Chapter 6

- [Liam] -

He didn't know how long had passed since he sent the four cadets away to find Pyxis. He had thrown himself completely into eliminating the titans for who knows how long.

Though he couldn't feel mental fatigue, he was feeling something close to it. Cutting through the nape of another titan, he allowed himself to descend into roll, landing on the roof closeby.

Looking around him, numerous titans made their way towards him. With him practically being the only human still moving about, they were drawn to him.

He had changed his gas tanks twice and his current one was half empty. It was the same with his blades.

What kept him going was the supplies that he continued to loot from the dead bodies of the soldiers. He even snagged two more ODM gears…why?

He didn't know but he did it either way.

His mind traveled back to the potion he gave Armin. It was absolutely not necessary seeing as how Pyxis was already sure to agree, it was simply to lay the foundation for his plans.

After this was taken care of, he would no doubt be questioned on how he procured it. With him being the only source of said potions, he would effectively become one of the most important people inside the walls if not the most important.

If humanity was on the brink of extinction and you found someone who could slow down if not stop it, wouldn't you do everything in your power to ensure that they're able to do it.

With that influence, it would solve the problem of him getting equipment and materials when he could have other soldiers or regiments gather them for him. With the level of importance that would put him at, his words would have a lot of weight in decisions.

They couldn't kill him, harm or imprison him without them being the ones to suffer and that was if they'd even be able to capture him. The 'royal' family could try but he could easily deal with them. Their greed would lead to their downfall.

'Patience, the most important virtue in life.' He reminded himself as he dodged the swipe of a 10 meter class titan, swinging behind it and cutting out its nape.

While he was still airborne, another titan attempted to squash him in its hands, already stretching its palm. Gritting his teeth, he adjusted his bearing, spinning with force to sever its fingers before firing a hook into its eye.

Pulling himself forward, he retracted the hook, allowing the momentum to carry him as he dug the blades into the titan's nape.

[You have leveled up!]

It was getting harder and harder to level up but it was one of the things that kept him moving.

- [Armin] -

Standing atop Wall Rose, he stood with Mikasa and two elite members of the Garrison Regiment as Commander Pyxis addressed the soldiers.

Upon climbing the wall earlier, they had done exactly as they were told, looking for the commander. It wasn't until they revealed Eren's ability to transform into a titan that the man finally arrived.

One of the fearful captains in the Garrison attempted to attack them out of fear but was stopped by Pyxis who arrived just in time. It took a while to explain everything that happened to the man and Armin ended up showing the man the vial that the boy had given him.

He wasn't sure what it did but it felt important. Pyxis briefly went somewhere with it only to come back a few minutes later to begin assembling the soldiers.

They had two objectives, the first being to plug the hole in Wall Maria and the second to retrieve the boy if he was still alive.

It was during his conversation with Pyxis that Armin realized that he hadn't gotten the boy's name.

- [Liam] -

Zipping away from a titan he just took down, Liam frowned as he looked down to his body which was covered in blood, none of it being his own.

'This is going to take hours to clean up. I don't even have any other clothes to change into.' He thought in slight frustration as he landed on a roof.

He had taken down more Titans than he could remember but there was still a large number of them roaming around. His actions so far had reduced the amount from overwhelmingly large to just large.

With titans still coming through the gate every minute, it was a big achievement. 'Marley has been quite busy over the last 100 years for there to still be an unbelievable amount of titans still roaming even outside the walls.' He thought as he replaced his now rusted blades.

From the corner of his eyes, he sighted something odd. Due to his [Impaired Vision] perk, all he could see was a faint green line in the distance.

'Is that…' he immediately remembered the green smoke signals the regiments normally used for simple long distance alerts. 'Does that mean that they're ready or am I seeing things?'

He wondered, shaking his head before looking in the direction of the outer Trost wall. 'If they've started the operation then they'll be headed for the boulder to plug the gate.' He thought before making his way towards where he remembered the boulder to be.

He wasn't far from where it was so it wouldn't be hard to get there.

If they weren't ready then they weren't. He wouldn't lose anything by checking it out. He swung around a large arm that slapped the air beside him, getting behind it and quickly slashed out its nape before quickly continuing on his way.

With [ODM Piloting] at level 34 out of 50, he wasn't slow by any means. With the entire ordeal so far, he wasn't surprised that the skill had gotten so high.

As soon as he had the boulder in his sights, he saw the blurry figure which he could only assume to be Eren swing itself into the air above the boulder.

There was a brief show of lightning and energy as Eren transformed into his titan form, landing heavily and unbalanced in front of the boulder. Quickly getting its bearing, the Attack Titan let out a roar towards the sky.

Getting close, Liam could see the titan's eyes lacking the spark of human intelligence. 'So he's lost it.' Briefly glancing to the side, he found Mikasa on the roof of the building beside Eren's titan.

Liam wasted no time, shooting his hooks into Eren's shoulder and pulling himself towards the limb and landing in a crouch.

He didn't want to give Eren the time to attack yet, knowing that it was one of the factors used against him in the court.

Filling his palm with man's like he did the last time, he pressed it towards the nape where Eren's body resided. And just like before, the titan froze again. The only difference was that he didn't fall this time.

The head of the Attack Titan turned towards Liam who now stood on its shoulder, facing him. There was the faint spark of recognition in the green eyes of the titan.

"Do you understand me?" Liam asked out loud, watching the Titan carefully as it slowly shook its head. "Good."

"Do you remember the plan?" He asked, getting another slow nod from Eren. Satisfied, he showed a small smirk. "Then go. We'll deal with the other titans."

Liam jumped off Eren's shoulder, making his way to the roof of the building beside him. He found Mikasa along with three other people.

"You're alive!" Mikasa exclaimed with some manner of relief.

"So you're the boy they were talking about." The man with dark blond hair commented, taking in the boy's appearance. "How much of that blood is yours?"

"None of it really. Though, I'd like to get it off me as soon as possible." Liam said as he looked down to his own shirt, if he could still call it that.

"How is that possible? It's been at least forty minutes since you were left on your own. Are you saying you've been fighting on your own for that long without a single scratch?" The short platinum blonde spectacled woman out of the three strangers asked in disbelief.

"Is that even possible? But then…" the last man spoke before trailing off.

"Those titan corpses we passed were still somewhat fresh. It doesn't seem like he's lying." The blond man muttered before turning to Mikasa.

During the briefing, they were told by Armin that the boy in front of them was skilled, even more so than Mikasa who the man had personally seen in action.

"There's no time to dwell on this. We can discuss it after we close the hole." The man said, focusing on their priority as Eren's titan let out a beastly growl as it lifted the boulder onto its neck.

"Squad leader Ian! Three incoming from ahead!" A member of the Garrison reported from the roof across them. "Two 10 meter and a 13 meter class!"

The blond man now identified as Ian took a sharp intake of breath as said titans made themselves known. "Rico, take your squad and take down the 13 meter class. Mitab-"

Before he could finish relaying his orders, Liam had already made his move, shooting forward with his hooks attached to one of the buildings.

He used the momentum to swing high into the air and over the 13 meter class. As soon as he got above it, he shot his hooks into its back, reeling himself downwards and slashing out its nape.

Using the falling corpse as a foothold, he pushed himself off into the air again, shooting his hooks into the eyes of one of the remaining two titans that moved together.

As he reeled himself in, the other one attempted to grab the cable. Seeing it coming, Liam retracted the cables, allowing the momentum to carry him forward as he dug his blade into the shoulder of the blind titan.

Balancing himself, he pushed himself up into a standing position, running across its shoulder as he cut out its nape. With that done, he jumped off the now falling titan with the last one in his sights.

From a short distance, he swung the two blades in front of him, releasing the now bloodied blades to fly through the air and stab into its eye. With it effectively blinded, he latched his hook at the back of its head as he attached a new pair of blades, reeling himself closer and slashing at the required area to get the job done.

Liam shot his cable into the building closeby, gaining a foothold before making his way back to the roof where Ian and the rest stood, looking in shock at the speed and skill at which the deed was just performed.

"You took too long. Remember we still have to guard Eren." Liam said before shooting off towards Eren who was slowly making his way to the gate.