(Star Wars X Attack on Titan) Attack of the Clones on Titan

Training Daze

247

"Hey, Armin!" Eren waved over to his friend, who had just started to take a quick breather before resuming training.

"Oh, Eren," the boy's enthusiasm caught Arlert by surprise.

"Let's fight next," he issued a challenge.

"Huh? B-but why!?"

"I heard you've gotten stronger! I want to see for myself."

"I just did well on disarming the bandit," Armin desperately tried to stave off the match. "I haven't actually gotten very strong."

"Well you still hurt," Thomas Wagner walked over, consoling his hip. "Whatever you learned, it sure scared Daz and Connie."

"Mr. Mar just showed me a few things," Armin tried to slowly inch away, but Eren followed as if he were tied to him. "Nothing major."

"Then I'll test how well you learned," Eren reasoned. "If we can learn from soldiers, it will make us better prepared to fight the titans!"

"I just learned a disarming technique," Armin continued to hold out hope for diplomacy. "I didn't get crazy strong or super skilled from it. You're still going to win easily, Eren."

"Ow, ow, ow," they heard Sasha's discomfort and turned to find her in a chokehold by her much smaller opponent. "Krista, that hurts. You win. You win!" On realizing her pain, the girl let go and covered her mouth in shock.

"I'm sorry, Sasha," she apologized and reached out to console the potato-eating cadet but stopped herself. "I-I didn't mean..." To everyone's amazement, Sasha flipped around and began bowing down to the one who nearly asphyxiated her.

"You truly are a merciful goddess of war!" she began sobbing, drawing the attention of cadets and training staff alike. "I pledge myself to your teachings!"

"What the hell are you doing, Braus!?" Instructor Shadis demanded. The small group quickly spaced out to give the intimidating man a clear path. "Do you want to run until you drop again!?"

"No sir," the ponytailed brunette shot up and pledged herself.

"Then keep your potato-eating a*s off of the ground and run another drill!"

"I heard a clone trained her too," Thomas nudged Armin. Thomas... Armin's eyes pleaded with him as Eren looked back to him with eyes and mouth wide open. Why...?

"Now we have to fight next, Armin," Eren squared up.

"B-b-but Mar only taught me a disarming technique," he practically whined as he reluctantly prepared to fend off his friend. Before the match began, he heard Mikasa challenge Krista, the latter of whom responded with similar enthusiasm as him. At least I'm not the only one.

_____

In the weeks following the Cadets being approved for use in ODM gear, their training became more and more rigorous. The difficulty was expounded upon when Instructor Shadis allowed clones to take part in the Cadets' training between expeditions, something which caused the dropout rates to steadily increase and counseling visits being mandated. As a result, while some of the remaining Cadets resented the troopers, they were becoming better soldiers because of it.

"Move faster, Arlert!" Fel shouted. "At this rate you'll end up as titan food!"

"Keep moving, Lens!" Watcher leisurely jogged beside the trainees. "We're about to hit a patch of grass, you'd better book it before we lose track of you in there!" Unlike the Cadet Corp trainers, the clones volunteered to run with the rookies rather than ride in order to back up their criticisms.