CHAPTER - 10 { A Monster Among Monsters }

Jean and his teammates successfully met with the surviving soldiers.

"Let's go, we need to hurry and reach the headquarters before it's completely destroyed by the titans!"

Jean said with a serious face. Reiner and the rest nodded their heads.

Wuss!

Therefore, the huge group of soldiers headed towards the headquarters building.

Jean saw three titans ahead, around him were Marco and another one of his friends.

Jean nodded his head and the two. They communicated even without words.

As Jean swung between the titans, one was able to perfectly grab Jean's left leg.

"Damn!"

Jean raced his reflexes as he cut off the fingers and escaped the titan's hand.

"Ha!"

With some relief, Jean jumped on the roofs as he started covering the distance between him and headquarters by running.

Their group was running extremely low on gas so they needed to preserve for unexpected situations.

"Jean, thank you! Because of you, we made it out safely!"

Marco came next to Jean and expressed his deep gratitude. Jean was surprised and a little confused.

"Didn't I tell you that you're cut out for leadership!"

Said Marco with a smile on his face. Jean was a little embarrassed to hear such words directly.

"I don't know about that!"

Saying so, Jean leaped from the roof and shot the hooks on to a tower.

While they were rushing towards the headquarters, few soldiers faced death because they used up their gas.

"Ahh! Save me!"

The friend who was next to Jean got caught by a 6-meter tall titan, which didn't waste time to kill him.

"Damn it!"

Jean roared in anger but used it to encourage himself more in reaching the headquarters building.

Very soon he came near the headquarters which was now surrounded by many titans.

Crash!

Jean broke through a closed window and came inside the building.

"Others?"

He looked around as he saw that after him, multiple soldiers broke through and came in.

"Fuu…"

For the first time after a long, Jean released a breath in relief. All the hardcore paid off.

But then he remembered the sacrifices needed for them to advance till here.

"I took advantage of my comrades' deaths! How many died under my command!..."

Jean stumbled down and held his head. His eyes were filled with grief and pain.

Then he saw two soldiers hiding under a table, their faces were covered in terror.

Immediately, Jean burst out in rage. He pulled a guy out and punched him in the face.

"Jean, stop it!"

Marco rushed behind Jean and held his arms stopping him from fighting.

"They are the ones who abandoned us! These fucking supply teams!"

Right at that moment, a titan broke a portion of the wall and peeked in.

'This is normal. This is reality... Was my hope an impossible dream?'

'I should've known... That this is reality. It should have been a simple enough realisation.'

'Humanity is not meant to fight these creatures...'

Jean stared at the huge eyes as he lost his heart and questioned the ability of humanity to challenge such huge monsters.

At that moment, a fist entered Jean's view. He saw a mysterious titan punch the titans attacking the headquarters building to the ground as it let out a tremendous roar.

Bam!

Mikasa, Conny, and Armin successfully made it to the headquarters. They pointed out the titan's instinct to ignore humans and target other Titans.

"Really?"

Jean was surprised as he listened to what Armin explained. Not just him, Reiner and the rest were also perplexed.

"Raaahh!"

The abnormal titan roared out as it slammed another titan on the ground.

"We should hurry to the gas chambers!"

Armin suggested, no one rejected his idea. After all, didn't they come here to get gas in the first place?

When they reached the underground floor just above the gas chambers, they saw multiple soldiers.

Most of them were dazed. Some still showed fear and terror while some grief for their dead friends.

"What the hell? What are you all doing here! Because if you all we would have been wiped out!"

Jean glared at the soldiers and shouted but none responded to him. Reiner placed his hand on Jean's shoulder.

"Armin! It's a problem!"

The soldier, who had interacted with Vlad before, came and called out to Armin.

"What happened, Richard?"

Asked Armin. Richard immediately explained the situation and what happened an hour ago.

"What! Vlad went in alone!"

All the soldiers in the vanguards were shocked to hear this news. The most stunned were Mikasa and the top ten ranking cadets from the graduation.

"But it's extremely quiet there. It has been like this for a few minutes."

Richard said with nervousness in his tone. Armin stared down in the gas chambers which didn't have any light.

Nothing could be seen from up. The darkness was like an abyss calling out their names.

Armin could feel his heartbeat fasten due to the fear that a titan would suddenly jump at him from there.

"We need to find Vlad. He might still be alive."

Reiner said seriously. Marko and Jean nodded as they searched for something to light up the darkness.

They found some lamps in a corner, about 10 in number.

"This should be enough for some of us to go down and check the situation there."

Armin looked around the soldiers and said with some hesitation. Anyone in his place would feel that.

"I will go."

Reiner immediately said. Following him were, Jean, Marco, Annie, Bertholdt, Mikasa and Armin.

They planned and soon with the help of the lift came down to the gas chambers.

Complete silence and cold temperature, best to describe the atmosphere here.

"This!"

Reiner and Annie, who were at the front, saw a huge titan body on the floor with its nape sliced off.

As they went further, more dead titans lay on the floor with all their flesh on the napes cut off.

Some also had cuts in different areas. Two titans had their eyes blinded by cut wounds.

"Here!"

Armin found a long trace of blood on the floor leading towards a wall.

As he walked and raised the lamp to see with the light, he was shocked to find Vlad staring at him with empty eyes.

"Took you quite a while to come here."

Said Vlad. His body was bathed in blood of both his and the titans, which was evaporating quickly.

"What are you waiting for now? Help me."

Vlad was very displeased to find that the people who came to search for him were statues after seeing him in this condition.

"Y-Yes."

Reiner was first to break out of the dazed state. Then the others also came back to their senses.

In their minds, Vlad was a complete monster among monsters.

'To have killed this many titans all alone without any support...'

Fear was what started developing in their hearts for Vlad. His abilities were clean to everyone present here.

If they were to fight Vlad, they could only let themselves die.

Vlad gritted his teeth and tried to move his hands. One of his fingers was fractured and swollen.

He could also feel that his legs, when he moved them, produced weird noises.

Overall, Vlad reached his limits. No, his body was the one who reached its limits first.

He was only tired physically, not mentally or physiologically.

"But I need some rest before I can move again."