Lara (Long-Fic Levihan | Armin Arlert X OC)

Chapter 17 - Rejection

Levi didn't sleep at all. From night til dawn, he laid on his bed, cuddling to Lara's drawing. Alone in his room, he could cry as much as he wanted, for no one would hear him.

On the following morning, on Monday, before sunrise, all the Survey Corps' soldiers who were going to the mission were ready to leave the HQ towards the Krolva District, to the abandoned camp beyond that region.

Levi would be responsible for a group of soldiers who had been accompanying him in his training for some time, such as Gunther Schultz, Eld Jinn, Petra Ral, Oluo Bozado, and three more soldiers.

Hange would also lead another group with eight soldiers, including Moblit and Lara. In all, there would be four groups of eight soldiers, with the other two groups being led by Erwin and Mike.

Levi watched the girls from afar as he mounted his horse. Every now and then, he would catch Hange looking at him, downcast. But as for Lara, she was impassive and seemed focused on the mission.

Despite still having a childish appearance, with her small round face, Lara had an enigmatic expression in her eyes. Wearing her full Survey Corps uniform, with the ODM gear and her dark brown horse, Lara was a true soldier, and no one could deny that.

They left the HQ and arrived at the Krolva District. They were received with some boos, but since the soldiers were used to it, they tried to ignore it, and only a few looked back with serious expressions at the citizens of the District.

The gates were opened and the soldiers of the Survey Corps left on another mission, towards a completely hostile land full of Titans, as it was a region with many villages, which attracted the creatures. According to the location given to Commander Erwin, the abandoned camp was right in the middle of a small forest. If all went well, they would arrive at the camp in about three hours, and tomorrow, by the end of the afternoon, they would return.

The four groups of eight soldiers were organized in the following way: Hange's group would be on the left flank, followed by Levi's group, then Erwin's, and finally, on the right flank, Mike's group. Each group divided its soldiers into four pairs, where each soldier kept a distance of seven meters from each other and each group kept a distance of about thirty meters, so they could cover good ground and also not attract too many Titans. Each group had a soldier leading a cart to load supplies found in the abandoned camp.

About an hour had passed since they had left the safety of the Walls and four Titans attacked Mike's group. It was not that hard to kill them, but one of the soldiers got seriously wounded and had to continue the rest of the way lying on the cart.

A while later, five Titans attacked Erwin's group, one of them being an Abnormal. It was a very intense battle, where the Commander himself had to help and, in the end, unfortunately, two soldiers were devoured.

When everyone could finally see the small forest where the abandoned camp was located, on the left flank, near Hange's group, two Titans appeared from behind some pine trees, one of them also being an Abnormal.

Even at a distance, Hange and Levi felt the same thing: terror. Lara was in the third line of pairs, very close to where the Titans were attacking. Behind Lara, the two soldiers in the rear began their movements to defeat those creatures. One of those soldiers was Müller, who had accompanied them on the mission in Shiganshina, and the other one was called Wagner.

Müller and Wagner fought hard against the Titans, managing to kill one of them, but the Abnormal was being very challenging. With a sudden movement, the Abnormal Titan grabbed Wagner by the wires of the ODM gear, knocking him to the ground and soon after, devouring him.

Müller was in trouble, as she had tried to cut the nape of the Titan, but it was too fast and she missed it. Then, when she least expected it, the Titan grabbed her with one hand and began to bring her to its mouth.