A Promise (An Attack on Titan Fanfic: Erwin Smith)

First Expedition II

A/N: The long-distance enemy scouting formation is still not used by the scouts at this time

a long chapter to compensate for the short previous one :>

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The few minutes of peaceful riding over the grassy horizon was interrupted by the shaking of the ground. 

Sending an alerting signal across her body, Isanna's hands twitched and tightened her grip on the reigns of her horse when she whipped her head to the right to see two distant figures running in fast speed towards the formation. At a distance, they seemed to be ordinary humans, but as they reached nearer and nearer within the girl's vision, she was definitely sure of what she was seeing. 

Titans.

Information from classroom discussions that she had acquired back when she was still a kid and during her training years quickly flooded in; true to their names, titans were several sizes larger than your average human, they possessed no reproductive organ and no signs of intelligence, making communication impossible. Above all, they found gross pleasure in eating ordinary humans, making them a terrifying enemy. 

"Relay teams, stick to the file!" Isanna's team leader, Fuchs announced over the noise of the clapping hooves and surprised shouts from the new recruits upon laying eyes on the two titans that were clumsily dashing towards them with their limbs swaying in an odd manner. "Leave it to the veterans on the right flank support teams!"  

Isanna watched as several soldiers teared away from the line and uniformly headed directly towards the two titans, intercepting the monsters. Their calm composure in the face of such monstrosities were definitely a skill that had been developed over countless expeditions. 

With a gulp, Isanna returned her focus ahead of her. That's right. They were in the Relay teams, and they needed not to directly face those things. The only thing she needed to focus on, as of the moment, was to ensure that she and her friends would be able to go back home in one piece. 

Unfortunately, the longer the Scouts rode away from the safety of Wall Maria, the more the hope in Isanna's wish dwindled. 

Not even five minutes after the first titan spotting, another batch of titans were heading directly towards them right at the front. Isanna realized with dread that the right flank that had separated from the formation earlier had still not regrouped with them, and she could only imagine what happened to those soldiers. 

"Maneuver your horses away! Cart guard teams, protect the carts!" Fuchs ordered and directed his horse to the right, with the new recruits following hot on his trails. Isanna caught a glimpse of the Forward Scouts team that formed the front ranks use their 3DMG and hopped off their horses, whizzing through the air towards the group of five titans. Despite the lack of trees in their surroundings, it didn't seem to faze them. 

But they also couldn't avoid some ending up as sacrificial pieces. 

An unfortunate soldier got himself caught in a titan's grip, letting out a loud bellow of pain before the titan chomped on his head, the action tearing the soldier's head from its neck and blood spurting out, raining on the ground below. 

Isanna forced herself to look away from the gore. This was reality. With slight panic, her eyes hurriedly scanned the new recruits ahead of her until they landed on a certain blond. As long as I can see him, it's fine.

Despite the Relay teams trying to avoid the titans at the front, one of them still managed to lumber towards the new recruits, laggardly reaching out a limb to the soldiers while a dumb grin was etched on its face as if it had just seen a freshly new stack of meat.