-Chapter 3: A Scout Named Moses-

Somewhere deep in the Forest of Giant Trees

'These giants are both the stupidest and most persistent bunch that I've ever met...' He thought as he swung his mace, completely obliterating the head of another said stupid giant.

He had been keeping these giants at bay for quite a while now, so long that the clouds above the forest began to darken, and rain had begun to downpour. He didn't seem to mind nor care about the change in weather, as he was completely focused on the multiple threats around him. While they weren't the brightest bunch, they made up for it in numbers. That and the fact that even a blow to the head didn't seem to keep them down.

"Damn regenerators..." He cursed as he saw a few of the fallen begin to rise again, their steaming heads slowly growing back. He ran to the nearest one and swung his mace again, this time destroying the area of the head completely. It seemed to work as the corpse stopped twitching and began to disintegrate right before him.

"There we go! That's the ticket!" He shouted as he finally found the weakness. He couldn't help but smile at this small accomplishment.

With this newfound knowledge he continued on his path of carnage, crippling the legs of any giant that got too close and with all his might, then turned them into headless, neckless, steaming corpses. As he tore his way through the horde, he noticed in the corner of his eye, an oddball among their ranks.

It moved on all fours, its limbs bending in a most unnatural way.

It stalked its way around the forest in the back of the rest of the group.

Its eyes were focused on him at all times, as if they were the only two beings on this earth.

"Look like we got a special case here." In truth he had noticed him much earlier seeing as it was the only giant that didn't immediately run after him at first sight. No, this "abnormal" seemed to be bidding its time, waiting for the right opportunity to strike. Seemed like it found one as it suddenly leap straight for the marked man right as he turned his back to it, its mouth was wide open ready to swallow him whole, only for its head area to meet and explode against hard and enchanted obsidian, as the man jumped a great length in the air and brought down the thunder.

With the oddball down, the marked man quickly ran up a tree just as another one leapt at him. He scaled up a branch to see that were only a few left standing, and how fortunate that they were gathered in one singular area, straight below him. Seeing them all bunched up gave the man and idea.

"Let's see now, eeny, meeny, miny, Y O U!" He pointed at one in the center and while raising his morning star he jumped down from the tree with a front flip. Using the momentum, he spun his way downward towards the awaiting giant, its mouth wide open to receive a tasty meal. Instead of flesh the giants mouth made contact with an odd cold taste, before its entire upper body exploded in a fountain of blood and bone, the force of the impact creating a shockwave that sent the nearby giants stumbling back and falling flat on their backs.

The marked warrior rose from the steaming remains and with a glowing flash, raced towards the incapacitated giants, finishing them off before they got the chance to get back on their feet. With the threats taken care of, he looked around him to see the steaming trail of skeletal corpses he left behind. Even as the rain still poured down, it didn't look like the bodies would cool down anytime soon.

"Hah! Still got the touch!" He rested his weapon on his shoulder and stood proudly at his work, proud to see that he was still capable of accomplishing such feats.

He was brought back to reality as he heard a few more giants in the distance. However, they seemed to be heading in another direction further away from him. He followed them at a distance, curious as to what was attracting them. It wasn't long before his mind came up with an answer.

"If they were so desperate to get me, then there must be…others."

With a determined look he raced towards the direction the giants were heading in, not before running behind the lumbering group, and swinging his mace, shattering their tendons. Hopefully, that would buy him time to help out whatever unfortunate souls had wandered into this giant-infested forest.

-oOo-

To say that the situation had gone awry would be a severe understatement.

They had done this many times before, just like those scouts before them, and like many times they were pushed back to the walls with heavy casualties and shattered hopes. Perhaps however, today would be different. Perhaps today the Survey Corps would finally gain a foothold in the territory of their most hated enemy. Perhaps this expedition wouldn't end in failure.

However, it would seem like lady luck wasn't on their side…again.

The expedition had started off well enough. They rode out 100 strong out into the unknown. However, the first signs of trouble began as the clouds in the sky began to darken and rain followed suit. Still, they soldiered on, determined to establish a stronghold in titan territory. As they came close to the forest of giant trees, they encountered their most feared and hated enemy. The enemy of mankind itself.

The Titans

At 400 meters the expedition separated into five groups, one group acting as "bait" while the rest attacked the titan from multiple directions. With the use of specially made maneuvering gear the attacking groups flew around the lumbering giant, aiming for the only weak spot these man-eating creatures seemed to have. The nape of the neck.

Moses, a young but experienced scout would claim the kill, as he spun his body, gaining enough momentum to slice off the nape and add another tally to his kill-count. For he had personally sworn to avenge his brothers, to protect humanity, to finally show these titans the power of the human race. With the threat dealt with the scout pushed further into the forest.

As said before, lady luck did not smile upon them.

More titans appeared out of the forest, and with the rain continuing to pour down, the scouts' visibility was severely dampened. Yet, the Survey Corps continued forward, confident that their training and experience would see them through. Suddenly, the group serving as decoys were ambushed and that was when all hell broke loose.

Some of the newer recruits, against the wisdom of the older members swooped down in an effort to save their comrades only to be caught themselves. The veterans fared no better as titans came out of the trees with unnatural stealth and grabbed them out of the air. The scouts organized force soon fell into disarray as the fight turned to the titans favor as more showed up out of the trees and number of scouts soon began to drop.

Moses could only stare on in defiance against his hungry captor, his body in its crushing grip. Despite his right arm being free he couldn't do much as he lost his grip on his operating device the moment he was caught.

"Fucking rookie mistake!" He cursed to himself. To think he was done in by his own nerves and lack of awareness. If he had kept his focus, he wouldn't be in this situation.

As he was brought closer, he couldn't help but look at the chaos around him. Recruits and veterans alike were smacked into trees, some maneuvered around the titans hoping to get their weak spots, only to be grabbed, the commander barked out orders trying to keep order among the regiment, a scout wailed and cried as his leg was gnawed on. Even humanity's best was pinned down among a large group of abnormals.

The expedition had failed.

The Survey Corps had failed.

He had failed.

As he continued to look on waiting for the end, he noticed a faint blue glow in the steaming mist. It seemed to be getting closer as the glow was shining brighter every second. The surviving scouts had noticed the glow as well and looked on at the strange anomaly in the mist, even stranger were the titans, as they too looked in the direction of the blue glow.

His eyes widened in surprise as the strange glowing figure shot out of the mist, revealing itself to be a man. A giant man with glowing eyes and markings all around his body. A man who was raising a glowing spiked weapon of sorts high in the air while shouting out a savage war cry. A man who was running straight for the titan that held him. A man who was also completely naked.

He was left completely stupefied as he saw the man jump a great height and grab the titan by its hair, pulling its head back away from him, and swung the spiked weapon down. The titans entire head and neck exploded sending hot blood in all directions. As Moses closed his eyes to avoid getting them sprayed with blood, he felt the grip of the titan loosening and was soon felt himself in freefall. However, instead of the hitting the bone breaking ground he felt something catch him.

Slowly opening his eyes, he was met with the glowing orbs of the marked man. Time seemed to stop as the man gently placed him down on the ground and backed away to give him space. The marked man continued to stare at him for a few seconds before giving a relieved sigh and picking up his weapon and running towards the horde of titans, leaving young Moses to be carried up by two scouts towards the safety of the tall trees. As the events that just transpired processed through his mind, he was left with one word in his thoughts.

"W-what?"

-oOo-

The marked man had arrived just in time to save an unfortunate soul from both being eaten and falling to his doom. After placing the young man down and making sure he was alright, he picked up his mace and quickly ran towards another giant. He took advantage of the fact that the dopey eyed man-eaters still hadn't moved and jumped towards one of them and swung his weapon down H A R D, destroying both the head and neck completely and creating another shockwave, sending nearby giants stumbling back. This seemed to kick their hungry minds into gear as the horde now set upon him and only him, just like he wanted.

The surviving scouts looked on in utter shock as what they were witnessing from the relative safety of the tree branches. This man, who came out of nowhere was single-handedly taking on the horde that had caused them much grief. They were left in awe as he jumped high into the air, without any maneuvering gear, to meet a 7 meter and swung his glowing weapon down on its head, effectively killing it as it collapsed under its weight. The marked warrior quickly moved onto another, and then another in quick succession. He effortlessly slaughtered his way through them, not even the abnormals, who had given their strongest solder a bit of a hard time, were no match for him as he dodged around their attempts to grab him, and smashed their limbs, all with a determined look on his face.

Up on a nearby tree branch Keith Shadis, 12th commander of the Survey Corps, watched the marked man, eying his movements and abilities in both astonishment and in slight fear.

"His strength is inhuman..." He thought as he saw the man grab onto a titans hair and pull on it, making it stumble and crash into other titans.

"He's absolutely vicious in battle..." He thought as he saw the warrior throw his weapon at a titans legs to cripple it and jumped on top of it to deliver a barrage of punches onto its nape, each fist digging deeper, until it bursts, and the titan stopped struggling.

"He has no sense of fear..." He thought as he watched the man take on a grotesque looking 10 meter, all with a rather unimpressed look.

"His appearance borders on the supernatural..." He thought as he saw the markings on his body, as well as his weapon glow in holy light.

"Could this be a sign, has humanity finally been given a boon in our fight against the titans?" He though as he watched the glowing warrior raise his weapon high into the air and let out another war cry.

"*IS THAT THE BEST YOU GOT?! I'VE TAKEN SHITS MORE CHALLENGING THAN ANY OF YOU!*"

"One can hope..." Keith thought nervously.

-oOo-

After what seemed like hours the giants numbers slowly dwindled. By that time, the rain has stopped as well, only a slight drizzle remaining. He looked around the steaming bodies of giant headless skeletons to see if any were still kicking. He managed to find one, this being a small 3-meter mutant that was stumbling its way towards him in the vein hope of finally get a bite out of him.

Seeing it wasn't really worth the effort, he lazily threw Skullsmite at the stupid looking giant, hitting it square in the face, causing it to explode in a shower of blood. As he stared at the steaming corpse for a few more seconds he heard a whizzing sound and saw a multitude of people lower down near him, forming a semi-circle around him.

He noticed that they all wore similar looking cloaks and uniforms, as well as some odd pieces of machinery strapped to their hips.

'Must be some local militia.' He thought.

He also noticed the blades that a couple of them were wielding, aimed in his direction of course. Their faces held looks of apprehension and suspicion .The impromptu staring contest between him and the group continued for several seconds until he decided to break the ice and gave the group his best universal greeting.

"How's it going?" He asked as he waved his left hand in a non-threatening manner.

The group looked more confused than anything, as if they were trying to process what he just said. He wondered if they spoke English, if not then he may have made his situation worse. His worries were confirmed as someone among the group said something back to him.

"Nani?"

His eyes widened a bit as he heard the familiar phrase. "Oh, they speak Japanese…figures."

It had been quite some time since he last spoke the language so naturally as time went on, certain words and phrases were forgotten. He coughed into his hand to restart his greeting to the now confused looking group.

"*Hello, I mean no harm.*"

The group were stunned by this development. This giant of a man who spoke in an unknown language at first, had tried to communicate in their language instead. They stood motionless until one among them slowly stepped forward and motioned for the rest to lower their weapons. Despite his slightly disheveled appearance he still showed a sense of authority. The tall green cloaked man stopped near the glowing warrior and looked him in the eyes, or glowing orbs. Despite his impressive height of 6'6", he had to look upward, as the marked man slightly towered over him by a few inches. The two stared at each other for a few seconds before the soldier offering him a salute, surprising the men and women around him.

"I am Keith Shadis, 12th commander of the Scout Regiment, allow me to personally thank you for your assistance, our situation could have been more dire had you not arrived, stranger." He said as he lowered his hands in a non-threatening manner. The glowing warrior stared at him for a bit before offering him a slight smile and a wave of his hand.

"No thanks." The marked man said. "Just walked through the forest and killed some giants, came running here when heard screaming."

Keith was a bit confused by his phrasing. "How long have you been out here in titan territory?" He asked the goliath.

"Titans?" the man asked him as he looked down as the now dissolving skeletons.

"Yes. Titans. As in the giant monsters that have plagued humanity for a hundred years, bringing us to the brink of extinction, the beast that you so effortlessly handled, those titans." Keith said with a rather stressed tone.

"Titans, huh….alright then" The marked man said under his breath in a rather disappointed tone.

Keith continued to stare at the man in silence unsure of how to proceed. He decided to continue his line of questions for now.

"So…I assume you have a name, stranger?" He asked.

"Oh yes, where my manners!" The marked man said in a slight cheery tone. He raised his right arm to the side as the markings glowed. Moments later the spiked weapon he threw earlier returned to its wielder, flying across the forest back into his hand, causing many of the scouts to gasp in surprise, one voice squealing with unusual glee.

"My name is Maverick, a pleasure." He said as he raised his left hand in the universal greeting.

"Maverick…" Keith muttered as he too raised his hand to shake the much larger hand. As their hands touched, Keith suddenly felt a slight chill run down his spine, he managed to keep a straight face as to not alert the large man.

-oOo-

The introductions were cut short as a rather tall, blonde-haired scout descended from a tree next to Keith.

"Commander, a group of 10 meters are heading this way!" He spoke in an alarmed tone.

"Dammit…" Keith cursed. This expedition was another failure, and unless they wanted to fight the titans with broken limbs and half full gear, they would have to retreat and get their wounded out of the forest fast, if they hoped to save any of them. He looked to Maverick with desperate eyes.

"Listen, as of right now we are heading back, this expedition was a bust. I would be very grateful if you could assist us in our retreat."

Maverick gave Keith an assured smile. "Just tell me where I'm needed." He said as he shook the morning star in his hand.

Keith gave a relieved sigh. "Good, good. Alright, see the cart over there? I need you to get as many of our wounded on it as fast as you can." As he saw the man nod and run off towards the nearest wounded, he turned to the scouts to shout out new orders. "MEN! WE CANNOT CONTINUE WITH THE EXPEDITION UNDER THESE CONDITIONS! AS OF RIGHT NOW WE ARE IN FULL RETREAT! I REPEAT, WE ARE IN FULL RETREAT!"

Despite their forlorn looks, the remaining scouts did as they were told, quickly making their way to their horses, some carefully taking their wounded to safety, and other retrieved whatever they could get from their fallen. Among them was the marked man, carrying wounded scouts towards the medical cart. He was given a wide berth as the scouts attempted to keep their focus on the evacuation, especially the female members, as they passed him by with blushing faces. He couldn't help but chuckle as he carried a scout into the cart. As he left to find more wounded, he was stopped as the scout he carried grabbed his arm.

"W-Wait!" The injured scout said as he struggled to lift himself. Maverick helped the young man adjust himself as he struggled to find the words he wished to say.

"T-T-Thank you, y-you saved my life" He said as tears began to form on his face. Maverick simply smiled at the man as he held his hand.

"No thanks needed, friend." He said leaving the scout quite bemused by his manner of speech. As he let go of his hand the marked man gestured towards him.

"Name?" the man asked.

The scout looked at him for a few second before he stuttered out his name.

"M-M-Moses, my name is Moses." He replied to the man with glowing eyes.

"Moses" Maverick repeated. "Good to meet ya, kid." He said, earning a few pained chuckles from the scouts seated in the cart.

The moment of comradery was ruined as Keith's commanding voice echoed through the forest.

"MEN! WE RIDE BACK TO THE WALLS!" He stopped his horse as he made his way towards Maverick.

"I want you to man the rear guard. Take care of any titans that you see, can you do that?" He asked as he stared into the glowing eyes of the warrior.

Maverick game the man a determined look, as he took hold of the rear carts outer edge, ready to defend it

Keith nodded in satisfaction and turned to his men. "FORWARD!" he shouted as he kicked his horse into high gear, followed by the rest of the regiment and lastly by the cart that held the marked warrior. No sooner had they left that a group of dopey eyed titans appeared from the trees, and began to pursue the retreating force.

AN: A bit of a long chapter this time, hopefully it was worth it. So now Maverick has met the Survey Corps and saved the life of Moses. But will this be enough to gain the trust of the rest of the regiment? We shall find out in the next chapter, as the retreating force makes their way back to Wall Maria.