Signals

"Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa!" 

There was a series of sounds of hooves pounding the ground, a great curtain of dust was raised, and the Survey Corps legion sped out of the abandoned city. 

As soon as they left the city and reached the open grassy plain, Commander Erwin Smith held out his hand and shouted, "Prepare to move into formation, remember to drop the flares if you run into a smart titan, disperse!" 　 

When Commander Erwin's words finished, the large legion immediately dispersed as if they were a large avalanche, the recruits were also methodical, each in their respective places, everyone practiced many times and now no one made a mistake. 

Takashi's expression remained the same, his position was fourth on the left side, and he was located between the first follow squad and those in charge of protecting the supplies. 

Where did the female titan appear and where did she pass through? He could no longer remember these details, at this moment he only cared about how he should act in the following moments, but now he could only take one step at a time. 

According to the current plan, Eren's position is said to be three lines to the right. To be honest, this may be false information. It is impossible for Commander Erwin to share Eren's position to all recruits. 

Facing Takashi on the left is Sasha, who ranks third on the left side and is in a close position with the support team. At the rear is Mikasa, and just three lines behind are the legion resources. 

The Survey Corps commander is in the center of the formation, which is where he has the proper position to decide the legion's course.　 

The formation is very effective in avoiding ordinary titans, but it is not all-powerful, as any formation can have loopholes. Also, if there is a structure that limits vision, the titans can suddenly come out and it will be a real problem.　　 

Not long after the team left, Sasha on Takashi's left front got into trouble.

"Boom!" 

Standing on all fours, an abnormal titan that might be 14 meters tall jumped a structure and broke through the walls. 

Like a crocodile crawling, it frantically chased after Sasha who rode in front of it. 

"Ah!" 

There was a sound of wind breaking, and when she felt footsteps approaching behind her, Sasha screamed. She reacted and quickly pulled out the signal flare, out of nerves and the situation she lost the flare she had just taken and accidentally fell to the ground. 

On the side, Sasha's squad leader and another Survey Corps veteran rushed to her aid, and the two of them took the titan away together. 

"Damn it! It's an abnormal titan that won't stop chasing her. Go left and I'll lure it away." Turning his head and looking at the chasing titan, the squad leader said to another veteran. 

The Survey Corps veteran gritted his teeth tensely, and as he was about to turn away, he unconsciously glanced back, only to see a figure flying straight at the back of the titan's neck like an arrow. 

"Whistling!" 

With a flash of blood, the man sliced open the back of the titan's neck with two knives, resulting in a gush of blood. 

"Plaf!" 

The titan that was still crawling on all fours collapsed to the ground.

The squad leader who heard the movement also turned around and saw Takashi who had jumped off the titan's head and continued running without his horse. 

Sasha's squad leader was a little surprised, "The black-haired recruit looks familiar, isn't this the rookie that the superiors value?" 

The other veteran said, "Although Takashi Ackerman is a new recruit, he performed well in the recovery battle. Before he joined the corps, the number of independent titans he killed reached 25? No, now it's 26, and his strength is really strong." 

Takashi who hadn't stopped running whistled at Babas and Babas ran towards him immediately, with a quick jump Takashi jumped up and approached Sasha, "Are you okay?" 

Wiping the cold sweat from her forehead, Sasha smiled and said, "I'm fine, why are you here?" 

Takashi smiled reassuringly and said, "I watched the formation on this side was breaking and then since you yelled so loudly I'm here to control the situation." 　　 

Somewhat embarrassed, Sasha said: "Takashi, you're too observant, don't mention it to anyone, it won't happen next time."

Even the signal flare slipped from her hands to the ground a moment ago, Sasha felt it was too inferior. 

Nodding to indicate he would keep the secret, Takashi didn't think Sasha was shy. He could still show an attitude of terror if he was chased by a rat, a titan could be much scarier than a rat. 

Takashi saluted Sasha's squad leader, slowed down his horse and slowly fell behind. His position was a little further back than it was now, but he saw that Sasha on the left front was in trouble and rushed to help. 

Returning to the fourth row, after a while, he saw the red flare of the front row on the left, which meant that he had encountered an ordinary titan. Seeing this, Takashi simply took the flare gun and loaded a red flare. 

"Boom!" 

He fired a shot into the sky, and soon after, he saw beams of red smoke rising into the sky around him and continued on and on. 

The essence of this outside-the-walls research is not to kill titans or recover the Mary Wall. The long-distance inspection of the formation is a kind of large-scale vision. It was invented primarily to avoid titans. If it weren't for the abnormalities impacting the formation, it usually wouldn't be fought. 

Takashi had now been a bit aggressive, generally contact should be avoided and in this situation the right thing to do should have been to distract the titan. 

Even so, most of the soldiers in the formation just replicate the signals and then the commander in the center fires a green flare signal to adjust the course of the formation. 

Takashi now went to help Sasha a moment ago because the abnormal titan suddenly jumped off a structure and could not be avoided. 

Just like the red flare sent by the first enemy tracking team just now when it encountered an ordinary titan, what Takashi had to do was not to support and kill the titan, but to relay the news. 

Not long after, seeing the green smoke in the air in the center of the second column not far away, Takashi lightly pulled the reins, adjusted his direction and mounted his horse towards the new changed direction. 

After that, the left and right wings of the formation encountered several titans, and all successfully turned to avoid them without any accidents. 

The long-distance observation formation is certainly a great idea. Being able to avoid titans without directly engaging them will reduce casualties greatly. 

This area is generally flat terrain, except for green grass, sometimes you can see some trees with leafy branches, or a small decaying structure, it's been almost an hour and the left wing is generally calm. 

Takashi frowned, they had already traveled a long distance. Although an abnormal titan appeared next to Sasha to attack her, there were generally no problems. 

Now it was a matter of time before the female titan started to move. If it didn't appear right next to his, it would most likely appear on the right of the legion. Unfortunately, he can't remember everything that was going on in this expedition. 

Takashi only knew that among the members of Levi's squad, with the exception of his uncle and Eren, all were eliminated and a large part of the Survey Corps died at the hands of that intelligent female titan. 

Sighing, though now that he knew the female titan might have appeared on the right wing, it was impossible for him to cross most of the formation to help. 

"Originally, I thought that when I encountered the female titan, I would join together with Mikasa and find favorable terrain to intercept the female titan. Now it looks like things might not go the way I want, I hope they can catch the female titan successfully." 

On Takashi's side everything was normal, but the other side is now in a desperate situation. On the right flank of the formation, a titan suddenly appeared, followed by a group of normal titans. 

The captain on the right side frowned, he now knew that he was in a very dangerous situation, looking at his subordinates he shouted, "We must evade the titans, Jakler if that titan looks much more abnormal than an intelligent titan, send the purple signal you have in your team, everyone follow me!" 

"Roar!" 

A group of twelve soldiers headed towards the female titan swiftly, when they broke formation many headed towards the normal titans to eliminate them bit by bit. As the counterattack began, another soldier slowly broke away from the formation in the opposite direction. 

The squad that attacked the titans began to die with great speed. The female titan hit the first squadrons that attacked her with surprise movements. 

These soldiers did not know the appearance of the female titan and mistook her for an abnormal titan, the only reason they attacked was because of the large number of titans that were gathering. 

Seeing that all his comrades were dead, the only remaining soldier pulled out the flare and charged the purple smoke ready to give the signal. However, just as he was about to fire, the female titan launched a horse at the soldier. 

Taking a heavy hit, the soldier was knocked off his horse. When Annie successfully eliminated all the soldiers, she resumed her journey. However, just when she thought they had all been killed, a purple flare shot out behind her. 

"Damn... Cof! Intelligent titans... You will be eliminated... Cof!" Said the soldier before losing his life.

Subsequently, the female titan who had approached soon encountered Armin and his team, just as Ness and other elite soldiers were about to attack, they saw the purple signal that was fired in a very different way. 

Ness, who was very perceptive, knew that they had all been eliminated by an intelligent titan. "Armin, replicate the signal, the intelligent titans appeared!" 

But it was all too late, the female titan was very close to his position and running away was not an option. "Damn it! Soldiers, prepared to delay the female titan, spread out around her." 

Subsequently, the female titan was delayed by the air strikes the soldiers were making, to protect the defense class, they had to do whatever it took. 

Ness looked at his dead comrades and shouted, "You! We know you have intelligence, humanity remembers and we promise that you will one day burn under the flames of vengeance of all mankind." 

It is a pity that he was subsequently killed, he had accomplished his mission of delaying the female titan, now he could die knowing he was a hero. 

The sacrifices of the elders made Armin prepare to launch the flare. 

"Bang!" 

The flare was fired and then many more replicated in the air all the way to the center of the legion. As the flare was sent out, Armin who wanted to run away was hit by the female titan. That titan cleverly just held him by his cloak, Armin looked at her in horror and to his bewilderment, the female titan did not kill him. 

Armin looked at the female titan and came to himself with a jerk, he pulled out the flare gun and fired a purple smoke flare again. 

The people around close to Armin also saw the signal flare and their faces changed greatly. Because of Takashi's proposal, the purple signal flare means there is an intelligent titan, which is more dangerous than a normal signal. 

Reiner and Jean arrived at Armin's side. At this time, Reiner was acting very normal. No one would find out that he has a mental illness.

The actor Reiner saved Armin. Many people had already retreated and began to broadcast the signals. 　 

Then, Reiner, who was caught by the female titan successfully escaped by cutting off her hand. 

Looking at the wound cut by Reiner on his palm, the female titan immediately changed direction, no longer advancing in a straight line and ran straight to where Eren's squadron was. 

"Squad Leader, do we need to stop her?" A Survey Corps member was sweating on his forehead, glaring at his squad leader. 

The squad leader gritted his teeth and said bitterly, "I can't stop it, purple signal flare, this is a smart titan, the commander told us to retreat immediately when we find it, at the very least, we have to fight in a place with buildings or structures..."

"Squad leader, there is a small town in front of us. Three squads near us intercept it, we can't let the titan disrupt the formation!" 

"All right, let's do it! Gather the people nearby." 

"Assemble, prepare for battle as a team!"