Titan Warrior

Chapter 4

Amelie wipes her brow, feeling warm from the nearly cloudless afternoon and training combined. She takes a moment to catch her breath before preparing to charge at Yaku again.

The cadets were practicing their hand-to-hand combat in pairs. The exercise they were practicing was to learn how to fight and defend themselves unarmed against an armed person.

Amelie had been paired up with Yaku, which almost seemed like an unfair pairing as Yaku towered over even the tallest cadet while Amelie was shorter than average.

"Come on, give it all you've got!" Yaku encourages Amelie.

Amelie grips onto the wooden knife that the "bandits" used to attack. She breathes in deeply and then rushes forward... but in a matter of seconds, she finds herself on her back and looking up at the blue sky.

"Oops, sorry!" Yaku says quickly. "are you okay? Maybe I moved a little too fast that time..."

Amelie lets Yaku help her back onto her feet. "It's okay. I should have been paying more attention."

Yaku takes the wooden knife from Amelie. "How about I help you work on it? You're one of the shortest ones here next to Christa, and you can easily use that to your advantage if you know how."

For the next hour, Yaku helps instruct Amelie on how she can better her hand-to-hand combat. She smiles, excited to see how quickly Amelie catches on. And soon she is no longer giving instructions and is sparring with Amelie freely.

Feeling a sense of pride, Yaku opens her mouth to praise her partner... then suddenly finds herself on her back and staring up at the sky in surprise.

Amelie gasped, surprised that she was even able to take Yaku down at all. "Oh my gosh!" she exclaims as she hovers over Yaku. "I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"

Yaku starts to laugh as she sits up. "Why are you apologizing? If I were a real bandit would you feel bad for taking me down?"

Amelie stares at Yaku and slowly shakes her head. "No..."

Yaku picks herself up to her feet and smiles at Amelie as she pats her head. "You took me by surprise, you should be proud of yourself."

Amelie looks down, her cheeks flushing. "Right."

Yaku glances away from Amelie as Annie walks by them, not training with the others. Her eyes follow Annie as she continues, then overhears Reiner talking with Eren.

"I think that slacker needs to be taught a lesson," Reiner was saying. "Let's show her what a soldier should strive to be."

Yaku shakes her head and crosses her arms. "I highly advise against that, Reiner," she says as she takes a couple of steps toward them. "I've heard that Annie can turn real nasty if you annoy her."

Amelie moves to stand next to Yaku. "I agree with Yaku... this sounds like a bad idea."

"Relax," Reiner says with confidence. "It'll be fine."

Yaku shrugs. "Don't say I didn't warn you." She turns away. "Come on, Amelie. Let's get back to it."

Amelie sighs as she turns to follow Yaku. "They're going to get their asses kicked, aren't they?"

Yaku readies herself to continue sparring. "Most likely." She watches Amelie, waiting for her to make her move. Then she sighs and shakes her head with a smile as she realizes Amelie was distracted, watching to see how Reiner bugging Annie would play out. "Oh alright, let's see what happens."

Reiner had approached Annie and was speaking to her. "You don't want the instructor to head-butt you again, do you?" he asked with a smirk. "If you don't plan on growing any shorter, you better remember what happened when you arrived and take this seriously."