Remembering You

Broken Wings

Screams burst above them and Eren raised his head to see a giant hand swoop down to capture one of the kidnappers who had fled when the ground had begun shaking. There was a disfigured smile as the fifteen-meter tall creature lifted its prey and devoured the man. The kidnappers must have set off the titans or something with all the noise and the gunshot that rang out.

From the thuds on the ground, there were at least two more titans right behind the first one. Shooting his hooks into the air, Eren turned in the direction of the threat, seeing two thirteen-meter titans right behind the fifteen-meter who had swallowed its prey and was looking from side to side searching for its next target. If the titans got any closer, they would be within striking distance of the nearest district and there was no time to call reinforcements. Eren was not particularly worried about the walls, but as evidenced by what had happened more than a decade ago, they walls were not impervious either. What was even worse in the brunet's mind was that Levi and Eirian were in the line of fire. Despite the older man's fighting prowess, Eren doubted he could handle a titan, let alone three.

If it had been just one titan nearby, Eren might have had some chance of taking it down, but he had only faced numbers like this with his squad. Unfortunately, he was the only trained member of the Scouting Legion present. Working in groups was essential to combat the speed and strength of the titans. One could try taking them on singlehandedly, but it was a foolish endeavor, especially when there were multiple titans present. For such large, bulky creatures that seemed to move mindlessly, they could be lightning fast when they chose to. Their regenerative capabilities were not to be trifled with either. After incapacitating one of them, it was essential to work quickly and kill it before it could heal.

Hange had several ideas regarding the origins of such abilities, but there was no theory that could explain such speed and strength without a similar increase in muscle mass. It violated all the natural laws. Even the commander's experiments with Sonny and Bean back in the day had remained fruitless. Hange had originally postulated that it might have had something to do with the composition of a titan's body, but experiments had only revealed that they were light and dead titans would 'dissolve' into the air within minutes of falling. In spite of all these physical anomalies, at least they had managed to find some ways to best eradicate the titan threat.

Dropping beside the dark-haired man, Eren opened his mouth to warn Levi of the inbound threat so the man could retreat with his son back to safety.

"Fucking idiots." Levi swore vehemently, flicking blood off his blades as he walked away from the carnage around him. Eren watched as the man grabbed a jacket from one of the corpses and wiped his blades clean on it, scowling as he walked. At the sight of the titans, the remaining kidnappers had abandoned the fight and scattered, running in different directions. Eren knew they would not be able to get very far and piercing screams soon testified to that.

"Levi you should stay back." He grabbed ahold of the man's shoulder. "I'll take care of it."

Even if titans did not normally approach this close to the wall anymore, it had been risky for the kidnappers to bring Eirian outside the walls. The fact that they had and that it was only late afternoon meant there was a decent chance they were aberrant titans. In other words, it was even more dangerous than facing normal titans. Naturally, titan shifters were the worst to deal with. Aberrant titans were only slightly easier, because while they still moved mindlessly, they were less predictable than normal titans. In fact, many of the Legion's losses in the last few years had been due to aberrant titans. However, even if these weren't aberrant, and Eren seriously hoped they weren't, facing that many meant almost certain death.

"Fuck no." Levi's instant rebuttal surprised him. Instead of panicking or freezing at the sight of the titans, the dark-haired man seemed calm. Eren had seen seasoned veterans shake at the sight of one titan, let alone three of them. They were an hour west of the south gate and there wasn't any backup to assist them.