hiatus-We'll Meet Again | Levi x Reader |

Part 36 - Defeat

I suddenly noticed the pain again, underneath the belt that was haphazardly slung around my wound. It had begun to itch terribly around the edges, where blood was pooling and started to drip down my arm. Even with the tight pressure, it still hurt like hell to move my arm around. This wound didn't hurt the way a blade did. A knives edge cut smoothly into the flesh, slid into you as though you were soft as lard, and shocked you with just how familiarly it seemed to glide into your body. It would leave a huge brand upon you, a sleek discoloured insignia that reminded you every time you cast eyes over it just how easily your skin had given way beneath even the gentlest slice.

This was nothing like that. When I'd peered at my shoulder, the wound was so small you wouldn't even notice it hiding there, had it not been for the beating hot pain and thick blood pulsing from the tiny hole. It hit your body with such a force it blew you back, you'd never see it coming. It seemed such a grimy way to fight. To have your opponent all the way over there while you let the tiny drops of lead do the dirty work for you. A cowards way to fight, I thought at least.

When I emerged the dim tunnel and rounded the corner to the stairs again, Kenny was still standing there. Smirk erased from his oily features for only a few brief moments before it split his face once more. I glanced to Eren finally, and immediately regretted it. His young face was purple and swollen in places, hands tied behind his back leaving him with no way to defend himself. The sight of him like that made my blood burning hot, I felt it thrashing through my veins, into my limbs, into my brain. I thought of Kenny and his men beating Eren earlier. 

My mind was empty, except for that blinding rage that hadn't filled me up since my time in the slum street fights. My heart pounded. There was no way to stop it now, and I knew there was no other way to win against Kenny. Something had been building in me, after what Eren had said to me in the dungeons, I'd have given anything to avoid the gallows and keep living. I'd needed a way to repent, to make up for everything I'd done in my immoral life. Standing in front of Kenny, Eren and Historia, it was clear - if there was a time to atone, it was at this very moment. Whatever beast I had caged up within myself since the day I'd roared through the Underground, leaving countless bodies in my wake, I set it free. Let it overcome every muscle in my body, consume all those feelings of anguish and remorse, and replace it with that familiar hot rage.

Eren continued to call out warnings through the rag in his mouth, warnings I wouldn't heed. As soon as my arm flinched, Kenny made his move too, acting quicker than Eren thought possible. Two rounds had fired - one from the gun in my hands, one from the gun in Kennys. Eren didn't want to think about what had happened to those men that had chased me, but considering I was holding one of their own weapons between my fingers, he wasn't hopeful. Neither bullet landed, I spun aside almost as though I knew exactly where he'd fire, and pounced from the ground straight towards Kenny. Eren winced at the sound of my steel blade clanging against Kenny's still loaded second firearm, and gasped outright when Kenny was stunned in the moment I attacked, giving me an opening to uppercut his jaw with the gun I still held. I grappled with the gun in his hand as he forced it down against my blade, trying to aim it at my head. I blocked a punch with my free arm and used the momentum of the deflection to force his gun-wielding wrist into the stone wall. His finger pulled the trigger, and the bullet flew through the empty air. My blade slid up the length of the barrel, and trailed a deep gash as I forced it along his arm with a grunt. The dagger plunged toward his chest, and in a flash of silver Kenny revealed his own blade and smashed it against mine. It was a knife fight now. I was good with the dual blades, but nothing had trained me in weapons like the Underground trained me with a dagger.

The emptiness continued to spread through my bones, and I saw with total clarity every move my body needed to make. My lips pulled back from my teeth and we prowled around one another like street cats. I moved first, feinting left and going for Kennys legs, we traded a slice on each other - his blade slid along the flesh of my arm to my chest, while I got a deep cut on his thigh. He flinched on his feet and I knocked a punch into his gut as I stood to full height again.