Girl From Royalty

Ch. 32 - The Start of a Slaughter

Eventually, it was time to depart. The gates slowly began to rise and everyone began anxious as we knew the moment we left these gates we would be in danger.

"We with now begin the 57th expedition beyond the walls! Onward!" Commander Erwin called and all of us took off out of the gates of Karanes.

We rode through the abandoned city just outside the gates and immediately there was a titan to our left.

"Keep your eyes forward! Let the support team handle it!" One of our superiors yelled.

It was a ten meter class titans and it's stomach looked so expanded. It must have eaten so many people. The thought of it made me want to kill it myself, but I shouldn't try to throw my life away just yet.

Soon we exited the abandoned outer wall city and now entered the open field. That's when Erwin gave the command.

"Go into long-range scouting formation!"

I was originally riding beside Armin, Jean, and Reiner.

"See ya," Reiner announced and headed off toward the right, where is position was.

"If you run into a titan, don't pass your pants," Jean stated and headed back to his position.

"Right!" Armin responded.

"Same to you," I called back with a smirk. I then turned to Armin. "I'll just be a ways ahead of you. Everything will be okay."

I then lightly kicked Faye's side and began to move faster to get ahead of Armin to my spot.

As I rode, it felt nice to finally be out. The breeze felt amazing and the flora was beautiful. The lack of trees is unfortunate. It'll be difficult for us to fight any titans out here. That's what the formation is for after all. To avoid titans as much as possible.

Something didn't feel right though. Maybe it was just the feeling of the fact there could be a titan anywhere. Sometimes you don't even know it until you pass it.

I heard the sound of a flare and looked over to the side. Red. There was a titan over there. Just a regular one apparently. I took out my flare gun and loaded a red cartridge before firing it into the air to relay the message towards the center.

Soon there was a green flare to show us where to head to so that formation would shift accordingly.

After about fifteen minutes there hadn't been a single red flare to be shot on the right flank. This was odd since we were in titan territory after all. You would think you see quiet a few of them. My thoughts were soon interrupted by the sound of a flare. I looked over and it was black. An abnormal.

I relayed the message and eventually saw a titan emerge from a group of trees from afar. It was followed by a comrade by the name of Sys along with section leader Ness. The titan was heading straight to the center of the formation, which meant that had to engage.

When they took it down I couldn't help but smile. It was pretty amazing to witness such teamwork. But, I saw a shadow in the distance. It was moving fast. Incredibly fast. It's form....looked the same as the one I saw in my dream a few days ago. How is this real?

I fired off a black flare immediately as I stared at it in horror. It caught up to Ness and Sys so quickly. They engaged but something wasn't right. I could tell from my angle but I knew this wouldn't end well.

Sys and Ness were taken out quickly. I witness Ness get thrown to the ground like a swatted bug. That wasn't something a titan would normally do. That wasn't just any titans. They then began to run again, heading straight for Armin. We needed to stop this thing.

I turned to see Armin get thrown off his horse. I didn't care about the formation at this point and immediately had Faye halt and run back to help him.

"Armin!" I called as I watched the titan reached down to him.

They didn't kill him though. She removed his hood and then headed off again. I soon reached Armin and hopped off my horse.

"Armin! Are you hurt?" I questioned as I approached him.

"I'm okay. It....removed my hood...to look at my face," Armin murmured.

"(Y/N)! Armin!" Reiner called as he soon arrived with another horse. "Can you stand Armin? You won't last long out here unless you're on horseback."

Armin nodded and we both hopped onto our horses. We then raced off to follow after that titan.

"I saw the smoke round signaling an abnormal. Was it that one in front of us?" Reiner asked.

"It's not abnormal!" Armin immediately responded. "It's a human in a titan's body."

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who figured that out.

"Are you sure?" Reiner asked surprised.

"We need to fire a smoke round first," Armin said as he began to struggle with his flare gun. "H-Hurry."

We soon heard the sound of a flare being shot off and looked back.

"Wait. I think Jean fired it," Reiner replied as Jean began to ride towards us after firing off a yellow flare.

Yellow flare signals that something has gone wrong with the expedition.

We heard more signal flares and looked over to see yellow ones from the right flank.

"Does that mean we're so comprised that we can't continue the mission?" Reiner questioned.

"Looks like the right flank recon squad was partially wiped out," Jean butted in once he caught up. "Titans. Tons of them. I don't know why, but there are lots of fast ones. For now, we're holding them back, but recon is no longer possible. We've taken heavy losses and if we aren't careful we'll be destroyed!"

"That titan came from the same direction," Armin mentioned.

"She called them," I said suddenly and everyone looked toward me, remembering I was there. "It lead the titans to us."

"She?" Jean questioned and looked ahead at the titan. "Why is a titan over there? An abnormal?"

"No. She's a human with a titan body," I responded.

"They're someone with the same ability as Eren," Armin stated.

"What?" Jean said confused.

"Armin. (Y/N). Why do you think that?" Reiner asked us.

I didn't really want to say anything, but luckily already had it worked out.

"The titans only eat us and we're just killed in the process. Killing us isn't ever specifically their goal," Armin explained. "But when Sys aimed for its weak spot, it crushed him and then smashed section leader Ness into the ground. It killed him to kill, not to eat. Its nature is different from any other titan. When the colossal and armoured titans destroyed the walls, this must have been the one that brought that army of titans."

I was impressed at all that he's put together, but we still needed to slow that titan down.

"Their goal has consistently been to attack all humanity," Armin started again. "No, maybe not. It's behavior showed as if it was looking for someone. If that's the case, it could be looking for..."

"Eren," I answered. "They have to be after Eren."

They had to be after Eren. It made the most sense. But who could it possibly be?

That titan does seem familiar though..

I meant to publish this early, but I got busy with some other chores but here it is now.

Beginning of the expedition! Wooo!

Female titan! Wooo!

More to come in the future! Yayyy!