15 (14) Getting closer

Returning to their dorm, Aria yawned and climbed into bed. Annie sighed 'Ill just asked tomorrow'

During the night, Aria accessed the ring of holding and found the Katana and some cultivation pills;

<Breakthrough Pill> x5

<Cultivation speed x2> x10

<Twilight> (Katana)

She took one Breakthrough pill and 1 speed x2 pill. Using them both at once, she noticed the speed of Qi entering her body increased. After half a hour of circulating the Qi through the meridians, she finally broke though to the pre-stage of the world realm. With he help of the speed pill, Aria made it to the middle stage of the Realm. Squeezing her fist together, she found that she had around 3x more strength then the Earth Realm. If she punched the wall, she could easily make a crack into it.

After taking of the ring and putting back into her personal drawer. Quickly falling asleep, Aria could help but dream about what was to come in the future.

Waking up early next morning due to shouting from the chief instructor, the 2 girls quickly dressed themselves in the stranded training gear and ran out and lined up.

The chief instructor then shouted "TODAY IS THE DAY, ALTHOUGH YOU'VE SEEN IT IN ACTION, YOU WILL NOW PERSONALLY BE USING THE ODM GEAR. THERE WILL BE MAKE SHIFT TITANS THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO SLICE THE NECKS."

Some of the trainees had larges smiles plastered over their faces while others seemed kind of anxious. Aria, curiously looked around while observing the peoples reactions.

They were then sent to a small warehouse to collect their personal ODM gear that they would be using. They were all hanged neatly in racks, Aria walked up and took down the gear. The firest thing she put on was the Gas-Powered mechanism. She then connected it to the grappling mechanism. Attaching the blade holders were the hardest part. The holders are quite big so it weighed her down a little. Even without the blade some people had a hard time carrying it.

Annie and the other Titan shifters didn't have a hard time it seems. Mikasa looked like she could easily jump 2 metres into the air, Eren with his determination didn't seem to mind the weight.

After everyone had equipped their gear, they were instructed to get 2 gas canisters and 2 blades. The gas will help you direct your movements in the air and the blades, well you know what they do.

After that, they where all instructed to run all they way to the starting point in the forest outside the training camp. After they had arrived, the chief instructor said "Alright, in this forest are fake titans that you will have to slice the necks of, this will count towards your grade and how well you do. Please remember that!"

After the speech, he flew of into the first to look at our progress. There was some excitement and the first few flew of into the forest. It created a chain reaction, one after the next kept going.

Aria looked over to Annie with a smile, "Shall we?" Annie nodded and they took off.

As they didn't have to get into combat instantly, Aria decided to mess around a little bit with how to operate the ODM gear. Annie to the side saw this and wondered what she would do.

Flying through the air, Aria suddenly backflipped. She was also looking around for the fake Titans. After a little bit, she finally found one. Signalling to Annie, they both shot of into that direction. Aria also noticed a figure standing near the top of the tree, it was the Chief instructor. Smiling a little. She sped up and started making her movements seem unpredictable. Annie also picked up a few things while following Aria and followed behind.

Approaching the Titan, the instructor saw them and focused on them. Following their movements were quite hard and would put quite the load on their bodies. Next was the execution of the Titan, easily slicing the necks were no problem with those two. After the small evaluation, Keith Shadis made a full evaluation.

"Aria Westwood, The best user of the ODM gear and has a bright mind. She has great combat prowess, but keeps to her self a lot"

"Annie Leonhart, Gifted with a sword, but does not exactly play well with others."

After a few more fake Titans popped up, the 2 of them returned to see a few people waiting. Mikasa was with Eren, Reiner and Bertholdt. Annie slowly walked over to them, while Aria followed behind.

Reiner saw them and said "Oh, hey Annie how did it go" She walked up and casually said "it was alright.

Aria frowned " Am I invisible?" Reiner heard this voice to see Aria walked up to him. Seeing her eyes made a sweat drop from his back. Seeing that he wasn't responding, Bertholdt quickly replied "oh, hello Aria how was it."

Aria calmed down and replied "oh it was alright" Reiner was still frozen.

While out one night looking for something, he spotted Aria walking into a small forest just outside the dorms. He secretly followed and saw something he couldn't forget.

Aria had faced a thick tree and put her self into a fighting stance. She then proceeded to breath in, then smash her fist straight into the tree. At first Reiner was confused, but when he saw the large hole Aria made, his jaw dropped wide open. Aria then proceeded to lineup for a roundhouse kick. She let it off, when it hit the tree, it blew in half. The leg went straight through without barley any resistance. Reiner was dumbfounded and ran back without getting noticed.

He also figured that she could be the holder of a Titan. The founder or the Attack, he wasn't sure.

After it settled down they begun talking about their experience while using the ODM gear.

After a bit of talking, Aria disappeared and went to talk to the trio.

After she disappeared, Reiner asked "Did you guys find anything?" Bertholdt sighed and shook his head. Annie put her hand to her chin and thought "Maybe one" Reiner opens his eyes and asked once again "who?"

Annie blushed a little which didn't escape the eye of both of them and said "Aria"

Reiner also chimed in "Oh, i was also thinking Aria also" They both looked at him. He quickly put his hands and and said "Let me explain. Annie, what does Aria do during the time with you?" Annie thought about it then said "We talk to each other quite often, mostly about each other and combat. We do practice with each other a lot"

"Do you know what she does during the night?" Reiner asked.

"I don't really know, but i do hear her getting out of bed sometimes during the night." Annie replied. He nodded and added "Well, around a week ago, i saw her go out and practice. However, i saw here easily kick a tree in half. This is one of the traits of us, once we inherited the powers, we got stronger not only in the Titan body but our own as well."

Annie didn't show anything on her face but she was facing many emotions inside. If she was a shifter, what would happen once we get back? Would she die because the Marleyan government want to take control over her and get eaten for a new holder?

Annie was feeling very mixed inside, while not showing it on the outside. After talking about it, they concluded that Annie would investigate more.