The bloodied arrows lay piled up at the corner, Mark's eyes surveyed the wounds which immediately began to heal and Mark had to admit, It was convenient.
The Blue screen hadn't told him the limitations of the Titan healing but from seeing it heal deep impalements from the arrows, It wasn't far off from being too Invincible.
And it dealt with all wounds at once but the obvious downgrade was there, If there were multiple wounds, The power of said healing would be spread thin.
Ymir gazed at the ground, She didn't know how things had turned out like this. One moment, She was teasing him and the next moment, She was his slave but that didn't matter much right now.
She didn't want to die yet and this… her Master, carried some sort of threatening aura whenever he wanted to fight. It was almost as if all his emotions flickered off before fighting, She could still see his chilling smile as he saw her get impaled with arrows from all around.
"Focus on one wound and then the other!"
Ymir jolted upward, startled by his sudden outburst.
"Y- yes," Ymir said.
And surprisingly the healing went faster than before, She was grateful to Mark for speeding up her healing process.
After healing up, Mark gave a small smile.
"Your job is to serve me," Mark informed her, grabbing one of the arrows from the ground and pointing it to her neck, "You're a slave and very disposable so you better do a lot to make sure I don't replace you,"
Ymir nodded fearfully.
"Good," Mark said and then looked around, He didn't see anyone and he gave a slight sigh, "I don't care if you have this Titan healing but know I can still kill you by severing your head, without your brain, your body is useless,"
Ymir nodded once again.
"Now let's start with your new mission," Mark said while withdrawing the arrow and stabbing it into the ground.
Two blue portals burst to life as one took the pile of arrows and the other took the arrow that was with him into the confines of his Inventory.
"Don't think for one moment that you're the only Titan in this place," Mark said, "Apparently, There are three others similar to you,"
Ymir's eyes gazed at his face with confusion but she was unable to speak, Her mind was trembling.
"The first one is Reiner Braun, The Armored Titan," Mark said, Ymir's eyes widened in surprise and Mark knew that it was honest enough to assume that she wasn't part of them.
"The second one is Bertholdt Hoover, The Colossal Titan," Mark said and Ymir's surprise was the same.
"And the last one is Annie Leonhart, The Female Titan," Mark finished and concluded that Ymir didn't know anything about them.
His eyes were hard to deceive…
"M- Master, Are we going to kill them?" Ymir asked fearfully, taking a gulp of her saliva.
One wrong move and he could summon one of those weapons to end her life instantly.
"Yes," Mark said, his heart pounding a bit at the way Ymir had called him Master. It was mesmerizing.
"We are not going to kill all of them though, Just Bertholdt and Reiner," Mark said, "I think you need a Sister Slave,"
Ymir nodded.
"I want you to pry around and gather Information on the Armored and Colossal Titan for me, You can use an Instructor," Mark said and turned around, "Use your Titan powers for something good,"
"Yes Master, It will be done," Ymir promised.
"If it's not done by next week, You'll lose your use," Mark said, turning back to her and gazing at Ymir lifelessly.
Ymir backed up a bit and nodded.
"Master, I'll be very useful," Ymir said.
"You better be," Mark said and walked away.
#####
The day went normally, with the sessions early in the morning and a small break at the Mess Hall but today was of course different. They had spent a month at the training camp already, so it would be strange to not include a new sort of training.
Mark sighed as he sat in the Mess hall with his usual group; Mikasa, Mina and Sasha.
'I came here to the Boot Camp to get stronger,' Mark thought, 'Not play around with some morning stretches and laps,'
Many others would think that this was a hard training regimen to maintain but it was really simple.
Mark yearned to become strong enough to take out a Titan shifter as powerful as the Colossal and the Armored Titan and for that he needed to become stronger than them.
'Increase my strength... Earn more gold… Buy more gear… Take Bounties and become stronger,' Mark thought.
That was the whole point behind it all, getting stronger. If he didn't get stronger, He would lose everything he cared about.
And if he lost everything… His Mom… His Dad… He didn't know what he would do.
"Mark, why aren't you eating? Where's your plate?" Mina asked.
They glanced at Mark's expression but he shrugged.
"My food's being brought by someone," Mark said and Ymir walked in, holding a tray containing her Master's food.
She had been specially ordered by him to be bringing his food, and she wasn't going to disobey an order made by her master.
Ymir's research of the Armored and Colossal Titan had not been completed but it wasn't empty too, The instructors had less to say about the phenomenal titans that had intelligence.
Ymir gave a slight bow.
"Master, your food," Ymir said and dropped the tray.
"Thank you, come and sit down with your own food," Mark said.
He was being stern with her so she didn't think of double-crossing him but that didn't mean he wouldn't think of her as a fellow human… Eldian.
"O-okay Master," Ymir said and sat down with her bowl, Only five people could sit at a table.
"M- M- Master?" Mina asked, shocked.
"Yes, She called me Master," Mark replied.
#####
"Alright listen up Maggots!" Keith shouted out, making Mark roll his eyes.
"Today, You might not know why you're here but we are introducing you to a new type of training!" Keith exclaimed.
Some people were shocked but Keith didn't care, his eyes fixated on Mark's face as he spoke.
"Balance Training!" He exclaimed.
Their eyes widened in surprise.
Mark wasn't acquainted with such training, Their training up to this point had been running laps around the fields and simple morning stretch exercises… But Balance Training.
'Is it something like the Aptitude test?' Mark thought in alarm.
He knew Keith Shadis a little too well, He wouldn't use the same Aptitude gear to test them. He would try different methods to make sure his soldiers unleash their potential.
"Why don't we go to the Testing grounds?" Keith asked, a malevolent smirk tugging at the tip of his lips.
#####
The testing grounds weren't too far from the fields and they were wide, with some kind of high machines in them. They were metallic and planted into the ground.
'What are these?' Mark thought.
They bore a similar resemblance to the Aptitude machines but they were different in their own right too, All the while Keith couldn't stop that wicked smile.
"Something is going to happen, Something bad," Mark muttered.
He had a bad feeling about it.
-
Author's Note:
Just decided to include new machines to help them with the Mastery of ODM gear~
If you want to immerse yourself in more chapters of my fic, Head over to patreon.com/izana07 and support me!