Chapter 18: The Fury
"Pwah! Goddamnit!"
Smash
A bottle shatters against a tree, dousing the trunk with alcohol.
"How the fuck did they get away from us!?" The thin man yells in a drunken rage as his horse trots on grass, huffing heavily with every step. Nearly two dozen others wearing similar armour despondently trot along with him, heads down as they let their leader vent.
"Venti! Venti show yourself! Imma gut you like a pig!" He screams with a red face as he pulls out a sword from his waist, swinging it around him and forcing those around him to duck and trot their horses away less they lose their head.
"Boss! Boss! Venti's dead!" The leader's bloodshot eyes focus on the young man that spoke up, the man looking to regret bringing his boss's attention to himself.
Seeing his boss's hand grip his sword even tighter, he quickly spews out an explanation, "I saw more titans coming toward us when we were running, the few I saw already had blood on them. I- I don't think him and his men could tell us in time."
The leader grinds his teeth as he keeps staring at the man, the man paling the longer he keeps staring but he breathes a sigh of relief when he looks away in anger.
'Fifty men! Fifty! And it took only three of those monsters to kill half my men, all for just for a brat and his girlfriend.'
"Fucking useless." He mutters under his breath, cursing as he feels his alcohol stash empty.
Squinting his eyes through the midday sun, he looks at a dark spot on the road ahead, getting closer he can see that it's more a red colour… His eyes widen as he recognizes where they are, snapping his reins, his horse gives a tired neigh as it slowly tries taking off in a gallop, the horse made for farm work or pulling carriages, not for outrunning titans, "Get moving! That titan's nearby!"
His men give out exclamations as he takes off, instantly pushing their horses to follow him at the word 'titan'. Once they gallop over the dark spot their confusion dissipates as they spot the limbs thrown to the side of the path, the limbs of the two who got caught by a titan that ambushed them on their way.
Soon their group starts spreading out as those with stronger horses pull ahead of the weaker ones even as they forcefully try pushing them to go faster.
"C'mon you stupid animal! Go faster!" The man at the very back screams as he digs his heels into the side of the horse, the steed letting out a pain wheeze as it stomps harder on the ground.
Blood pumping through him, he doesn't hear another horse coming from behind him until its galloping right beside him. He dumbly looks at the muscled beast beside him, much larger and stronger than his own as it effortlessly keeps pace with him. Bringing his gaze higher, his eyes land on the hooded rider of the horse.
"Wha-"
Crack
The sole of a boot fills his vision as it crushes his nose to dust. Head snapping back, his mind blanks with pain as he feels blood stream like a river down his nostrils. Raising a hand, he cradles his face in pain as his other hand lets go of the reins and reaches to his side for his sword.
Unsheathing it, he brandishes it towards his assaulter, intent on slicing through him but what he's met with is the barrel of a gun.
Schlick
The bayonet on the end pierces through his neck, instantly going all the way through before roughly pulling itself out. He can feel his strength leaving him as he chokes on his own blood, distantly he can feel the man pulling his sword from his grasp as his horse starts to slow.
Slumping forward on the saddle, the last he sees is the back of the hooded man accelerating ahead of him, gun and sword in hand as he starts his hunt.
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Thump
As the horse falls behind with no rider pushing it beyond its limits, Eirlet pushes his own ahead, Lowry's superior strength letting them easily catch up to the next two who haven't noticed their number lessen by one.
Pulling up between them, the one on his right gets only a single glance before a bayonet pierces through his eye.
"Han!" The other exclaims at the sight but doesn't get to do much beyond it before Eirlet slashes his new sword, the blade roughly digging halfway through the man's neck. Gritting his teeth through the pain from his forearm, Eirlet pulls back with a heave, freeing his sword and letting the head droop to the side, just barely attached to the corpse as blood spews from the stump.
But his scream unfortunately catches the attention of those just ahead of him, the three screaming in fear at the sight of their headless compatriot. Tucking the musket under his armpit, Eirlet aims as best he can with a single arm.
"The brat's here! Turn arou-!"
Bang
The bullet slams straight through his center of mass, shattering through his spine in the process as he coughs up blood and slips off his steed.
Eirlet grunts as the musket flies away from the recoil and ignores the -Crunch- sound of bone snapping beneath Lowry's hoof. Shaking his sore wrist, he passes his sword over to his right as they get closer to the remaining two, the one at the front doing his best to turn in his saddle with a musket while the other brandishes her sword toward him.
He quickly pulls up beside her and swings his sword, the woman clumsily blocking his strike, clearly not trained in swordsmanship unlike him. Twisting his sword in the lock between the two, he pushes the sword up at an awkward angle, giving him access to her entire torso.
Pulling his sword arm across his chest, he prepares to cut right through her before a shiver of warning passes through him and he notices movement in his peripheral. Aborting his strike he pulls his right foot free from his stirrup and yanks himself over the side of Lowry and just -Bang- dodges the bullet that passes over.
"Shit!"
Hanging onto the side of his thundering horse with an injured arm and his legs wrapped as tight as he can, Eirlet strains as he pulls himself back up and hastily raises his sword to block another strike from the woman.
With the advantage of surprise, she sends another strike but this time he tilts his sword to the side, letting the blade slide right off his and unbalances her. This time there's no interference when he sweeps his sword, cutting right into her abdomen with her armour doing nothing but slow his blade to a stop halfway through her body.
Eirlet ignores her scream of pain as he pulls his reins to the side, letting Lowry's weight pull the blade free as her scream dulls into a groan as she slumps over on her horse, blood freely flowing from the dying woman over the poor horse's back.
"No!" A grief laden voice screams at him. Flicking the blood and pieces of flesh off his blade, he looks ahead as the man that tried shooting at him earlier aims his rifle at him once more with a face filled with rage.
Bang
Eyes wide, Eirlet looks down. Patting his body, he doesn't feel any pain nor see any blood, neither from Lowry either as he pulls up beside the stunned man.
Schlick
He doesn't feel a smidgen of pity as he stabs the man through his chest, the shock never leaving the man's face as he slumps over his saddle once he pulls his blade out.
"Get the bastard!"
Bringing his gaze back ahead, he narrows them as four muskets point back at him and two sword wielding men slow their horses to get on par with him. With no cover between him and the guns, he knows he can't get Lowry to dodge in time as he sees all the muskets lock onto them.
Flickering his eyes to the side, a feral grin plasters itself on his face.
Crash
All six don't get time to react as a massive hand grabs one of the gunmen, horse included, and drags them high in the air, man and beast flailing as the mountain of flesh stands to its feet and throws both right in its mouth.
"AHH-!"
Crunch
"Tit-TITAN! Shoot it!" The three remaining lose their cool as they aim their weapons up, but every shot misses as their horses jerk beneath them in fright, pulling at the reins with one even stopping to turn despite its riders efforts.
The titan steps onto the path as it keeps chewing, blood flowing down to its beard as it reaches down to grab the horse that stopped.
"No no no! Save me!" The man screams as he gets locked in the titan's hand, one which Eirlet ignores as he passes through the long legs of the titan, Lowry not even twitching in fear as they do, and wipes a drop of blood off his shoulder from the -Crunch- titan having its meal.
"Don't! There's a titan! You don't wanna die do yo-?!" Eirlet cuts off his pleading with a swift decapitation, the head flying off into the air as the headless body slumps back and slips off the scared horse.
With the already weakened group being cut in half, being chased by their bloodthirsty target and a massive titan once more, Eirlet can see many of them harden themselves as they know what they must do, but he can see equally as many with tears in their eyes as they push their horses even faster.
Brandishing his sword, Eirlet doesn't hesitate as he hears the titan pick up speed behind him as the two swordsmen box him between them. Ducking beneath the slash of one, he deflects the piercing strike of the other to the side and grabs the outstretched arm with his free hand and yanks.
The man squawks in surprise at the unexpected force of the pull as he's pulled onto Lowry's back with but a foot in his own stirrup keeping his horse close. Raising his blade again, he deflects the next swing from the other man, this time down to where his victim is.
The scream of pain below him as the sword chops his arm off is music to his ears, along with the scream of fright from the other man as a bloody arm comes to a rest in his lap. Letting go of the remains of the man's arm, he slams an elbow down on the top of his head, disorienting him before palming a hand to his face and shoving him.
The man screams in a panic as he loses the only support keeping him from falling and painfully slams into the ground, not even getting a chance to groan in pain before he gets dragged along for a ride with his horse, his foot still stuck on the stirrup.
Ignoring the fallen man as he starts getting dragged back towards the titan, he focuses back onto his other opponent who finally gets over his squeamishness and throws the arm in disgust, just in time to lock blades with him.
Unfortunately for Eirlet, the man's much stronger than the others and quickly starts to overpower him as his muscles bulge. Grunting with effort, Eirlet struggles to keep the sword away from him, but it slowly starts inching his own blade closer to his neck
He tugs the reins to the side, Lowry easily getting the message as he tightens his muscles and with a neigh, bodychecks the weaker horse, the sheer weight and power behind it enough to make the horse lose its footing and drop to the ground, front-flipping as it does and slamming the screaming man to the ground.
Crunch
'Looks like the rest of them are finally coordinating,' he muses as he sees their boss fearfully giving out orders as he glances behind at his pursuers, his fear sobering him up quite quickly.
Sheathing his sword and releasing the reins, he swings his bow from the back and nocks an arrow. Bending his knees, he raises his bow and pulls back, taking a breath and slowly releasing it as he narrows onto the shifting form of one of six men looking to intercept him.
Thunk
Feeling something slam into him, the man looks down at his chest where he sees a bloody arrow tip poking through, right where his heart is. Dropping the musket in his hands, he feebly grabs onto the wooden shaft as the rest of the men exclaim in alarm as he slumps over in his saddle.
The surprise buys Eirlet enough time for the horse with the corpse to slow close enough where its right beside him. Pulling his feet free, he grabs onto the back of the saddle before pulling himself over to the tired horse, right behind the body of the man he just killed.
Lowry himself moves slightly away from him now but keeps pace with the slower horse which he pushes to keep moving. Peeking over the body's shoulder, he sees the remaining five point their guns at him as best they can, each taking their time to aim.
Ducking back down, he grabs onto the shaft of the arrow stemming from the back and pulls, straightening the body as best as a corpse can be and braces himself.
Bang Bang Bang
All three bullets hit dead onto his meat shield, two slamming right to its chest and making him grunt from the force of them. The third though blows the head of the man off, showering Eirlet with bits of skull fragments and brain.
Wrinkling his nose in disgust, Eirlet waits for the final two shots and they do come. The first -Bang- misses to his side, and he can clearly hear the shooter curse at his shot. The second though grazes -Bang- the neck of the horse which reacts to the new pain.
Doing his best to stay still on the injured and frightened animal, he shoves his shield off the horse for more -Thump- room as he -Thunk- releases the arrow he pulled from the body, piercing the head of one of the gunmen and toppling him off his horse.
Whistling for Lowry, he notches another arrow as his steed comes to his side and he releases -Thunk- it, this one unfortunately missing the man's heart but does pierce into his chest, an injury fatal enough given the bloody coughing fit the man devolves into.
Grabbing back onto his saddle, he drags himself over and lets the poor animal slow down, thankfully dodging the swinging legs of the titan that ignores it and keeps chasing after the remaining humans.
The remaining three knowing they can't sit and load their weapons as he picks them off drop their guns, but rather than charge him, two of them disengage from him, pulling their horses ahead as they leave the lone man to brandish his sword.
"Cowards!" The older looking man yells, very explicit curses following his words.
Pulling the drawstring back, he releases it at the lone man and cleanly pierces his side, but it seems as he's made with sterner stuff as he just grunts in pain and focuses his attention on him. The man immediately goes for a swing once he's close enough, forcing Eirlet to not go for another shot and block with his bow.
His eyes widen in shock when he sees the wood get a small nick, but thankfully nothing too bad as it holds up against the blade which his opponent disengages from first. Eirlet doesn't get any chance to reach for his blade as he's forced to deflect an overhead swing.
Swiping his bow to the side, the man blocks the bow straight on, grunting in surprise at the weight behind it but still pushing it back. Doing his trick once more, he pulls on Lowry's reins and his loyal steed follows, slamming his body into the horse but the man reacts fast and grabs onto Eirlet's clothes tightly and pulls his own rein to the side, dispersing the force and letting him and his horse stay upright.
Eirlet swings his elbow straight for the man's face which he dodges by tilting his head. Dropping his sword, the man reaches over and grabs the other side of his body and he's heaved off his saddle and slammed face first onto the man's horse, a scene quite like what he himself did just a bit ago.
He grunts at the force he hits the galloping horse at, but his eyes widen in alarm as he feels the man pull him further up.
"Die!" The man prepares to throw Eirlet, but he doesn't sit still and throws his bow over the man, looping his head in between the string and shaft just as the man throws him to the side.
Crack
Eirlet doesn't register the man's neck break from the sheer force of his weight hitting the ground, too busy trying to put his feet beneath him as he slides across the grassy path, feet skidding off the ground they painfully hit the odd rock in the way and stub his toes.
Thankfully he doesn't need to endure it for long as Lowry comes around the slowing horse and beside him, close enough to grab onto the saddle and pull himself on just as his bow slides off the hold it had on the man's broken neck.
With a huff, he ignores the pain from his feet and the drips of blood coming through the bandages from his forearm and takes a moment to catch his breath. Behind him he can still hear the titan as close as it was when they started the chase, but up ahead, they haven't kept their pace. He can visibly see the horses start to slow as they hit the dredges of their stamina, slowing down no matter the titanic danger behind and the insistence of their riders.
'Eight left.'
Drawing his bow, he gets to kill two more men before the rest decide to shoot back, just as the surroundings start to give way to a meadow, the massive Wall previously hidden by the trees just a few kilometers away. Staying low and close to Lowry, he snaps his reins as he pushes him to his full speed as bullets fly by them.
It takes but moments for him to gain on the back of the group, but he doesn't draw his sword, instead he dodges the swings of the men trying to hit him with their swords or bayonets and knocking the few that he can't with his bow. Soon he's passed the five, their horses unable to keep up their pace and his own far faster at his top speed.
He can hear their confusion as he leaves them, eyes locked to the figure farther ahead on a horse looking quite similar to his own, larger and stronger than his men's. As he gains speed, he can hear those he left behind begin their screams, taking a small glance behind him, he can see two horses in the titan's hands, one already crushed to a bloody pulp while the other approaches its mouth, the last three remaining splitting up and riding in other directions.
Thump Thump Thump
'Seems there's no escape but up.'
Titan's burst from the edge of the forest in the distance on either side of them, a whole horde of different sizes and abnormals. The remaining three seem to come to the same decision as they gallop towards the Wall, no matter that their following him.
Squinting his eyes he can see the elevator moving down, nearly a quarter of the way down as the leader gets closer.
'Even their in on it?' His mood worsens at that as he drills a hole in the back of the leader.
But it seems his steed is on par with Lowry as no matter what, he can't close the distance enough to let off a shot, shooting on horseback too inaccurate for him to hit a man well over a half a kilometer away.
He watches with gritted teeth as the elevator gets three-fourths of the way down, the man slowing his horse down, "Hurry up you fucks! He's coming!" He screams up in fear as he glances back at Eirlet and the horde of titans coming from all sides.
Even with him too far, Eirlet pulls back on the draw string and -Thunk- misses by a long shot. He tightens his grip on the bow, his knuckles turning white as the elevator get's closer and… stops?
He watches as the elevator stops just meters above the man, joy slowly filling him as it doesn't move and the man himself starts screaming like a banshee, probably loud enough to reach all the way up the Wall too.
"What do you think you're doing! Bring it down now! I paid you fucks dozens of gold!" Every word fills Eirlet with glee as the man gets desperate, his orders moving to begging as he slows Lowry until he's meters away from the man.
"Ah- We, we can talk about this! Come now I- I have gold! That's what you want right! I can give it to you!" He rambles, it getting faster as a grin he didn't know grows on his face, Lowry takes a step, "I can tell you who hired us! It was the Umbrel-!"
An arrow pierces his hand, making him scream in pain as he lets go of his reins before Eirlet grazes another by his horse, making it rear on its hind legs and make the man topple over its back.
He ignores the horse as it slowly gallops away and lets Lowry trot over to the whimpering man holding his hand. Distantly he can hear the titans get closer but keeps his gaze on the man as he tries to get to his feet, face twisted in pain with tears flowing down his cheek.
The man takes but a shaky step before -Thunk- another arrow lodges itself in his knee, dropping him to the ground as his screams resume. Swinging his bow over his shoulder, Eirlet drops himself from the saddle, giving his huffing steed a pat on his neck as he lets him trot over to the elevator that dropped all the way to the ground.
Slowly he walks over to the man laying prone on the ground, his uninjured hand gripping his knee as he watches in fear as Eirlet approaches.
"Stop! You can't do this! My brother will kill you for this! He'll find you and kill y-!" He cuts himself off with a scream, head tilting back as pain fills his mind. Grinding his foot further on the wounded leg, nearly dislocating it, he steps back, letting the man catch his breath as he whimpers.
Reaching down, the man doesn't resist as Eirlet searches through his pockets, taking a jingling bag of coins and stuffing it in his belt. Shoving him over to his side, he ignores the sobs coming from him as he reaches into his pockets, retrieving a crumpled letter. Stuffing it into his pack, he retrieves the final thing of import.
Crack
'Oops,' he says in his head with no real sympathy as the man writhes beneath him, holding up the ring he's seen previously for inspection.
'Same words, but better quality. Silver maybe?' Gripping the ring hard in his hand, he turns around and walks away, stepping onto the elevator and beside Lowry who lowers his head and nudges Eirlet who obliges and starts scratching him.
With both on and the titans uncomfortably close, the elevator starts to raise itself, something the wounded man notices as well, "Wait! Please no! I don't want to die!" He pleads as he tries to crawl himself over as best he can, but Eirlet just gazes at him blankly, soon raising beyond his view.
Thump Thump Thump
The titan's didn't take long to reach the Wall.
He takes satisfaction in the near silence as the elevator rumbles as they reach the top, coming to the scene of all eight squad members gripping their rifles tight, eyes sharper than he's seen as they watch him.
The squad leader steps forward, letting out a puff of smoke as he takes in Eirlet's disheveled and bloody state, the bandage on his arm long soaked with blood with bruises already forming on his arms and likely every other part of his body.
He lets out a sigh as he motions his men to relax, most keeping hold of their weapons but at least no longer as tense, "The girl?"
Eirlet just stares at the man for a moment, before slowly shaking his head, making him let out another sigh as he runs a hand through his hair.
"Dammnit," he whispers.
Catching his attention, he nods over his shoulder where they can still hear titans roaming around below, "Ah, don't know who they are but they came a bit after you two left. Paid a whole bag of gold to let them back on whenever, no matter if there's titans, more than enough to explain away why the elevator broke if it did."
He nods along with that, before pointing to himself, "You? No, didn't know they were after you, didn't wanna talk to the condescending bastard much. But considering I rather like you, and you seemed to have the situation in hand, it wasn't much of a choice." He says matter-of-factly.
Giving a slow nod to him, they stay silent for a moment before Eirlet tugs at Lowry's reins and they walk across the Wall and step onto the elevator, heading back into the lands held by Humanity. Where he's going to help the titan's cull out some of their number.
"Good luck kid." With that farewell, the elevator lowers.
Reaching for the letter, he looks over the plain paper with a keen eye, no marking of any sort on the front as he unfolds the letter.
Bart,
Sherbolt's kid is a problem for us and our 'benefactors'. He is a small-timer right now, but he is young, given Gavec's has taken him as a student, we do not want him to grow. He goes out on the expeditions outside the Wall, take your men and end him out there, make sure everyone thinks he died to titans.
'Bart. Brother of Rico, leader of a smuggling and slaving group that controls most of the hidden passages not taken by bigger operations spread across villages outside of Sina.'
Hitting the ground, he mounts Lowry once more and they go off in a trot, taking one last glance at the Wall as he rubs his necklace.
'Time to clean up.'
