AN:
I'm kinda iffy on some parts of the chapter so once I have some time I might change some stuff.
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Chapter 9: The Run
At the cusp of midnight, far from the protection of Wall Rose lies a deserted town shrouded in darkness. Within a house sitting in an intersection not far from the edge of town, a pair of blue eyes peer through a murky window, watching the darkened street in silence.
'This is so boring.' Eirlet despondently thinks as he pulls his face away from the window and stretches his back with a grunt before flopping down in his seat.
He sweeps the room with his gaze before settling on the young man calmly sleeping on the floor with his back turned towards him.
Eirlet taps his finger on the armrest as he watches his breathing, 'He hasn't shown any ill will to me yet while others would have found this to be the best time to try something. And he's actually sleeping and not faking it so that means he somehow trusts me not to backstab him. Yep, he's a dumbass.' He sighs lightly as he raises his gaze to the ceiling and starts tracing the cracks in the wood above, trying to waste the remaining time away.
Just as he was nearly finished going from one corner to the other his ears pick up something coming from outside. Stilling, he cautiously straightens up and peeks through the portion he cleaned, ready to slip away if he catches a sign of a titan.
Looking down the street opposite of where they came earlier, as far as he can in the near-total darkness, his eyes catch onto what he heard. Just barely visible, he sees silhouettes of people slowly moving into the houses that line the street with more coming from beyond his sight.
'Fuck. Why the hell are they still looting? They're just gonna get jumped by titans without even seeing them.' Eirlet curses in his mind as he figures out the people are those that they had split from.
Guessing they have a few minutes before they arrive, he grabs his equipment and walks to the sleeping man.
Nudging him in his back with his toe the man grumbles a bit before slowly getting up, "What? Izzit time already?" He yawns out, clearly not having his fill yet.
Shaking his head negatively, Eirlet hefts his bag in place, strapping it firmly as the man rubs the sleep from his eyes and notices his getup.
"Hey, why are you getting ready?" The man checks the light coming from the window, "Hell, it's not even time for the shift…" He trails off before he snaps his eyes to Eirlet who's nearly finished getting ready.
"Titans?" He asks quietly, along with a slight quiver which Eirlet ignores.
Shaking his head again he gestures for him to check himself as he slings his quiver on.
He grabs his pack as he slowly walks to the window, having to take a few more seconds before he catches sight of the group before he slowly moves back towards Eirlet who has his bow ready in his hand.
"Yep, let's get outta here." He with some urgency as he slings his bag on as well.
Turning around, the two start trekking through the house once more with Eirlet now in the lead. Reaching the bottom of the stairs Eirlet turns right and heads through a door that leads them into a dining room with a finely crafted table at the center.
"Where are we going?" The man nervously asks as he tries to keep pace with Eirlet whilst staying quiet. Ignoring his question, Eirlet rounds the table and heads through another door that opens up into a kitchen.
Dodging around the large work table at the center he makes a beeline towards the door at the back, stopping right before the door for a few seconds before slowly and silently opening the door, exposing the fresh night air.
Once the two enter Eirlet once again closes the door and turns back to their surroundings, a walled area large length-wise reserved for servants to do any dirty work they have which is available to every house in the area.
By now Eirlet is starting to hear hints of subdued sounds and voices, coming from over the wall closest to the street from his right, 'Shit, they're nearly at the intersection.'
With the initial plan of bolting down the other street before they reach them gone, he turns to the left as he slings his bow and eyes the over two meters wall.
Pushing off the ground he bounds to the base of it in a few steps before he jumps and plants a boot firmly on the wall before kicking himself higher up, latching onto the edge of the wall and pulling his body to the next area over with nary a sound.
Landing silently, Eirlet hears the young man quietly squawk over the wall but he's already moving. Jogging the few meters to cross the area, he once again jumps and pulls himself up, just as the young man flips his body over the wall as well but with much more noise.
Rather than going to the next area, he pulls his legs up onto the wall, it being just thick enough for him to place his feet.
Eirlet waits for the young man to pull himself up, with quite some effort, and get himself balanced before they start walking along the barrier, it being just thick enough to let them and allowing them to travel from one end of the street to the other discreetly.
Creak
The two hear the sound of a door open behind them, freezing them in place as they hear a conversation.
"...swear I heard something back here." A gruff voice speaks up first, coming from the back area of the house they just left.
"Yeah I did too but the hell is it." The other agrees, the two seemingly walking around the area from the sound of their footsteps.
Looking back at the young man, Eirlet gestures to him to stay silent and to stay low, getting a shaky nod in return. The two then start walking down the wall, the only sound from them being the shifting of their feet as they slowly cross to the next area.
"OI! There's some other people here!" The first voice from before yells out from behind.
Spinning his head around, Eirlet sees a man's face just over the wall, looking at them as he yells out to his comrades.
'Aw shit.'
"You better stop now little brats or we'll fuck you up!" He yells out.
Turning back around Eirlet picks up his pace, not caring for staying silent as a commotion starts picking up around them. He bounds down the wall, the young man barely keeping himself from slipping as he starts to lag behind Eirlet, the thug pulling himself up the wall as well just as they are halfway across the length.
"Gahh!" The young man grunts behind him. Slowing down, Eirlet looks behind him and sees that the young man had slipped from the wall but was able to catch himself and stay on.
Looking back, Eirlet picks up his pace again, wanting to quickly get out and onto the street before the thugs by the street can react and get there before him. He crosses a few more houses but just as he takes a step a chunk of the wall breaks off, taking his foot with it and making him tumble to the dirt ground.
Thump
Rolling harshly on the ground his back hits a wall with a -Smack-, leaving him groaning in pain as he lays sideways and tries to get his bearings.
Slowly placing his hands beneath him it takes a second for him to blink the stars out of his vision before he pushes himself into a kneeling position. Coughing a bit, he slowly pushes himself up just as the backdoor to the house he landed in slams open, a thug taking a step before noticing the unsteady boy.
"Ha! If it isn't the brat that fucked us over. Oh we're gonna enjoy killing you." He says menacingly as he stomps his way over.
Pulling his fist back, he launches it straight to Eirlet's face who ducks to the side and into his personal space. Not expecting him to dodge the man blanks for a moment before it's filled with pain, primarily due to the knee Eirlet drove as high as he could into his groin as he pulls away.
He gasps in pain as he falls to his knees, but wanting to get away quickly Eirlet leaves him and rushes for his bow, grabbing it just as he hears someone running from the house.
Turning around he sees a large man charging from the door, seemingly intent on tackling Eirlet. Rolling to the side he dodges the charging man who pulls himself just as he was about to hit the wall head-on.
Getting up from his roll, Eirlet readies his bow out and reaches over his shoulder, grabbing ahold of an arrow but before he can pull it out a brick from past his sight hits the large thug right in the temple, dropping him like a sack of potatoes.
Blinking in surprise he looks over to where it came from just as the young man appears, frantically jogging over the precarious wall.
"Come on!" He yells in a high-pitched voice as he flies past them.
Letting go of his arrow, Eirlet launches from the ground, quickly building up speed as he heads straight towards the still kneeling thug.
Looking back at the commotion with a tear-stricken face, all the man's greeted with is a boot in his back as Eirlet uses him as a launch platform to let him just barely clear the wall and land in a crouch on the wall.
Not letting off his momentum, he kicks off the wall, pumping more speed than before whilst staying aware of where he steps as he catches up to the young man. The commotion around them has gotten louder now with some people yelling from the street beside them.
The two huff, more for the young man, as they run down the wall, not knowing how much farther they have left to go due to the lack of light.
"Ledge!" The young man yells out as he slowly bleeds of momentum enough to not let him fly too far as he drops onto the ground below.
Following his lead, Eirlet also slows down enough to swing over to the ground safely, landing in a crouch beside the panting man.
"What now?" He asks between breaths.
Taking a breath himself, wincing slightly at the burn he feels on the side of his chest, he points down the pitch-black street, one perpendicular to the one their pursuers are coming from.
"Ok. Yeah alright." He agrees, still trying to catch his breath from their dash even as the two get up and start jogging, careful to stay close in case of a quick escape.
The two travel down the road for a couple of minutes, silently dodging rubble as they head out of the small wealthy area they were in and back into the outskirt housing of the town. Stopping inside a broken bar as the two take a break.
As he's washing his bloody scrapes, Eirlet notices the young man lost his hat, revealing his… her choppy lob auburn hair.
"What?" She questions in between gulps of water, noticing him staring at her.
He gestures to his hair and then to her head, making her quizzically reach for her head, freezing in place when she doesn't feel her hat and rather her hair instead.
"Uhh…" She dumbly says, her eyes wide as she looks at Eirlet tensely.
Tilting his head in confusion at her reaction he just shrugs and returns to applying some ointment from a small tin to his scrapes.
"Hey, umm… are you, are you alright?" She speaks up after a few seconds of silence, less nervous about her reveal but still jittery.
He glances at her and nods, taking a sip of his canteen as he throws the tin to her. She catches it with both hands, looking at its half-filled contents and back at him.
"...Thanks." She says as she starts applying the paste across her scrapped arms.
He lets her be as he gulps the last of his water, tapping the canteen to get every last drop before he packs it away.
"You don't care do you?" She says as she focuses on her elbows, "That I'm a girl out here."
He raises an eyebrow at the question, her taking a glance at him when he shakes his head negatively.
She hums at his answer, "My name's Isla. Might as well tell you now."
As he says nothing she turns to look at him, "You really don't like to talk do you?", she says with some annoyance.
Eirlet stays quiet, Isla opening her mouth to talk once more before the two still, the two hearing a splatter of screams coming from afar but close enough that they know it's from the group they were chased from.
Various screams abruptly end as others continue before the two start moving, slinging on their packs and ducking past the bar and through the backdoor. Past stacks of crates and barrels, the two see a door leading to the back of the building. Isla starts to head for the door before Eirlet gestures for her to stop, shaking his head when she turns to look at him.
"Why? We're too close to where that was." She asks in a whisper.
'Well, one reason is that there's probably more than one titan out there and I'd rather hide than be out in the open.' He shakes his head instead, not being able to communicate his reasoning.
After a moment of searching, his eyes lock onto a trapdoor in the corner of the room which he makes a beeline to. Dodging tipped crates spread about before reaching the door and pulling on its handle with a heave, it being heavier than it seems.
With some effort he opens it up, jerking away immediately as he makes a face at the putrid smell that was released. Isla who followed him takes a few steps back, waving a hand in front of her face as she holds her nose, "Oh god that smell." Eirlet agrees with her, not liking the smell of rotten meat one bit and now having doubts about heading down.
Faith has a different plan for him as he hears some noises from outside, soft but slowly getting more audible.
'Fuck! Why did they have to come here!' Eirlet curses, identifying the noise as footsteps rapidly getting closer, Isla hears them as well, turning her head to look at the door they came from.
Reaching into his pack he quickly withdraws two rags, one of which he throws to Isla whilst the other creates a makeshift bandana, shielding his nose as best as it can. Isla catches hers, looking torn between escaping through the backdoor or entering the cellar.
"Ah fuck it." She softly declares, rushing past him and down the stairs as she puts on her own mask. Following from behind, Eirlet takes a few steps down before reaching over to the door, pulling it over with a heave and closing it behind them, taking care to not make a loud bang as he shuts it, cutting off the small bit of light they had from the moon.
Now in pitch-black darkness, Eirlet keeps a hand on the wall, not wanting to injure himself by tripping just because he couldn't see.
"Hey, I'm over here." He hears Isla softly speak, her voice coming from further below. Stepping down the remaining steps he comes to a stop right behind her, taking a light grasp of her shoulder to let her know.
"Alright, the worst of the smell is coming from straight ahead from the stairs and I don't know about you but I'd rather stay far away from it and the stairs."
Agreeing with her judgement he taps a finger to let her lead. She moves perpendicular from the stairs, only taking a few steps until they reach the wall, and by the rattling of glass bottles when he touched it, full of liquor. Heading right they reach a small nook, boxed in by the stone staircase where they can't see the door and two walls full of barrels and bottles.
But the two still when they hear multiple footsteps walk above them, light voices accompanying them as they walk start walking around.
Eirlet pulls the two of them into the corner between the stairs and the wall, staying low and small as they hear the door to the backroom open, bringing along some harried voices.
"That shit was fucking brutal man." They hear a rough voice speak first.
"Well we're lucky we didn't chase after those brats then eh? Though I really want to kill those two fuckers that ran." Another, lighter voice says.
Eirlet can hear another joining in the conversation, 'Judging by their footsteps there's two others.'
For the next few minutes, the trio discuss what had happened and about their looting and supplies whilst the other two piped in from time to time as they recovered.
'So that group that chased us was essentially what was left of the looters that continued to stick together. From what I can tell these guys are just thugs that want to get rich quick and they're going strong just from not losing anybody.'
"Hey guys! Look at what I found!" A scratchy voice says jubilantly as they hear a pair of footsteps stop right above them, "The cellar probably still has its bottles in them!"
Eirlet curses himself in his mind for choosing a bar as a hiding spot, 'Please, please, please don't be idiots and come down for a drink out here.' He prays in his mind, even as he drops his pack and pulls an arrow silently from his quiver, startling Isla at his movements.
Chairs lightly scrape against the floor as two other people stand and head to the cellar door.
"Oh well goddamn Tarquin, you just saved my night." The first voice speaks, and the apparent leader speaks first.
The two sit silently as the door's heave opened, letting a little bit of light through but not enough for them to be visible nor for the two to have any better visibility.
"Aw what the fuck." Tarquin says, already sounding queasy as he backs up, the other two men also backing away from the door.
"What the hell died in there?" The third person asks.
"I don't know and I'm not going down there to find out. Oi Tarquin, go grab some light bottles, I don't wanna be dead on my feet in the morning." The rough voice orders, Tarquin squeaking some weak defences before caving.
"Alright, fine! But gimme the candle, I at least wanna see what I'm getting." Eirlet tenses at that.
'The cellar's too small, if he brings any sort of light down here he'll see both of us.' He shifts himself in front of the nervously breathing Isla as he nocks an arrow.
"Better be some good booze down here," Tarquin grumbles as he descends a few steps before lighting the candle.
Weak light illuminates the basement, letting them all see the bottles glinting in the light along with revealing a mummified corpse leaning against the far wall, an empty bottle in its hand.
Isla takes a slow breath behind him, fortunately keeping her surprise to a minimum.
"Who do ya think that is?" Tarquin as above, starting to slowly step down the staircase.
"Probably some schmuck from the culling, if I was him, I'd probably do the same. Now hurry up man, gotta drink quickly." The third man says before backing away from the door again.
"Yeah yeah," Tarquin responds under his breath, by now he's reached the bottom and Eirlet can now see the back of the rather normal-looking man.
Eirlet slowly raises his bow, careful not to make any sound as he pulls back on the bowstring.
"Yeaagh, that's disgusting," Tarquin says, kicking the corpse's foot as a goodbye as he turns to the shelves lining the wall.
The man gets close to the shelves and starts looking at the bottles, not noticing the arrow aimed right at him.
"Aha!" He lightly exclaims as he pulls a bottle from its rack, "Not too heavy, not too light." He says in a pleased tone as he turns to look for more.
He freezes however once he meets Eirlet's eyes, just barely registering that there's another person with him before there's an -Squelch- arrow protruding from his socket.
Eirlet can feel Isla's breath hitch slightly as the fresh body falls to the ground with a thud, the bottle he was holding shattering on the floor along with the smoking candle, its fire being doused by the arrow passing through it.
SMASH
The talking above them goes quiet at the deafening sound, everyone tense as they all wait for different reactions. Presumably hearing nothing happen outside, the third voice from before approaches the door slowly.
"Oi, Tarquin." He asks in a low voice, naturally getting no response.
As their trying to figure things out Eirlet's already moving for his next move, notching another arrow as he stops just before the corpse. Isla crouches along the wall the staircase provides, sticking close to it as she brings out a knife from her waistband.
The man walks a few steps down the staircase, bringing a new candle along with him, "Oi Tarquin. You good man?"
Once he's far enough Eirlet aims and releases, hitting the man in the side of his thigh, making him cry out in pain and tumble down the steps. Isla's already moving by the time he lands in a painful heap at the bottom with her knife cutting into the man's neck.
The men above start clamouring as soon as they hear their friend's cries of pain, yelling for him to answer their calls. As Isla moves back from the man bleeding out, Eirlet jumps over him and quietly races up the steps with an arrow nocked.
The first thing he sees once his eye's peek over the edge is another thug a bit to the left of the door who's picked up his musket. The man's eyes widen once he sees it's not someone he knows and opens his mouth to yell as he raises his rifle but Eirlet was ready, unleashing an arrow that punctures straight through the man's chest.
He quickly turns his eyes away as the man collapses on top of a crate he was using as a table, looking for the remaining two thugs in the room. The last two are in the far side of the room and have had enough time to raise their weapons, an axe in the larger man's hands whilst the other aims his own musket.
Leaping forward, Eirlet dodges the first -Bang- shot, hitting where he was moments ago as he rolls behind a crate, 'God I hope it was muffled enough.' He prays as he swings his arm for another arrow.
"I'm gonna fucking kill you kid!" The large man roars -his voice matching the leaders- as he runs towards where Eirlet is hiding and swings his large axe down. Hard. He rolls away just in time for the axe to shatter through the crate and embed itself where he was a moment ago.
Rolling to a stop on his back, Eirlet nocks his arrow and quickly shoots his bow diagonally, missing by a few inches, but distracting him long enough for Isla to stab into his back.
"Gyahh!" He roars in pain as he flails wildly and elbows her back with her knife still stuck in him.
Eirlet has no more time to watch before he has to roll once more to dodge the butt of a musket from caving his head in. He only has a moment of reprieve to get to his feet before starts dodging and weaving from the man's wild swings.
"Stay. Fucking. Still!" The man punctuates each word with a swing of his makeshift club.
Putting more power, the man swings his gun faster than before, forcing Eirlet to divert it from his body with his bow, leaving him unbalanced due to his size. Taking advantage of it, the man ditches his club and tackles himself into Eirlet who drops his weapon as well.
"Gack!" Spittle flies from his mouth as the two slam into a pile of crates that breaks under their weight.
Eirlet wheezes for a moment as he tries to focus through the pain. Feeling the man push down on his torso, he shoots a fist at what he thinks is the man's face, a smack and a grunt of pain rewarding his effort as he feels some weight off his chest.
With his knife pinned beneath him, Eirlet quickly looks for something to use, grabbing onto a broken piece from the crates, rotten, but still sharp enough to ruin someone's day.
He tries to swing it into the guts of the man hovering above him but a hand grabs his wrist, locking it in place as both sides struggle to move it. The opposing force soon gets an edge as the man swings his fist, landing it right on Eirlet's face, breaking the concentration on his arm long enough for the man to slam it into the ground and lose his grip on his weapon.
Before Eirlet even blinks the stars from his eyes he flings his other arm around.
SMASH
And shatters the empty bottle against the man's head who immediately slumps to the side.
Dropping the jagged bottle, Eirlet breathes out a shaky breath before he hears a small cry from Isla and the slam of a door. Grunting in exertion, he shoves the slack body off the remainder of his side before standing up and looking around for the other scuffle.
'Looks like the other guy ditched his friend.' He thinks, looking at the open backdoor leading to the dark alley before a cough catches his attention.
Looking to the cellar he sees a frazzled Isla quickly hopping up the stairs with her bloody knife in hand before she catches sight of him and calms down.
She takes a quick glance around the room before landing on his opponent who has a rather noticeable dent on his skull, "Yours?"
He nods before jerking his head towards her and pointing to the open door with a questioning grunt.
"We heard a bottle shatter -looks like from you- and he charged at me and shoved me down the stairs. Probably ran after cause I got him good for that last one but imma have quite a few bruises in the morning." She explains as she rubs her side and turns around to limp back down the steps, "I'll grab go grab our stuff, now we really can't stay here."
He nods in agreement and tiredly hobbles to his bow, wincing at the pain from his back, 'I won't be able to sleep on my back for a week man.'
Sighing, Eirlet picks up his bow from where he dropped it -noticing it none worse for wear- before securing the backdoor. Satisfied the man wasn't waiting for them to poke their heads out he shuts the door before heading to the packs on the men.
Rifling through them gives him a nice pile of trinkets that he puts at about two gold. By the time Isla emerges with both packs slung over her shoulders he's finished up applying some paste from where he was hit.
Setting the packs on the table he offers the pack with the remainder of the medical supplies he 'confiscated'.
The two clean themselves up as best as they can, eating the few supplies they found in the other packs -with Isla finding another hat- before the two are ready to leave.
Stepping out into the once again quiet street the two cautiously navigate through the streets as the barest hint of dawn lights the sky. Fortunately, the two exit the town without trouble and reach the top of the hill they were on just barely half a day ago just as the dawn light shines in earnest.
Seeing no threats in the large plain which the dirt path cuts through Eirlet takes a step down the hill before Isla grabs his pack and jerks him down.
"Shit!" She curses with a quivering voice as she just barely pokes her head over the hill. With a foreboding feeling, Eirlet slowly follows her lead, his eyes widening at the sight that greets him.
When they were on this hill the day before there were no titans in sight, now Eirlet can see about half a dozen of various sizes and proportions standing from various parts of the forest around town with another head poking out from some roofs from the town itself. And all look to have the town as their destination.
'Fuck. They probably caught the scent of a human from the town and are now hunting for one.' He rapidly thinks, remembering some information from the journal he had found two years ago.
He grabs onto Isla's shirt, pulling her back as he quickly shuffles down the hill and makes a break for it down the path with Isla following a few steps behind without complaint.
With their feet rapidly beating on the ground the two cover the ground between the hill and the farm within a few minutes and grind to a stop at the treeline.
Looking back Eirlet focuses his senses, listening for the tell-tale signs of a pursuing titan but fortunately hearing nothing around them. Isla has her hands on her knees as she gasps for breath, the fatigue of the past two days lowering her stamina, even Eirlet's own is shot, needing to take a couple of deep breaths to feed his body.
The two take a few minutes to catch their breath -more Isla than Eirlet- before the two are off again, trying to make more ground faster than their arrival as the two don't want to stay out any longer.
Unfortunately, the two had to take a few detours when Eirlet heard quite a few rumbling steps in the distance, delaying them but not by much. They come across the remains of the first 'battle' of their excursion, only pieces of human remains are left. An arm there, the bottom half of a man over here with copious amounts of blood spread across the field with swarms of flies buzzing around.
Eirlet scrunches his nose as he looks at the carnage, having seen his fair share of gore but not by this measure. Although holding it quite well, Isla looks decidedly more green than per norm but loses her lunch once he points out the ball of meat a little ways away.
After they go around the bloody field they don't come across any more meatballs and with that as a motivator, they soon reach the expanse plain surrounding Wall Rose.
Putting her hand up to block the glare from the sun, Isla looks out to the wall, "Seems we missed the spot by a kilometre."
Eirlet hums in agreement as he sees the row of cannons that the squad were working maintenance on about that distance.
Eirlet relaxes more and more as they get closer to the squad, having seen them already and having sent an elevator down partway. Before they reach the elevator though Eirlet hands Isla a sheet of paper.
"What's this?" She questions as she reads the single name on the paper, "Eirlet? That your name?"
He nods as she reads his name once more before snorting, "It's better than what I was thinking at least, thought your name would be Kye or some shit."
He smiles slightly as they reach the waiting elevator and settle themselves down inside, waiting for the time for them to pull up for the day.
"Here." Glancing at her he puts his hand, catching in his hand the ring she drops.
Looking at Isla he raises his eyebrow questioningly, "Consider this repayment for keeping my ass out of a titans jaws."
Looking closer at the ring, he sees that the jewel is a tad too big for it to be just repayment, "Also, I'm coming the next time as well so it'd be nice if we'd team up again."
Mulling over her request he slowly nods in agreement as he pockets the ring, making Isla grin in happiness.
They are forced to wait for another hour before the elevator is pulled back up. While yesterday the elevator was nearly packed with people, now there are barely over a dozen people left, some looking dazed whilst others grin as they talk to their groups, clearly having a good haul.
"OI! HEY! STOP!"
Hearing screaming in the distance, everyone looks over the edge of the elevator and sees one of the three horseback riders from before galloping towards them, with five titans sprinting behind him.
"Stop the elevator!" The man stained in red screams at them, noticeably missing an arm as a sleeve flaps in the wind.
The elevator jerks slightly as it picks up speed. Both Eirlet and Isla stand up as those around them start to get concerned, 'Shit, the titans are gonna reach us before we get high enough.'
Having just left the ground, they're indeed not going to reach even a quarter of the way up before the titans are on them and Eirlet's not the only one who noticed.
"Fuck! Shoot his horse!" The few remaining thugs with guns gather at the edge once they notice the problem and start unloading their ammunition.
All of the bullets miss, hitting the ground around the man or clipping the man himself.
"FUCK!" The man curses at the pain but doesn't lose any of his speed.
"Reload quickly!" The men scramble to load their muskets, hoping to be quick enough.
Eirlet watches the men pour gunpowder down their guns, looks to the approaching titans who will reach them in a few seconds and then to the rising elevator.
Approaching the edge, he pulls his bow out, notching an arrow from his quiver on the string as he gazes at the desperate man. Slowly breathing in, he raises his bow and sets his sights on his target, tracking the man who meets his eyes.
"PLEASE! WA-!" His horse flips over with a painful neigh, launching them both to the ground in a near-fatal tumble. The chasing titan though? They seal his fate as they launch themselves, squashing the two beings beneath their weight as they pile on top of one another.
Eirlet exhales, lowering his bow minus an arrow as the titans mere a dozen meters away try to clamber out of the pile they made, the one on top getting up first who walks towards them.
Everyone backpedals as far away from its outstretched hand, holding their breaths as its fingers just graze the edge of the elevator, swaying it slightly as they get out of its reach.
With the calamity averted they all relax, muttering with each other as a few look over the edge at the group of titans below them.
Eirlet settles back in his spot, calmly breathing and nodding back to those who thank him. Isla leans on the railing beside him, both quiet as the elevator nearly reaches the top.
"Thanks."
He nods once more.
"You good?"
He pauses at that, slowly closing his eyes and opening them before nodding again.
'Yeah… I'm good.'
