Humanity's Strongest' Weakness

Chapter 52

- - Levi POV - -

Y/n had already gone to calm the cadets down so I had watched her leave before taking off.

Erwin watched me and it seemed that he knew how I felt as he didn't even say anything and just followed me.

As soon as we were out of ear shot from Y/n I whirled around and slammed Erwin into the wall and fisted his clothes in my clenched hands.

"Why?!" I shouted as I stared up at him with pained eyes.

"Why her? Why did it have to be her?" I asked as Erwin had a sad look in his eyes.

"I'm sorry." He said as I slammed him into the fall harder.

"Don't apologise! I just need to know. You know that Y/n and I are basically on the same capable skills. We both know that she could easily take the Beast titan, hell she could even join me." I said as Erwin paused before answering.

"Y/n had already encountered the Beast titan. Considering this, the Beast titan already knows she's here and has seen her, unlike you. If we all charged forward only for the abnormal titan to realise that Y/n isn't with us, he's suspect something is wrong." Erwin said as I clenched my fists tighter before letting him go and slumping in defeat.

What Erwin said... Was true. As much as I hated to admit it. His painful comment was true.

"If Y/n and I do not lead the vanguard, none of them will follow. Y/n has already shown her great skills of leadership when she stood up, they are willing to follow her." Erwin said as they both looked to the side, to stare at Y/n.

- - Y/n's POV - -

I felt a little numb as I kept ordering the cadets around, to keep them from panicking as I finally saw Levi and Erwin approach.

I couldn't even properly look Levi in the eyes as I could see the darkness shrouding in them.

The unfairness yet accept.

"I'm announcing our final operation!" Erwin shouted as the cadets all looked up at him.

"All troops, line up!" He ordered as everyone blinked in surprise and fear.

"We will be doing a calvary charge. Our goal: To rush the Beast titan. Of course, we'll be making ourselves ideal targets. So we'll wait until he's ready to throw and fire our smokes signals together. That should reduce his accuracy somewhat." Erwin said, yet it did little to comfort the new scouts as they all wore the same expression of fear on their faces.

But who could blame them. This operation... It wasn't planned to end up with more than 90% wiped out.

"While we're acting as a decoy, Captain Levi will kill the Beast titan. That is our plan." Erwin finished.

For a second, everyone was silent before one cadet suddenly dropped to her knees and threw up.

"Standing and waiting just means we'll be showered by more boulders. Get ready on the double!" Erwin ordered but nobody moved. Nobody could move.

"Are we all... heading... to our deaths?" A cadet spoke up as Erwin didn't hesitate to answer.

"Yes." He replied swiftly as there was a collective look of stricken faces in the crowd.

"If we're gonna die anyways, you're saying it's better if we die fighting?" The same cadet asked as Erwin replied the same as before.

 A simple, "Yes."

"Wait... If we're gonna die anyways, no matter how we die, even if it's disobeying orders, it all means nothing, right?" The cadet asked.

"You're precisely right." Erwin answered.