Your Wings - Reader X Levi Ackerman

Chapter 19: Secrets Revealed

You whip the reins of your horse, kicking it harder to push through the biting wind. The air tastes like iron and the night is alive with the pounding of hooves, the distant roars of titans, and the clash of steel. Hange barks orders to the others, her voice sharp and commanding: 

"Form groups! Collapse on them from different angles! Take out all the titans!" 

Without hesitation, you follow her lead, splitting from the others. Your breath comes in fast puffs as you zone in on a grotesque titan—a towering monster, it's beady eyes locked on one thing—reaching for a young, blonde girl. Krista.

A flash of recognition shoots through you, but you can't afford distractions. Her blue eyes are wide, paralyzed with fear as the titan's fingers curl around her. Every second stretches into an eternity. You yank hard on the reins and shoot your hooks toward the monster's hand, releasing an excessive blast of gas. The hiss fills the air as you soar toward the titan like a bolt of lightning, one can only see a green blur from your cloak.

With precision born from desperation, you slice clean through the titan's fingers. The hand falls away in a gory arc as the titan roars in pain, Krista dropping just a few feet onto the cold stone below. The impact sends her tumbling, but she's alive and well from what you were able to see.  

Without wasting a moment, you twist mid-air, hooks and wires hissing as they reattach to the titan's flesh. The force of the gas pulls you in a tight arc around its neck. You let go at the apex of the turn, dropping downward and driving both blades into its nape with a clean, deadly strike. A geyser of hot blood erupts, drenching you from head to toe. The beast groans, falters, and collapses, sending tremors through the earth as it dies beneath you. 

You land coordinated on the titan's steaming corpse, blood dripping from your face. Gasping for air, you whip your head over your shoulder. Krista and her group—Reiner, Bertholdt, and Connie—stand frozen, stunned by what they just witnessed. You recognize them from the 104th Training Corps that arrived earlier. Relief floods their faces, though Krista's expression quickly crumples into something closer to desperation.  

Her voice is tight with panic as she points to a group of titans ripping apart a smaller, mangled figure on the ground. "Over there! Please, save Ymir!" 

Your heart skips a beat as Krista shouts, "She's a titan shifter! She saved us! But—they're tearing her apart!" 

The weight of her words slams into you, but there's no time to process it. Ymir is being devoured alive.

You nod, kicking off with your ODM gear. The world around you blurs as you zero in on the horde of titans. Your mind narrows to one goal: save Ymir. 

Hange's squad is already eliminating the surrounding titans while you spot Eren taking out his first solo kill, shouting in triumph. But his excitement is short-lived as a nearby soldier chastises him. Eren mutters a sheepish apology and falls back in line, though you can still feel his adrenaline buzzing in the air. 

You don't have the luxury of distraction. With a flick of your wrist, your hooks bury into the neck of one of the titans tearing at Ymir. You sail through the air and carve a clean arc across its nape. Its death is immediate, but you barely register the kill as your focus shifts to the others. 

Two left. 

The second titan looms over Ymir's mangled body, but you're faster. You swing upward, planting your hooks into its temple and tearing through its nape with surgical precision. The titan crumbles in a heap, its hand still clutching Ymir's arm. 

One more. 

This one senses your approach. It swings wildly, its massive hands clawing at the air. You twist and spin through its attacks, every dodge driven by instinct. At the last moment, you shoot your hooks into its shoulder, flipping yourself onto its back. With a powerful downward slash, you cut deep into the nape. The titan howls as it falls limp, disintegrating beneath you.