Can't Get Along (Levi X Reader)

22. Two Monsters

Reiner POV

I backed away from the parapets along with Bert and Connie, taking a nervous glance over at the stairs that led down into the tower. (Name)'s voice snapped me out of my sudden distracted thoughts and I looked over at her. "Reiner, take Connie and Christa and make sure the door holds. It looks like there are too many titans for Nanaba and the rest to handle, some might try and get in. We need to keep them out. Ymir, Bertholdt, go find anything you can for weapons and make sure you all get one. If we get trapped up here, we're not going down without a fight." I looked around at everyone else and nodded at the orders even though I didn't really like her bossing us around when she wasn't technically a Squad Leader anymore. But this was no time to cause tension in the group dynamic. We needed to act first and give opinions later.

Connie and Christa rushed down the stairs behind me and I reached the door on the floor below first. I grabbed a still-lit torch off the wall and opened the door for us to continue down to the floor we had barricaded before but stopped in my tracks as the light from the torch revealed a small titan just a few steps below, grinning up at me. I slammed the door and threw down the bar to close it before leaning against it with my back just as the titan slammed into the thick wood of it. The impact nearly knocked me over and I yelled to Connie and Christa who were still on the stairs. "They're here! Get something to barricade the door with, I don't know how long I can hold this thing." A large hand broke through the door just to the left of my head and tried to grab at me.

"Reiner, take this!" Connie shouted from a corner of the room and tossed a knife my way. I caught it by the handle, thankfully, and growled as I plunged the point of it into the titan's arm and tried to twist it. It further broke down the door and I was knocked to the floor. The knife clattered to the floor, skidding a little and Connie rushed to pick it up and charge at the titan just as the door was rendered completely useless. I was quick to push myself to my feet again and lunge forward, shoving Connie out of the way before the titan could bite him, in turn getting my own arm in the way. I howled in pain as its teeth dug into my flesh, feeling the pressure of it snap the bone underneath.

This one was small enough to me to drag over to the window with a pained grunt, preparing myself to jump with it to save the others but I stopped at the sudden voice from the top of the stairs. "Watch out!" Bertholdt called and the three of us whipped our heads around to see what he was talking about. A slight smile of relief tugged at my lips and I moved to get the titan in the way of the heavy cannon that Bert and Ymir were pushing down the stairs to use as a weapon to help out. The impact knocked the titan right off me and carried it all the way to the bottom of the next set of stairs. "Quick, get something in front of the door!" He called again and headed off back up the stairs with Ymir to look for weapons again as they'd been told to do. I cradled my broken arm and went to sit down beside Christa so she could tend to my injury while Connie tried to barricade the door.

Reader POV

I stood there on the top of the tower glancing between the parapets and the top of the stairs debating what to do. I could hear the screaming as the two senior cadets I didn't know got killed or eaten by the titans surrounding the tower and I had heard Reiner scream in pain just a moment ago. I didn't know what to do. Part of me knew I would be most useful helping Reiner and the others since they didn't have ODM gear but the other part of me couldn't stand listening to Nanaba and Gelgar fighting for their lives to protect us while we could do nothing to help ourselves. I needed to do something and the more I debated it, the less rational I became. I didn't have any time to decide anymore as Nanaba and Gelgar came back up to the top of the tower and the other cadets came up the stairs again too. "We took care of them, but this tower won't hold out much longer if there's another wave that comes by," Gelgar said as he caught his breath and Nanaba hummed in agreement. "We're almost out of gas and blades too. This isn't looking good." I exchanged a nervous look with Christa and frowned then opened my mouth to speak when Connie called to us from the other side of the tower roof. "Well, we better hope they last long enough to deal with those guys... Look!" We all rushed to that side of the tower to look over the parapets at what he was pointing at.