𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐈𝐀 | 𝐋. 𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐍

𝐈𝐈𝐈.𝐈𝐕

A cluster of Titans—two five-meters and a three-meter—moved in on the central road. The recruits' terrified shouts bounced from the eaves, phrases like "keep going" and "we'll be dead" cutting through the thudding of the Titans' heavy footsteps.

Levi aimed a hook at a clock tower, and the rooftop disappeared from beneath him. Having been a Scout for over six years, he'd witnessed more than his fair share of Titan hordes but never had he or his comrades taken on an onslaught like the one that was unfolding right now. For the past half hour, Levi had been cutting down Titans left and right, trying to clear a pathway for the recruits to lead the horses through, but for every Titan he razed down, five more scrambled in. There was only so much manpower the Scout Regiment had at its disposal, and these Titans were chewing away at it like nothing.

He released the hook from the tower, fastening a second to a chimney right behind two of the Titans. He aligned himself perfectly, dragging his blades across their napes with enough momentum to swoop around and cut down the third, smaller one.

Levi just barely landed on a nearby rooftop, stumbling over his feet. He looked over his shoulder. The recruits had stopped in the middle of the road, gawking at him until they remembered the task at hand. They took off, tugging the horses along.

The recruits, for the most part, in the clear, Levi directed his focus to the soldiers in charge of clearing the area. Things were looking less than optimistic, some leftover Titans scattered around the village. If they weren't taken care of in the next two to five minutes, the central road would be compromised.

"Finish killing the small ones already! Get done before the Beast Titan moves, and no casualties! Don't you dare get eaten!" he barked.

"Sir!" Levi panted, his chest straps on the verge of bursting apart. He was Humanity's Strongest, but his body could only power him through so much. After slicing through only Walls knew how many Titans, the roof tiles looked just as enticing as his armchair after a long night of paperwork.

His thoughts wandered to Valen, the way she'd gently grasped his hands in hers.

In the back of his mind, there would always be a part of him that restlessly paced over her, but he had to acknowledge that she was strong and could look after herself. She had raised herself in a society that was hostile to her in more ways than one: that on its own said more about her strength than anything else could. A Titan and a practiced trafficker were two very distinct things, but in Valen's eyes, a threat was a threat and it needed to be taken down.

She'll come back alive, Levi assured himself, but he was uncertain whether he was saying that because he genuinely believed she would come back or because he was in denial about what fate could have in mind for her.

Levi far from doubted that his men had ignored the "no casualties" part of his order, but he was beginning to worry if he had overestimated their abilities. Far ahead of him, a Scout struggled in a Titan's hand, fruitlessly stabbing the jagged end of his broken blade into its finger. A couple of blocks east from that, a Titan chewed at a pair of thrashing legs that poked out from its slobbering mouth. Those were the casualties he could see—he could only imagine what the smaller ones were doing.

"Shit, who the hell am I kidding? These kids are gonna drop like flies," he sighed to himself. The most on-the-job action some of those recruits had gotten before reassigning was chasing down half-naked drunkards and fining merchants for speeding their carriages down a side road two kilometers above the limit. Their inexperience with Titans lured in fear like brothels drew in your average good-for-nothing MP. Fear, if not controlled, could easily derail anyone's sounder judgment.

"Should have left them up there..." Levi craned his neck, turning to the top of the Wall. Erwin was only a speck in his vision, his cloak rippling around his sturdy frame. He stood alone, not a soldier to guard him in sight.