BLOODSPORT

Episode 17

They were told that all the Titans had been lured away from the virgin path they were about to embark on. Of course, there was still a chance in the terrain that they would come across several Titans, however, that was the best the Scouts could do with such short time.

Riding somewhat anxiously on the horse, which was named Ebony for his raven mane, Rhea rode advanced forward, following the rest of the Scouting Regiment. The plan was to make it out of the ruined city and then form the long range formation when in full Titan territory. From there, Rhea would remain with Armin in row 2-4 sections with both Reiner and Jean on opposite sides of them. Of course, two of the people who she despised right now were the ones that, if needed, would help her out if a Titan were to attack.

"10-meter Titan ahead, approaching from the left!" Rhea turned her attention in the direction to see a couple members of the support squad hop off their horses and use their ODM gear to take down the monster. Not allowing herself to become distracted Rhea focused ahead and saw that they were about to exit the city.

The scouting formation began to take place. Everyone departed to their sections. Reiner and Jean said their farewells to Armin whereas Rhea just rolled her eyes and broke off from the group. No more of the niceties, she thought.

Rhea kept her eyes peeled for any and all Titans as her hair flowed in the breeze. She kept a firm grip on the reins of the spare horse she'd been given, making sure she also had access to her flare gun if needed.

Suddenly a red flare sounded on her right. Trying to remain calm, Rhea reached into her pouch and loaded the flare with one of her red canisters before shooting it into the sky, alerting the next comrade and eventually Commander Erwin who would change the course. She waited for the green signal and when it finally came Rhea changed directions and continued left, evading the Titans.

She began to grow nervous after a while. There hadn't been another smoke signal fired which led her Rhea to believe something was wrong. Catching up to Armin and his stead, she caught a glimpse of the black smoke up ahead. Armin fired his smoke signal, alerting the next section over.

"Where is it?!" Rhea questioned, startling Armin a bit. It was the first time in a month she had spoken. It seemed to take him off guard, but they had bigger matters to attend to right now and he knew that.

He pointed with his gun hand, "there. It just came out of the woods."

Rhea squinted her eyes, trying to get a better look at who exactly was riding beside the Abnormal. Finally she saw the gray bandana and immediately knew it was Section Commander Ness and his support squad Cis.

"They're at a disadvantage being on the ground! This terrain is no place to kill a Titan." Rhea said.

"It's not like they have a choice! We were told to engage if it was an Abnormal because they could break the formation and head straight to Eren!" Armin stated, and like usual, he was right.

Rhea saw Ness take out the Abnormal's achilles heel and Cis finished it off, slicing deep through its nape. "Holy shit. They made it look so easy!"

"Way to go, nicely done Ness!" Armin cheered. "Huh?"

Rhea stared in the direction Armin was and saw a figure of a Titan approaching fast. "Another abnormal?"

"Most likely."

"Armin, its fast."

"I know."

"Oh my god. Its really fast!"

"I can see!"

Armin shot up another flare as Cis went for its nape when all of a sudden- blood. The Titan defended itself and crushed Cis in its hand. Gripping onto Ness' line next, the Titan whipped him to the ground and continued running. "Ness!!!" Rhea screamed, but he was gone.

"Rhea move!" Armin began riding faster and Rhea didn't hesitate to follow. "It has intelligence!" He called from ahead. Rhea could barely make out what he was saying, the wind kept cutting him out but she knew the extent of what Armin was trying to communicate. The Titan wasn't abnormal. It was another human who had the ability to transform. Like the colossal titan, armored titan and Eren!

The Titan was hot on their heels, quite literally at that point. Rhea dropped the reigns of her spare horse and tried to move out of the way as the monster stomped its foot down into the soil, hard. "Armin!" Rhea yelled as she saw her comrade get thrown from his horse. Rhea couldn't believe what she was seeing. The Titan, which took more a female form, carefully lifted Armin's hood to see who it was. But why? She wondered.

As soon as Rhea drew her weapons, the Female Titan got up and ran towards the center formation. "Armin!" Rhea leaped off her saddle and crouched beside her friend, taking his face in her hands to check for any injury. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"It... didn't kill me." He managed to say. Rhea could feel his body shaking from the fear.

"Rhea! Armin!" She turned her head to see Reiner approaching. He luckily still had his spare horse for Armin to use. "Can you stand? There's no surviving outside the wall without a horse, you know!" Getting up off the ground slowly Rhea gave a polite nod of the head towards Reiner and hoisted herself back onto her saddle.

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