I live, I die, I live again [Eren J.]

8: Threatening Murder asserts Dominance

" You're feigning ignorance? Damn monster! Try playing dumb with me again! We'll blow you to bits in an instant! We won't give you time to show your true face! "

" My... my true face? " Woermann scoffed.

" Everybody saw it! You emerged from the carcass of a Titan! Mankind has allowed creatures like you to infiltrate Wall Rose! Even though you're cadets sworn to the King himself, it's appropriate to preemptively eliminate this risk! I'm not wrong! "

Two of the Elite Garrison squad leaders pipped up, faces frosty as they looked upon him like he was some kind of monster.

" They are clearly defiant. I doubt we'll be able to obtain any useful intelligence from them, " the woman with the light haired woman with the glasses commented. Her collegue continued—

" Section Leader, it'll be easy right now! We can blow him away while he's in human form! "

His comments didn't sit well with Mikoto or Mikasa.

" Fucking try it, you bald, close-set eyed bitch! " The redhead exploded, gnashing her teeth ferally at the Garrison troops like a wolf before it pounced. Mikasa, on the other hand, had a more subdued, chilling response; threatening to give them a live demonstration of her speciality...

Slicing Flesh.

The troops seemed to be very uncomfortable with the prospect of facing either of the Top One and Two cadets. The uncomfortable atmosphere further exacerbated when the Squad Leader, Eren hazily recalled was the one who ordered the girls into the Vanguard, spoke up.

" Sir, those are Cadets Mikoto Rothschild and Mikasa Ackerman, " he informed Woermann. " They call them the Harpy Twins. They were under my elite squad in the Vanguard and they're just as deadly as they say. It would be a great loss for humanity if either of them perished. "

" Mikoto! Mikasa! We have to stop fighting them! " Armin stressed, the vein in his neck bulging with exertion as he pleaded with his eyes. " Where could we run within these crowded walls? We have to talk things out! " 

Run? Eren hummed, squeezing his eyes close and shaking his head as if it would make the fuzziness of his memories clear. Why're we runnin'?

He didn't have long to sit on that before Woermann spoke up again repeating the even more confusing question—

" I'll ask you once again! What are you? "

What am I? I—

" I'm human! " Eren declared.

" I see, " Woermann murmured gravely.  " Don't think badly of me, then. "

The Section Leader raised his arm fully as the troops readied the canons to fire. There was no more reasoning with him.

" Scatter! " Mikoto commanded, grabbing Eren by the scruff of his neck and hauling him back and (presumably) away. " Mika! "

The raven-haired girl nodded sharply, tossing Armin up on her shoulder like a sack of potatoes and retreating as well but Eren knew— he just knew— no matter how fast or strong Mikoto and Mikasa were none of them were going to make it out. They couldn't outrun the cannons.

They had to block the canons.

In the last second before the artillery fired, Eren managed to wrench himself out of Mikoto's hold. An arm snaked around her waist, pulling her flush to his side while his free hand shot out to yank Mikasa, with Armin in tow, towards him in a similar fashion.

He had to block the canons.

In the very last second, as a deafening boom heralded a shell in the air, he raised a hand to his mouth and chomped down so viciously he drew blood.