Chapter 13: Unexpected

"Finally, today is the day I begin my revenge" was the murmur emitted by a certain cadet, he had brown hair end green eyes.

He was currently sitting near the wall that he and his comrades will soon cross to save any and all survivors inside of the Trost District, sitting alone like this wasn't something he usually enjoyed, but he had seen his strongest friend do so a few times, so he at least wanted to try, he didn't see the appeal.

Suddenly he heard a voice calling him "Eren!"

Walking towards him were Armin and Mikasa, as soon as they came near she said "We finally found you, it's about time to get ready, let's go"

Hearing those words surprised the boy a bit 'It's already time? I thought I had at least an hour left' he then looked at the sky and seeing that the position of the Sun in the sky didn't match with his perception he was slightly stunned.

He then turned to look at the spot were he was previously sitting and wondered 'How long have I been there?'

He felt calm, unlike his usual self, he was perfectly ready to accomplish his mission and to take the first step to accomplish his dream of exterminating all titans, even if two people were giving him a fierce competition in doing so.

"Yes, let's go" he smiled to his friend and followed after them to the army's supply barrack were he'll take up his weapons, before finally entering Trost.

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A blond man stood on a raised platform, it almost looked like a theater's platform.

"I welcome you in the army, recruits, my name is Erwin Smith and I'm the 13th commander of the survey corps, I want to make sure that you understand something before you cross into the district of Trost.

The mission that you're given is not to fight titans, it is to look for any survivor still in the district that is currently filled with titans, your task is to find any injured person, elderly or children and bring them safely inside safe territory.

What you guys saw yesterday was a dream, something every member of humanity can only dream of achieving, two humans killing hundreds of titans is something unprecedented, so don't even think about replicating their feat" his words were not meant to demoralize the recruits, but to let them face reality, if they could.

The sad reality that those two were among the exceptions, just like Levi, they were outliers, monsters by human standards that could achieve what no other could.

Two humans killing hundreds of titans was something impossible for humans, as simple as that, even he was still incredulous about the report he heard, he wanted nothing more than to meet these supposed monsters.

And most importantly, they were still cadets, they were mere recruits that managed to do something that even Levi, the strongest person in the survey corps, wouldn't be able to achieve, protect an entire district by himself.

The recruits were still in perfect silence, they didn't know how to react to the words of the commander of the regiment that used to fight titans on a daily basis.

If even he said that it was impossible, how did their friends manage to do such a thing?

But Erwin didn't care about their worries "Therefore I order you to engage in combat only if absolutely necessary"

In this mission it wasn't really necessary to involve these recruits fresh of the training camp, but it would be necessary if they intended to make them into real warriors.

The fight they witnessed the day before had every chance to warp their understanding of titans, it would make it impossible for them to understand the simple fact that a single human in normal circumstances could never fight a titan head on.

They had to make sure that these recruits understood the true terror that the titans represented.

Even now Erwin could see the disbelief in the eyes of these recruits, their eyes told him that most of them didn't believe him.

They weren't able to believe that the same titans that were reaped like crops from their friends were actually something that it would normally take multiple people to take down and even that with a very high chance of death.

There obviously were exceptions, mainly the ones that had faced the fall of Wall Maria in first person five years before, but they were an extreme minority for obvious reasons.

The commander said very few words, but the extreme serious and stoic expression on his face, coupled with his imposing height, standing at 1,88 meters, compared to their still immature heights made them feel a certain pressure.

It was the pressure emanated by a man who saw countless comrades, underlings and friends being devoured by the titans outside the walls while they were begging for mercy, a mercy that no titan had ever given.

Like that the much needed speech to the recruits came to an end, with heavy thoughts pressing on the minds of the young boys and girls that made up the 104th regiment.

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The first two days went on without any incidents, the saved a few civilians that were still inside their homes, mainly the ones that were incapable of moving on their own and the elderly that didn't have the strength to do so.

The problem was that there was no one in the part of the city near the inner wall, but the real problem came once they were on the nearest buildings to the breach, the houses weren't damaged, but those houses had a direct line of sight with the titans entering the walls.

The elderly and few families were too terrified to leave the safety of their homes at the beginning and now that the city was filled with titans they could only hope for help from the military.

"Thank y-you, thank you very much young man" said a very old man to his savior, Eren Yeager.

The man wasn't able to walk properly, he had to use a cane to even take a few steps, his face was so full of wrinkles that any vestige of youth was gone from his face, coupled with the malnourished look on the elder's face made for a pitiful sight.

"It's my duty, sir" replied Eren as he left the man on the safety of the wall.

It was now the third day since the fall of Trost, they speed at which they found people to rescue was lower than ever, a sign that they managed to do their job properly and had saved almost everyone, but still, Eren wasn't satisfied.

The already few titans inside district still managed to kill a few of the scouts, thankfully the recruits heeded the advice they had been given of retreating from any approaching titan, so they had no losses.

The advice they took wasn't Erwin, his was an order, but it was actually Liesl's, the second ranker among them and the one most of them considered their leader, friend and role model.

She was always going around talking to people, helping them or doing something dumb at Klemens's expense, but most of them had been helped by her, one way or the other.

The most important thing that served to cement their idea of her was the devastation she caused on the battlefield against the titans, while almost everyone else was too terrified to do anything, the two top rankers had rained death upon any titan that had the misfortune of entering the breach.

Their display was dazzling, many of the cadets thought back on their choice of regiment changing their mind and deciding to join the survey corps, after all if two people could already this many titans alone, what about an entire regiment?

But they were sorely mistaken, while the deaths had been few in the last few days, the injured among those on the front lines were many, amounting near the middle of the double digits.

Eren stood on a roof to rest for a minute before going back to his search of survivors.

He was in group with Armin, Mikasa and a few others outside of the top ten.

"What are you sighing about, Eren?" asked a boy with blond hair and long sideburns, Thomas Wagner.

"This isn't how I imagined my first mission in enemy territory" replied the green eyed boy.

"And how did you imagine it? You thought that you would fly around killing titans right and left just like Klemens and Liesl?" teased a slightly taller boy with black hair styled backwards in a spiky pattern, Nack Tierce.

Eren reddened a bit hearing that, but soon he replied "No, I just hoped for a bit more movement"

At the moment they were once again near the breach as most of the civilians still inside Trost had been found in this part of the city.

But it was at that moment that the group slightly trembled, but the group didn't really realize until it was too late.

They kept their conversation going as they traveled on the rooftops of the city, most of them had been marked to know which house had been searched and which didn't.

The ground kept quaking, more and more, to the point that no one could simply ignore it.

Every single person currently on the rooftops turned their heads to look at what was causing these tremors.

And it was at that moment that they saw it, the repeating of that nightmare, and this time there was no Klemens or Liesl to protect them.

Tens and tens of titans suddenly poured into the city, killing every scout they could find near them, any time a scout managed to kill on of those monsters another one would manage to scoop him out of the air and slowly torture them to death.

Everyone was horrified at the sight, be it scouts or recruits, but none of them wanted to be less than their two friends, those that they took as role models.

They didn't want to be thought of as cowards by the very people they looked up to.

The scouts, on the other hand, knew exactly the terror that these titans could cause, but they had orders, to protect the recruits until they evacuated from Trost once again.

None of them wanted to lose that much territory, especially a city as big as trost, but they had no choice.

So they fought and extremely soon their numbers went down.

As soon as Commander Erwin saw the situation going south he sent the signal to retreat, but by that point the damage had been done, many were injured by the collapsing buildings, many were eaten and many simply froze up from fear.

"Let's retreat at the top of the walls everyone" hurriedly stated Armin, to which all of them were more than happy to comply.

Everyone but one, Eren.

He kept glancing at the titans that were currently spreading inside the city, but suddenly, something caught his eye.

"You guys go on first, I think a saw something human like moving in that direction, I'll join you after I check" said the one nicknamed the suicidal fool.

To which Mikasa replied by holding his arm and replied that she would go with him, but he stopped her, replying that two people would alert the titans too much and that he would be safer alone.

"Come on Mikasa, I'm not going to fight any titan and I'll join you right after a check, I promise" he argued.

Thanks to a bit of mediation from Armin he eventually managed to convince Mikasa to let him go alone.

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"In the name of mankind and of the Royal Family, I confer upon you this medal, may you keep working as the sword and shield of mankind in this dark times" said a high noble to Klemens and Liesl as the two kept their military salute in front of the throne were the King of the walls was currently resting his head on his fist.