhat out of it as they rode onwards; understandable, Sys thought, seeing as how she was still recovering from the bout she had against the Female Titan. She no doubt suffered the most out of the four of them, and silently, Luke was berating himself for not being able to bring down the Titan on his own, something that resulted in Carolina's current state, though he did not dwell on this for now as they rode on with the rest of the formation along their new course.

At first, the team was rather confused as to why they were changing their course towards the old training grounds of Maria, as that hadn't been part of the original plan, but even so, Sys had assured them that Erwin had thought this through, and they had enough faith in him to follow him onwards. Along the way, they, or at least Nac, did see a Titan being launched high up into the air near the position of the Rear Guard, though they attributed that to Barbatos more than anything before they continued onwards unimpeded.

As they drew closer and closer to the forest of large trees, however, Team Sys took note of a sizable pack of Titans that stood close to the most direct path into the training grounds. Upon noticing this, the senior grimaced a fair bit as he rubbed his chin in contemplation, wondering if it would be more practical to find another way into the forest all the while, only to pause when he took note of how a group of soldiers were holding their own against the pack.

Narrowing his eyes, Sys silently contemplated leaving them to their fate, more so because his team consisted of some rather young soldiers, young and injured soldiers, no less, and he would rather not put them in any more danger than necessary. However, whilst doing so, Christa Lenz also took note of the Titans that were gathered around the closest path into the forest, and likewise, she took notice of the soldiers that were fending them off.

At first, Christa had simply considered suggesting they provide some assistance to the soldiers that were in combat as she watched them from afar, with her appearing uncertain on if her team was up for it. However, as they rode onwards further, the blonde began to take note of how a single one of the soldiers appeared to be moving. Graceful yet with a sense of delinquent roughness to their movements, they swerved around the grasps of the Titans around them before delivering strikes that were strong enough to either disarm or even kill them outright.

Christa felt as though she recognised those movements, something so beautifully chaotic… and before long, the gears in her mind clicked into place as she widened her eyes in shock and had her horse press on with twice as much speed as it once did.

Her sudden movement startled Mina something fierce, with her clinging tightly against Christa as their horse abruptly sped upand seconds later, the rest of her team took note of her sudden acceleration as they gasped and had their horses move to match her speed.

"Christa! What's gotten into you?!" yelled out Mina as she recovered from her initial surprise, shocked at how Christashe was suddenly being all the while. In response to this, the blonde simply grit her teeth and rode onwards, with her not even looking ahead as she responded to the pigtailed soldier in a serious tone of voice.

"That's Ymir over there, Mina! The Titans have Ymir's team surrounded!" proclaimed Christa in a panic as she willed their stallion to run faster, and though it seemed uncomfortable with her kicking at its sides, the horse did as it was ordered to and began to trot onwards with twice as much vigor, prompting Mina to widen her eyes a little at the little blonde's determination.

She knew that Christa had a close relationship with Ymir, but at the same time… she didn't think that their bond would be this excessive. A small part of her felt envious of their closeness, though as soon as she realized why she was feeling this way, she promptly dropped the issue and held onto the short blonde tightly as they rode onwards.

Due to their head start, Christa and Mina were, unsurprisingly, the very first to reach the combat zone, and within a second of her getting within twenty metres of the first Titan she saw, the blonde let out an uncharacteristically loud and aggressive yell and lunged off her horse, surprising her teammates with just how agile she could be in spite of her size. Mina followed soon thereafter, as did Nac, Sys and Mylius, who were spurred on by uncharacteristic show of bravery as they swung after her.

The first Titan that the team came into contact with was a Thirteen metre, one that had its back turned towards them, or more specifically Christa, as they closed in on it. When the blonde soldier was within range, however, the Titan abruptly turned on a dime and swung its hand at her, though in a surprising show of agility, the soldier was able to narrowly avoid the fingers of the beast by twisting her body and kiting it between its index and middle fingers, something that was only possible thanks to her small stature.

Thereafter, Christa, still holding onto the momentum she had built up from her launch and twist maneuver, began spinning vertically as she held her blades up, 90 degrees up from her torso, and began to slash at the Thirteen metre's arm. The Titan remained impassive to all this, even as the blonde slashed the skin off its arm, and by the time she reached its shoulder and bolted past the side of its head, the entire length of the Thirteen metre's arm was covered in lacerations that were very slowly healing.

Not that it cared, though, as this one in particular seemed incapable of feeling pain, and as such, it turned to give Christa its full attention despite how one of its arms was hanging limply by its side. Lenz responded to this with a grimace, with her narrowing her eyes and getting ready to move at the first opening she got, with her having planned to circle around to the back of the Titan the moment it attempted to swing its arm at her, making use of that opening to swing around it and carve into its nape.

Before she could carry that plan out, however, the Titan abruptly went limp and began falling forwards. Christa was confused at first, though before long, Mina swung out from behind the falling Titan and moved towards Lenz's side, with her smiling as she boosted alongside the blonde. Said smile was most certainly strained, as she was definitely pushing herself past her limits at this point, but either way, her aid was still very much appreciated.

"Mina…" muttered a thankful Christa as the pigtailed girl smiled, though it did seem rather shaky as she twisted her body around to avoid the swipe of a Fourteen metre that was aiming to bring her down. Both soldiers gasped in shock as its hand missed the pigtailed girl by a fraction of a centimeter, though as soon as she recovered, Carolina took note of how the Titan was focusing on her specifically,

The pigtailed girl was initially unsettled by its gaze, though within a nanosecond, she got over it and realized that she could use this to her advantage, which she did. With a groan, she took aim with her Maneuver Gear wires, and though somewhat sloppy with her precision, she was still able to fire them and hit her target head on, as the Maneuver Gear anchor impacted one of the Fourteen metre's eyeballs, sinking in deep within a handful of seconds. The Titan, unlike the one Christa had lacerated moments prior, had quite the reaction to this as it recoiled in immense pain, and as it did so, it stumbled backwards… into Christa's path as she boosted herself towards its nape, fully intent on delivering a killing blow to the beast that Carolina had disorientated.

Before she could make it there, however, a single Titan lunged at her, prompting her to turn towards it and widen her eyes in shock. It would take all of three seconds before this Ten metre snagged her, and she opened her mouth to gasp in shock as she acknowledged how she wouldn't be able to escape in time, though before the aforementioned gasp could leave her lips, however, Nac Tias swooped in and, with a single impressive swing of his blades, slashed the Titan's wrist straight off.

He must've been watching either Levi or Mikazuki during one of their previous training sessions, as Nac's attack was not too dissimilar to theirs. Rolling his body vertically like a top, the young man had used a mixture of momentum and rotary force to slice through the flesh and bone of the lunging Ten metre, something that covered his admittedly weak swinging skills rather well, and with the hand of the Titan severed, the disarmed beast's limb was simply too short to reach Christa, and as a result, it simply crashed face first into the ground without much fanfare, leaving it open to be finished off by Mylius, who, despite his fears, still rushed in after Tias to provide assistance.

'I should definitely thank Nac later…' thought Christa, with her almost smiling as she turned her attention back to the Titan she had been targeting prior, and with a warcry, one that was probably as intense as she could've given, before she slashed into the Fourteen metre's nape. Though she wasn't exactly the strongest person out there, especially when compared to the other Top 10 graduates in the 104th, Lenz was still able to make use of her forward momentum to deliver a strike that sliced deep into the Fourteen metre's nape, killing it in a single blow.

As the Fourteen metre was slashed in the back of its neck, the Titan jerked its head back, in turn causing Mina to be swung skywards via her Maneuver Gear wire as she gasped and spiraled out of control in the air, with her aforementioned wire being dislodged at the last second. Christa, and subsequently, Nac and, to a lesser degree, Mylius, took note of this almost immediately as they moved to grab her before she landed harshly on her rear once more, though they were beaten to the punch when a new figure swooped in and snatched Carolina up in one of their arms.

"Y'know, I'm not very used to rescuing damsels, but then again, I wouldn't exactly consider you a dame," laughed Ymir as she held Mina's smaller body in one of her arms, causing the pigtailed girl to redden in embarrassment before she nodded in appreciation, and shortly thereafter, both young women swung down onto the ground, with the former letting the letter stand on her own two feet shortly thereafter.

"Thanks for the save, Y-Ymir," thanked Mina sincerely as she smiled in earnest to her fellow 104th, eliciting a snort from Fritz as she rolled her eyes. She would've had a snarky response to Carolina's thanks, though she paused it when she took note of an encroaching Three metre. Mina took note of it as well, though they didn't really need to do anything as, before it could even get within range to attack them, Luke Sys swooped in and tackled the back of its neck, stabbing it in the nape with both his blades before swinging his arms outwards, slicing it open in the process.

Subsequently, the Three metre face planted onto the ground before it skidded to a halt mere inches away from Mina and Ymir's feet, and after removing his blades from the dissolving Titan's nape, the senior soldier jumped off its body and turned to regard Fritz. The tanned young woman didn't seem keen on showing any proper respect to him as she just gave him a flat, unimpressed stare, something that was, to a certain extent, rather commendable, Luke reckoned, as he nodded towards her in greeting.

"Ymir Fritz, yes?" asked Sys for clarification, with him trying to hide the fact that his body still felt a bit strained from the initial contact with the Female Titan. Thankfully enough, however, neither Mina nor Ymir took note of this as the latter rolled her eyes mockingly.

"And what if I am, hm?" scoffed Ymir smugly, eliciting a raised brow from Sys as he simply eyed her passively. In the background, Nac and Mylius coordinated a strike, with the latter slashing at the eyes of a Fifteen metre, blinding it, whilst the former circled around and sliced the nape. Subsequently, the defeated Titan fell flat onto its face, with it falling mere inches away from Sys' back… not that the senior really cared, anyways, as he kept his annoyed attention on Fritz for the time being, much to her chagrin. "Yeah, fine. I'm Ymir, what of it?"

"You were a part of Ness' team. Where-" began Sys, only for the sudden appearance of Christa to cut him off. The soldier blinked as he watched the girl, practically catatonic at this point, rush up to Ymir's side, and though she didn't explicitly hug the much taller woman, she still clung onto her arm as she began asking about her wellbeing.

For her part, Ymir seemed to soften a fair bit as she assured Christa that she was alright, and at that, Mina smiled a tiny bit as she acknowledged the strange relationship these two had. It was rather cute, to see the usually hardy and foul Ymir Fritz lighten up whenever the soft spoken yet good natured Christa Lenz was beside her, though, upon noticing that Carolina was staring at her with a smile, and how Luke had gone silent to allow some time for Christa to haggle her, Ymir quickly snapped out of her stupor before she answered Sys' question… after she patted Lenz over the head one last time, that is.

"The bandana fucker's over there, sir," responded Ymir, eliciting a blink from Sys as he turned to see the man in question, Ness Dieter, kicking off the face of a Twelve metre Titan after slashing at its eyes, effectively blinding it all the while. Thereafter, a pair of blonde soldiers, one bulky and another scrawny, swooped in to slash at the ankles of the Twelve metre, and seconds later, a tall guy with ash brown hair swung in for the killing blow as the Titan fell towards the ground.

It was dead before it even met the grass beneath it, and though he didn't show it, Sys still felt the smallest hints of pride growing in his chest as he watched these new recruits, ones that he no doubt trained, dispatch a Titan with such efficiency. He'd have to give them a gold medal if he managed to get out of here in one piece!

But regardless, the four soldiers present were quickly spurred into action when another Titan, this one Abnormal in its movements, stomped onto the scene. Leaping into the air, the quadruple got ready to strike at it, though before that could happen, Christa, who was cursed with having the shortest legs of the four, ended up falling short of her jump, and as a result, she found the palm of the Titan coming close to snatching at her. Widening her eyes at this, she began to raise her blades in order to defend against the inbound threat, though before she could feel it striking her body, Ymir, in a surprising show of selflessness, tackled her out of the way to take the hit.

"GAH!" cried out the tanned young woman as she felt the Titan's palm impact her. For as sturdy as she was, Ymir was still human, to a degree, and her body crumpled just a little under the G-Forces exerted on it by the impact, so much so that she went limp for the briefest of moments before she began struggling. Sys widened his eyes at this unfortunate turn of events as he and the rest of his team moved in for support, but before that could happen, the group heard the loud blast of a discharging flare gun…

… and mere milleseconds later, before any of them could even turn to have a look at the source of the flare shot, they saw a flare exploding from behind them through their peripheral vision, prompting them to wince all the while. As for the Titan, however, it, alongside every other Titan present in the vicinity, recoiled as the flash flare exploded in their faces, with the Abnormal releasing its hold on Ymir all the while. Thereafter, a new voice rang out through the air, one that sounded suspiciously like Jean Kirstein, directing his teammates in what to do.

"Reiner! Samuel! The ankles! I'll get the nape! Armin, you-" proclaimed Jean as the aforementioned trio swung in to do as they were told, though before Kirstein could finish instructing Armin to snatch Ymir out of the air, Christa, in a surprising show of conviction, sprung herself up to snatch her into her arms. The lightly freckled woman felt her cheeks heating up as Lenz once again placed her surprising amount of strength on display, though before they made it out of the danger zone, the Abnormal swung its other hand at the two in an instinctual attempt to recapture its prey.

Before it could do so, however, out of seemingly nowhere, Nac Tias swooped in and delivered a shallow cut to the Titan's eyes. Though not particularly deep, the slash was more than enough to blind the Titan further than it already was, forcing it to recoil its hand back all the while. Whilst it did this, however, Mina and a newly arrived Mylius lunged into view, with the former severing the right hand of the Titan almost completely, with her just barely missing one last major tendon with her swing, while the latter didn't aim to slice through it, but rather, he swung beneath the Abnormal's wrist and severed a major artery beneath it, rendering the left hand of the Titan immovable for the briefest of seconds.

Landing on opposite sides of the now disarmed Titan, both Mina and Mylius, and by proxy Ymir and Christa as they landed in front of the Abnormal, both got out of the way as Reiner and Samuel lunged towards the ankles of the Titan. It came as no surprise that the former was able to sever more than just the achilles tendon of the Abnormal, what with his impressive muscle mass, but as for Samuel, the guy was just barely able to cut deep enough to make it to the aforementioned tendon, though regardless, his cut was enough to force the Titan to stumble as it fell flat onto its face.

Right as it faceplanted, Jean Kirstein swung in for the killer blow, with him swinging up and over the Abnormal Titan's nape before firing both Maneuver Gear anchors down at it. A millisecond later, he boosted straight down towards the exposed nape of the Titan, with him using the reeling mechanism of the wires and the gas burst from his Maneuver Gear to enhance his attack, and with a combination of the wires, gas burst and his own physical strength, Kirstein was able to not only slice deep into the Titan's nape, but he had managed to behead it as well, causing the decapitated skull of the Titan to bounce forwards shortly thereafter.

The skull bounced about three times before the soldiers present all went dead silent, with Jean jumping off the dissolving corpse of the Titan the 104th graduates had just defeated all the while. Sys, and by proxy Ness who was walking up to regroup with his team and the newly arrived, were stunned at the amount of coordination between these young adults as they watched them recover from what they had just seen, though then again, they supposed that they had been training together for the better part of four years, something that would no doubt boost their synchrony in some way.

"Thanks for the assist there, Jean," thanked Ymir half-heartedly as she watched Kirstein walk up to her, with him nodding all the while. Thereafter, she turned and smiled up at Christa, who felt her cheeks redden a little as she smiled back, though that gesture was not really noticed by anyone (who wasn't Reiner) as they checked up on each other.

"You're welcome, Ymir," responded Jean with a nod, and thereafter, he glanced over at Mina, with him seemingly doing a double take before he chuckled humorlessly. Carolina was confused at first, though she quickly realized why he did that as he continued with a miniscule smile. "No offence, Mina, nor to you, Nac… but it feels… weird, to not see your entire squad together."

"Heh, well, Mika does have other things to do, and Annie's not even a part of the Survey Corps anyways," laughed Nac noncommittally as he waved Jean off. He did notice Mina flinching a little at the mention of the blue eyed soldiers, though he said nothing of it as Jean continued to speak.

"Hmph, whatever I guess. Thanks for the save, by the way. We didn't really expect there to be this many Titans around the old training grounds," lamented Jean as he sighed to himself, a sign to Nac that he still had some baggage over his shoulders. He didn't know Kirstein that much, though he knew him enough to know that he had changed a lot ever since the Trost incident. He couldn't really help him all that much with his baggage, but at the same time, he could at least try to lessen it, if only by a little.

"Well, for all it's worth, Jean, you did good, keeping your team safe," assured Nac with a smile as he placed a hand on the aforementioned young man's shoulder, causing him to perk up all the while. Thereafter, he offered him a thumbs up, one that almost made the guy smile before he shook his head stoically.

"Well, Captain Ness did-"

"He did the captaining, sure, but you did the ordering, no doubt. You had Reiner and Samuel execute that double takedown back there, and you came up with most of the maneuvers for that Abnormal, barring me, Mina and Mylius interrupting, of course," assured Nac with a grin. "Keep your head high, dude. You're doing great!"

"Psh, look at you, dickhead, smiling even as the world's burning around us," scoffed Jean as he gently swatted Nac's hand off his shoulder, though he couldn't hide the small smile that appeared on his face as he said this. Nac himself didn't let it slide, however, as he grinned and rebutted accordingly.

"Someone's gotta do the smiling when shit's hit the ceiling," defended Nac with a wink as he punched the ash haired young man's shoulder, eliciting a wince from him as he chuckled, though before he could return the favour, Armin, alongside Samuel and Mylius, rushed towards them, with the blonde gasping in fear all the while.

"Armin? What's up?" asked Mina worriedly. She had a bad feeling about what he was about to tell her, though she held out hope for the complete opposite as she watched him point behind himself, towards the fields in front of the forest of giant trees. Following his pointing hand, the soldiers present all widened their eyes when they saw several packs of Titans, amounting to twenty six in total, stumbling or running towards their current position, an absurd amount, even by expedition standards.

The junior soldier's immediate response to this was, unsurprisingly, panic. They were unsure of what to do thanks to their inexperience on the field, and likewise, though they could hide it rather well, Ness Dieter's Team was suffering from exhaustion following their journey here and the initial conflict against the Titans. They would not be able to get too far if they fled due to their low gas reserves, and if they fought… well, twenty six Titans against eleven fatigued soldiers didn't bode well for any of them.

"Tsk… talk about bad timing," growled Ymir as she lifted her head up to glare at the inbound Titans, eliciting a worried gasp from Christa as she held her injured friend back from hurting herself, intentionally or not, further. Based on what she could see, Fritz was suffering from a busted hip, dislocated shoulder and a fractured knee, injuries that would heal if given enough time… Lenz hoped.

"Please, don't jostle yourself, Ymir…" whimpered Christa worriedly as she held Ymir stand, and at that, the lightly freckled young woman simply smiled, nodded and complied, with Reiner grimacing all the while.

"Dammit! We won't be able to get too far on either horseback or Maneuver Gear with this many Titans on our trail!" snarled Reiner as he clenched his fist in a rage. Armin seemed to be of a similar mindset to him as he shuddered a little beside Samuel, and likewise, Mina and Mylius seemed to be unsure of what their next course of action should be as they simply remained on guard. Sys and Ness were discussing the possibility of splitting up and thinning the herd whilst retreating… but considering their limited fuel supplies and the amount of targets they would have to go up against whilst separated (based on what they could see of the Titan's speed, they would need to contend with each team going head on against at least six Titans whilst reserving fuel), they were quick to opt out of it.

Whilst everyone was trying to brainstorm over what to do, however, Jean appeared mildly thoughtful at first, only for this to turn into a small form of guilt as he shook his head. That gesture didn't go unnoticed as he had hoped, however, as Nac took notice of it and piped up.

"Something on your mind, Jean?" asked Tias, eliciting a blink from Kirstein as he winced.

"No, it's just a stupid thought is all. Don't-" began Jean awkwardly as he began waving Nac off, though before he could do so, Mina stepped in and cut him off.

"Hey, anything's better than just waiting around to die, y'know!" complained Mina earnestly as she waved her hands around awkwardly, to which Jean winced at. She… wasn't wrong there, but even so, his plan still sounded crude at best, and downright barbaric at worst…

But with that said, if they could pull this off just right… it could potentially work…

"... tsk, fine. How do you guys feel about being bait…?"

"And from there on, we let Ness' team depart first, clear as much ground as they possibly could, while we kept the Titans' attention, and when they were too close for comfort, we booked it."

"... Sys, you're a good lad, but sometimes I feel like you should've died long ago, considering just how reckless you are."

That comment came from Nifa, who was staring at Luke Sys with a deadpanned expression as Tomas appeared similarly confounded by what he had just heard. Sure, the senior and his impromptu crew were both impressed by the (mostly) junior squad's performance, but even so, for Luke to follow the admittedly reckless plan of a junior soldier, one that could've ended in just under half of their numbers being wiped out, didn't sit well with him.

But of course, in spite of the whole debacle, the fact that they did make it out of there in one piece still stood, and though Tomas didn't wish to encourage his junior's recklessness, he still found it prudent to take risks on occasion. He just hoped that Sys didn't take so many that he unintentionally ended his own life!

"As harsh as Nifa's words are, I have to agree with her. You and your team could've died back there, Luke," chastised Tomas gently as he motioned towards the team in question, who were mingling with Wim and Holger, as they spoke. Luke seemed to agree with him as he nodded in disappointment, more so at himself than anything, though Tomas was quick to continue. "But at the same time, you didn't… so I… I guess you're off the hook… for now.

"Just don't make this risky schtick a habit, alright? We can't exactly expect everything to go well all the time, especially considering how lucky you guys got with evading the Titans… and not to mention your encounter with that one before it."

"Yeah, admittedly, everything that had happened in the past three hours feels like a horrible nightmare, one that I'm not going to be taking up from any time soon. Quite frankly, I'm just glad to be alive at this point," admitted Luke with a smile, to which Tomas snorted whilst Nifa rolled her eyes. "And now that I think about it, Ymir seemed rather catatonic about leaving Christa behind. As did Reiner, though he was more subdued about her decision to stay behind with us."

"Hmph, they no doubt share a close bond, it would seem," commented Tomas with a grin, with him glancing over to see Holger rather unsubtly trying to flirt with either Mina or Christa… to no avail as they were able to brush off his awkward advances with little to no issue. He was barking up the wrong tree to such a degree that even Nac didn't deign him worth his time to be stopped, and ultimately, he ended up relenting as he backed away from the young women in defeat, giving Tomas a good laugh while Nifa simply rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"That aside, has the threat been neutralized?" asked Sys, with him hardening his features as he spoke. In response to this, Tomas grimaced a little and nodded as well, eliciting a relieved sigh from Luke. "Thank God…"

"I would, but considering just how many soldiers were sacrificed for this to happen, I don't think I want to…" lamented Tomas as he tightened his grip around his blades. Nifa did the same as she recalled that no less than fifteen soldiers, including most of her former squadron, had been eliminated by the Female Titan mere hours prior, though she didn't think about them for the time being as she shook her head and spoke up in place of Tomas.

"Their sacrifices won't be in vain, Tomas, Sys. We will bring peace to their souls by completing this mission…" declared Nifa stoically as she held one of her blades up and swung it dramatically off to the side. Both of the aforementioned soldiers nodded in respect at her ironclad determination, though Tomas, being the most seasoned out of the whole lot of them, found himself wincing as he cleared his throat.

"No offense, Nifa. Your enthusiasm and determination is appreciated… but do you know of the phrase… tempting fate?" asked Tomas warily as he knew of several instances in the past (most of which relating to Gelgar, strangely enough), where things that were seemingly going well ended up taking a turn for the worse just because someone commented on the smoothness of events (again, it was usually Gelgar). Nifa, however, didn't seem to understand how jinxes worked as she tilted her head in confusion.

"Tomas, we have the Female Titan restrained to its fullest. There's no way it'll be able to escape!"

And mere seconds after she had said that, everyone present in the forest had to bring their hands up to their ears as a loud shriek pierced through the forest.

"So, this is that… reality warping thingamabob, huh?"

Shaped like an Ahab Reactor made specifically for warships, albeit almost twice as large, the Warp Drive that was loaned to Tekkadan for testing purposes certainly looked incredibly intimidating, but they knew that it was nothing more than an engine at the end of the day.

By this point in time, Gjallarhorn had three functional, fully formed prototype warp drives at the ready, and as luck would have it, the warship convoy that would make use of the three included two of Tekkadan's and one of Gjallarhorn's own Halfbeak-Class warships. The Tekkadan side of things included their flagship, the Isaribi, and their Mobile Suit maintenance vessel, the Hotarubi, with the former being manned by Orga Itsuka himself whilst the latter was manned by Eugene Seven Stark.

The Halfbeak-Class Warship would be captained by Isurugi Camice, who stood in as McGillis' substitute as a Seven Star member would not be able to go on such a dangerous testing mission. Isurugi had already pledged his allegiance to McGillis years prior, and as such, if he died in this test, then so be it!

Regardless, the delivery of the warp drives from Gjallarhorn to Tekkadan was well underway, and with the delivery came McGillis' reveal to the rest of the Seven Stars that he was hiring them officially as the testers of this warp drive. Not all of the Seven Stars agreed to this, with Iok Kujan being the most notable and verbal objector to Fareed's plan of hiring mercenaries that allied themselves with Teiwaz, though the guy was quickly shut down by Rustal Elion, who seemed to approve of McGillis' alliance with Tekkadan.

How could he not, after all? Though they were a rag-tag group of individuals, they were still no different from Galan Mossa, the mercenary Rustal had at his beckon call. Outside sources were always a powerful addition to one's own ranks, especially when considering the deceit that typically brewed away within the innermost ranks of Gjallarhorn, and on a more personal level, Elion felt that he would've been a hypocrite to call McGillis out on this behaviour, even if he didn't know of Galan's existence…

"Yeah, it is the thing, Ride. C'mon, let's not beat around the bush and get this thing installed," commented Takaki, who had taken time away from Earth, alongside Aston, to help out with this plan of theirs. Staring down at the notepad in his hands, he saw the schematics that showed him how they would install the reactor. It seemed as though the main fuel coupling would have to be swapped out for this thing, though thankfully enough, they wouldn't have to make too many changes to the fuel compartments thanks to how similarly shaped the fuel cells and the warp drive were.

Ride's response to Takaki's words was to beam widely at him as he clenched his fist. It was obvious to Uno that he was just as pumped as he was to do this, and with a wide grin, he punched his fist into his palm as he nodded firmly.

"Yeah! Let's do this… and let's get Mr Mikazuki back too!"