(09) Soldiers of the 104th

"This isn't real. It's just one bad fever dream", Jean stood on a rooftop in a trance as he watched pure and utter chaos ensue. He was in a state of disbelief and refused to accept reality. One day. He was one day away from achieving his lifelong dream. One day away from joining the Military Police. One day away from the interior which he could only imagine.

He was assigned as a Squad Leader for his group, but luck wasn't on his side as three titans grouped up together, killing almost his whole squad.

"Daz!"

He heard a shout from Marco as he looked up to see another one of his peers and friends about die by the hands of the titans. Marco quickly sunk his hooks into the titan, using a boost of gas to spin around the titan and cut his nape. The titan dropped dead, but it was to no avail. Marco and Jean both watched Daz' lifeless body fall from the titan's hand and onto the ground, creating a loud thud.

In those few seconds of despair, one of the other two titans managed to grab the distracted Marco. He tried his best to wriggle his way out of the titan's firm grip, but all his efforts were crushed and he soon broke into a screaming mess as the titan slowly raised its hand towards his mouth. Marco shouted from the bottom of his heart, hoping his screams would somehow stop his oncomimg death.

"Damn. Eren, is this what you felt like when you saw that titan kill your mother? Strauss is this why you train so damn hard?"

Jean seriously questionned his life. For the entirety of it, he had been living so narrow mindedly. Never once considering the hell that others have went through. Joining the Survey Corps seemed so idiotic to him, but he could sort of understand their motives now.

"God damn it, as if I'm gonna die with those two jackasses as my last thoughts!"

A sudden wave of anger and vigor suddenly coursed through Jean, overpowering and wiping away the despair he felt. He shot his hooks, and pressed down on his gas boosters as hard as he could, blitzing forward and cutting through the hand that held Marco.

"Marco, regain your composure! We're gonna kill these two ugly bastards and avenge our squad!"

Marco was on his descent to floor but shot his hooks into the tallest building he found, landing on top of it. He took a few deep breaths gaining back the lost stamina from shouting so hard. He looked forward and saw Jean slash cleanly through both of the titan's eyes in one go before launching it past it.

"Marco kill that one and I'll finish the other one!"

Marco wasted no time. Setting his hooks deep into a building that stood behind the titan as he flew towards its nape from a sideways angle and struck it as hard as he could, causing the titan to drop to the ground and start to evaporate.

While Marco dealt with his target, Jean shot towards the final titan that blocked his way. His hook was embedded deep into the titan's neck and he flew towards it at full speed. The dumb titan only saw more food flying straight to it, and opened it's mouth, getting ready to welcome its next meal.

Just as it seemed that Jean was about to fly right into the titan's mouth, his direction suddenly changed as he span perfectly around the titan's head and struck the nape of the titan aggressively.

Jean released his hook from the titan's neck, turning and landing on a rooftop next to Marco. They both watched the final titan drop dead as smoke started coming off of it's corpse.

"Daz and the others... they're all dead..."

Marco could feel his resolve wavering, as he took a glance at Daz's dead body. His fists clenched tightly as he tried his best to hold back the tears that were threatening to form.

"Don't mourn them yet. First we're gonna survive and our best bet is probably joining up with the other cadet squads. Let's go."

Marco shook his head in an attempt to clear himself of those desparing thoughts. "Right!", he said resolutely taking off after Jean.

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"Krista, watch out!". Hearing Ymir's shout sound out from behind her, Krista turned, seeing a titan come out from the left. Time slowed for Krista, as she made eye contact with the terrifying monster in front of her. She could only watch in horror as it's gargantuan hand slowly rose, reaching to grab her. This would be her death, she was sure of it.

Time sped back up though and she was forcefully snapped back into reality as she felt herself getting swept away. She looked up and saw Sasha carrying her with a smile.

"This is for that bread you gave me on the first day of training", the potato glutton said, setting Krista down as they landed on a random rooftop. She then jumped off, flying straight back to the titan.

Ymir and Connie were keeping the titan at bay, distracting it long enough for Sasha to sneak up to it's nape without the titan even knowing. With a loud shout she struck down hard, ending the life of the titan.

"Haha, nice going Sasha!", Connie cheered his fellow soldier on as the three of them made their way to Krista.

"Owowowow, stop it Ymir!", Krista cried out in pain as the woman in question forcefully pulled on one her ears. Krista tried freeing herself from her friend's painful grip but her best efforts proved fruitless.

Only after a few more seconds of punishment from Ymir, and snickering from Connie and Sasha was she finally free from the grasp of the devil again.

"Seriously Krista! What the hell's wrong with you, we told you not to rush off on your own but you did so anyway! Did you forget that these streets are titan infested now? You could die!", Krista seemed to shrink and get even smaller than she already was when faced by the fierce assault of Ymir.

"But... I heard someone shout for help".

Ymir seemed to get even angrier at the frail girl's response. "So what? If they're shouting for help then they're probably dead already, doesn't mean you need to die."

Connie shook his head and sighed audibly enough for everyone to hear. "Loosen up Ymir, she had noble intentions. Besides nothing-".

Connie's eyes widened as his next words were suddenly stuck in his throat. He raised a hand to his mouth trying to force back down the contents of his breakfast. The other three cadets, seeing his intense reaction, turned to see what he saw, and a somber atmosphere took it's place.

Over on the ground where the titan that tried to grab Krista had come from lay a body. Or at least the lower half of one. The grey stone was looked as if it was painted dark red, from the overflowing blood which still hadn't fully dried.

No words were said between the group, as they looked at the grim scene. Krista held back her tears to her best of the ability.

"Shit, three titans coming to our location!", Sasha suddenly kicked into action, alarming the others as they flipped into battle mode again.

"What! Where?", Connie shouted and as if on cue the group saw three titans closng in on their position. The biggest titan, stood at 11 meters tall and was walking directly towards them from the front. The other two both looked to be around 6-7 meters and they approached from the left and right respectively.

"Sasha, Connie! I'll take the big one in the middle, you guys take one each too!". Ymir barked a command out before shooting herself forwards to the giant titan. It had an obscenely large belly, almost covering up the entire street. Sasha and Connie wasted no time also launching towards their target.

Ymir struggled to fly around the titan due to it's large size, so she instead chose to fly directly towards its eyes, stabbing a blade into each eye. The titan roared in pain as it brought up its hands in an attempt to squish Ymir into its face. She launched herself up off of the titans face and past its head. The titan who had just brought up it hands, smacked itself at full force, ending up in a daze of confusion. Ymir turned in the air, hooking herself into the titan's nape as she shot forward and killed it in one clean blow.

Sasha raced at blinding speeds towards the titan that came from the right. She flew it at head on, but twisted and span, diverting her path ever so slightly as she killed the titan without much struggle.

Connie used his small frame to his advantage, as he surfed through the air with ease, he suddenly dropped his altitude, flying right past the foot and slicing it's tendon, making it lose balance and fall flat on its face. Connie suddenly shot himself directly up into the sky, flipping as he did so. He hooked on to the titan, landing just on top of the nape, and promptly slashed it.

Having killed all of their respective targets, Connie, Sasha, and Ymir regrouped at the same rooftop where Krista awaited them.

"Damn, what now? We're all running low on gas", Connie mentioned, making everyone's expression darken at the grim situation.

"I think we should regroup with the other cadets". Krista spoke up, suggesting her idea. Everyone instantly agreed as there wasn't much room for discussion, that was the only option.

-----

Eren and his team maneuvered through the city carefully as they observed their surroundings. A stroke of misfortune, seemed to have found them though, as an abnormal titan suddenly rushed at them, giving them almost no time to react.

They all kicked off as hard and as fiercely as they could, narrowly avoiding the titan as it went flying into a pillar. They all breathed out in relief until the titan turned around, revealing Thomas, dead in it's mouth.

A wave of anger flashed through Eren as burst off, breaking away from the group. The team screamed at him, telling him to wait but their calls fell on deaf ears.

"I'll kill you!", Eren roared as he accelerated dangerously with his ODM gear towards the abnormal that was already walking away. His eyes widened though and he stopped suddenly when he saw a smaller titan, down on the ground waiting. With no choice he fell back to where the rest of his squad was.

Eren's anger only grew and he wanted to give chase to the abnormal that killed Thomas to get revenge for him but... looking at the four titans that blocked their path and the nervous looks on his teammates face...

"Goddamn it all! Nac, Nilieus, you guys follow my lead, we'll take out the normal titans for now and find another chance to get back for Thomas! Mina, Armin, hang back a bit and support us when we need it!"

Barking out his orders, he shot towards the closest titan, distracting it as Nac cut open the nape of the titan, killing it as it slowly began smoking. No time was wasted as Eren jumped straight the the next two titans, killing them both in rapid succession.

The last titan had managed to catch hold of Milieus but fortunately for him, Armin dashed forward, slicing off the hand that held him tightly. Following Armin's lead, Mina also dashed forward in an attempt to cut the nape, however struck too shallow. A mistake that Eren was luckily there to correct.

The cadets regrouped with Eren at the center. They watched as more titans proceeded to make their location to them.

"Good, keep doing what we just did! Milieus try to move more while your in the air to avoid getting caught and Mina strike harder!"

"Let's go!"

The squad of cadets once again burst into action as the next wave of titans enclosed their location.

-------

"Holy shit, what's up with the amount of titan's here?", Strauss looked nervously at what he could only call a horde of titans, he didn't know the exact number but there had to be at least 15 of them. It was weird, there were far too many titans, even just his journey to meet the vangaurd, he had encountered nine seperate titans, ruining a set of blades already.

"Argh, someone please help!"

Strauss followed the direction he heard the cry of help from, and saw a titan, a bit further off from the rest of the horde, chewing on a person.

He kicked off with as much force as he could muster from the rooftop as the feeling of being jolted rushed through his entire body. The rooftop tiles shattered from the force of his launch. Strauss burst forward slicing the titan's mouth in half and retrieving the soldier inside of it. He rushed back to the rooftop, placing the older man down but it seemed he was too late. The soldier was already on the verge of death.

"H-Hey, kid... I'm sorry t-to place this burden on you like this... But please. Please pass this on to m-my daughter. I-It's meant to be a birthday gift. If you f-find her... t-tell her my last moments were spent thinking of her..."

By the end of the speech the man was in tears. The thought that his daughter would have to grow up in this cruel world without him was terrifying. But there was nothing else he could do. The middle aged male, reached into his pocket, pulling out an ID and a think locket, made of his silver. Strauss took the items from the man's hands and when he looked back, the life faded out of his eyes, as he died crying.

"No matter what happens, I promise I will not die before I fullfill your final request". Strauss knelt down, wiping away the tears from the man's eyes and then closing his eyelids. "Rest well soldier, you've done humanity a great service".

Strauss stood up as he looked onward, at the horde of titans, who stared back at him with their grotesque and hungry gazes. His expression was dark, his whole body tense. He clenced his swords as tightly as he could, and a single vein bulged from his forehead.

"I'll annihlate every single one of you! Hunt you down and wipe you off the face of this earth like the vermin you are!"

------

'That's a rookie fresh from graduation?'. Ian Dietrich was considered one of the Garrisons elite. A title that he held that he felt genuine pride for. It earned him the respect of even the commander, and many looked up to him for it. It took him years to achieve, making it all the more satisfactory.

But watching Mikasa Ackerman slay titans left and right as if it was an everday occurence sparked a serious sense of self doubt in himself. He'd obviously heard rumors of the Ackerman siblings, they were said to be the greatest prospects in human history and were expected to preform up to the standards of even Captain Levi from the Scouts. He hadn't thought much of them though, believing them to be over exaggerated. Yet here before his very eyes, the rumours proved to most definitely be true. That however led his mind to another thought.

'They say her brother is miles above her in terms of skill... If she's this good, then how fuckin' good is her brother?'

He was snapped out of his thoughts as several loud footsteps suddenly approached him from behind. The warning voices of his squad allowed him enough time to just barely propell himself backwards, dodging out of the way of a sprinting abnormal titan.

"Shit! That direction is towards the gate where all the civilians are gathered!"

Without missing a beat, Mikasa ripped through the air, latching her hooks straight into the back of the titan and destroying it's nape entirely.

She slowed her descent and landed gracefully right in front of the gathered civilians.

'Something's wrong. More than enough time has passed, everyone should have evacuated by now.'

"What's the hold up here, why haven't you evacuated yet?"

"Because that damn merchant is blockin' up the gate with his cart!", One of the men in the crowd shouted as he pointed to a large man standing by a cart, with three bodyguards standing in front of him. Many more voices then shouted out, begging Mikasa to do something about the situation.

"Shut your damn trap! The cargo in this cart is more important than your insignificant lives! Don't even try anything girlie, I'm warning ya!". The merchant shouted back in response as he stood in front of his cart.

"Move the cart. Now."

Mikasa raised her sword as a threat, causing the three bodyguards to charge at her. The one closest to her, she stopped with a simple leg kick, making the man fall over in pain. The next tried to punch her, but Mikasa ducked smoothly under the man's arms, smacking the back of his head lightly with the blunt side of her sword as he also dropped to the floor in pain. The last bodyguard seemed to learn from his two predecessors and chose the wise option of backing away. Mikasa walked up to the merchant, pointing her sword to his neck.

"Move it. Now."

Fear overcoming the merchant, he grunted in frustration as he called his men back to pull the cart away. The people thanked Mikasa before they all rushed through the gate, in a hurry to escape from this district.

Seeing that the civilians were all evacuated, it meant her job with the rear guard was done. She immediately took off in the direction of her fellow cadets.

'Eren... Straus... are you two okay..?'

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A/N: Holy moly I wrote three thousand words for this chapter when I wasn't planning to go above 1.5k.... oh well