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The world outside the supply wagon knew chaos. The world inside was a cage of suffocating darkness and impotent fury. For Akira, they were one and the same. He could feel it all through his Ki Sense—the bright, terrified flares of his friends' life forces, and the monstrous, familiar inferno that was hunting them. He heard the distant screams, the sickening crunches, the pops of life being extinguished like candle flames in a hurricane. Erwin's orders to wait, Mikasa's plea to trust, they were just whispers against the roaring agony in his soul. The last, desperate scream of a dying soldier was the key that unlocked the cage. Promises shattered. Orders evaporated. There was only one instinct left: protect.
BOOM!
The rear door of the supply wagon didn't just open; it detonated. A concussive blast of pure, cyan-colored Ki energy blew the thick wooden doors outward in a shower of splintered timber and twisted iron hinges. The two soldiers riding guard on the wagon were thrown from their horses, crying out in shock as a blue blur shot out from the wreckage, a guttural roar of pure rage tearing from its throat.
It moved at a speed that defied physics, a living lightning bolt that streaked across the grassy plains. It wasn't a giant. It wasn't a Titan. It was just a man, cloaked in a furious, brilliant aura, and he was closing the distance on the Female Titan with impossible speed.
Annie felt his Ki signature explode behind her. It was no longer the controlled, sorrowful energy she had sensed before. This was a raging, untamed inferno. A cold spike of fear and exhilaration shot through her. He's coming. She pivoted, her massive Titan foot crushing the earth, and saw him coming. She swung a hardened fist, a blow that could shatter stone, aiming to intercept the blue streak and end this before it began.
But he was already gone.
She saw him reappear fifty yards ahead, a flicker of motion too fast for the eye to properly track. He wasn't attacking her. He was intercepting her. He appeared directly in the path of a group of soldiers she had been about to trample, scooping them up in a whirlwind of motion and depositing them safely out of her path before she could even register what had happened.
"What the hell was that?!" one of the rescued soldiers gasped, his eyes wide with disbelief.
The Female Titan roared in frustration. This was ruining everything. He was a frustrating, intangible gnat, always one step ahead, always saving the very people she was trying to eliminate. She couldn't ignore him, and she couldn't hit him. He was making a mockery of her power. She swung again, a wide, sweeping kick meant to clear a dozen meters of ground. He simply leaped over it, running through the air for a few steps before landing gracefully, already moving to save another squad.
She knew she had to force his hand. This game of cat and mouse was a battle of attrition she couldn't win.
Ignoring the blue blur, she changed her trajectory. Her intelligent eyes scanned the formation and locked onto a new target. A group of soldiers led by a black-haired girl with a familiar blue scarf and a brown-haired girl with fiery green eyes. Mikasa and Erin. She knew, with a painful certainty, that he would protect them above all others.
She put every ounce of her Ki-enhanced strength into her legs and charged.
Akira felt her intent through his Ki Sense. A cold dread washed over him. She was going for them. He knew, in that instant, that his human speed wouldn't be enough to stop a direct, determined assault. He had to break Erwin's second rule.
He skidded to a halt, the grass burning under his feet. He looked up at the charging monster that wore the face of his friend, a deep, primal roar building in his chest.
"You leave them... ALONE!"
He snapped his fingers.
A pillar of blinding, violet light erupted from the ground, shooting into the sky like a beacon of defiance. The light was so intense that soldiers miles away had to shield their eyes. Inside the light, Akira's body grew, morphed, and solidified.
When the light faded, a new giant stood on the battlefield. It was sleeker and sharper than his base form. Its body was a mix of deep purple and black, accented with gleaming silver and gold highlights. Crackling lines of lightning-like energy raced across its limbs, its side horns were longer and swept back, and its eyes glowed with a fierce, focused light. This wasn't the balanced warrior. This was Ultraman Lightning Form.
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The high-speed duel was a ballet of beautiful, terrifying destruction. The Female Titan, a master of combat, met her match. She swung a crystal-hardened fist, and he was no longer there, reappearing behind her to land a lightning-fast chop to the back of her knee. The sound was like a thunderclap, but her hardened skin held. She spun, trying to catch him with a roundhouse kick, but he flowed under it, his movements a liquid blur, and delivered a series of rapid-fire strikes to her joints.
He was faster. He was a phantom she couldn't touch. But he was holding back. Every blow was precise, aimed to disable, not to kill. He was trying to cripple her, to stop her without destroying her. His movements weren't just a fight; they were a desperate, silent conversation. Stop, Annie. Please, just stop.
But Annie was a warrior forged in a land of hate. She knew his heart. She knew his weakness. She began to fight smarter. She stopped trying to hit the blur. Instead, she used her Ki Sense to predict where he would be. She started leading her attacks, forcing him into defensive dodges that burned more energy. She hardened her skin not just to attack, but to defend, turning his precise chops into glancing blows that did little real damage. She was deliberately, cruelly, draining his energy.
They crashed through the Forest of Giant Trees, their battle a whirlwind of splintering wood and shattered earth. He drove a kick into her side, sending her careening through three colossal tree trunks. She recovered instantly, using his own technique against him. She focused her Ki into the ground, causing the earth to erupt in sharp spikes, forcing him into the air.
I have to do this! she thought, her mind screaming with a conflict that mirrored his own. Stop making it harder!
The color timer on Akira's chest began to blink. A frantic, pulsing red light, accompanied by a dire, beeping alarm that echoed across the plains. He was running out of time. His movements became a fraction slower, his dodges a little less perfect. He was still feeling the effects of his injuries from Trost, and the emotional turmoil of fighting a friend was a poison in his system. He took a grazing blow from one of her hardened elbows, the impact sending him stumbling back, his giant form groaning.
He knew he had one last chance.
He backed away, gathering all of his dwindling energy into his right hand. A blade of pure, crackling, violet lightning formed, humming with immense power. This was it. One final attack, aimed not to kill, but to knock her out, to end this nightmare. He lunged forward, his lightning form giving him one last burst of incredible velocity, the lightning blade held high.
At that moment, Annie did something brilliant. Something heartbreaking.
She didn't try to block the attack. She didn't try to dodge.
As his blade swung down, she shifted her weight and hardened just one small part of her forearm into an impenetrable diamond-like crystal. She met his massive energy blade with a tiny, perfectly angled surface.
The impact was immense, but instead of shattering her, the crystal deflected the beam. The massive slash of lightning energy shot harmlessly past her, carving a deep, molten trench into a nearby mountain.
And all of Akira's energy was gone.
The brilliant light of his Lightning Form flickered violently. The purple and silver armor dissolved into particles of light. The beeping of his color timer fell silent. Mid-air, his giant form vanished, and his unconscious human body, battered, smoking, and broken, began to fall from the sky.
"AKIRA!"
The scream tore from Mikasa's throat. She, Levi, and the others, having seen the battle from afar, were already charging forward, their faces masks of horror. They spurred their horses, firing their ODM gear, desperately trying to close the distance, but it felt like they were moving through water.
Akira's body hit the ground with a sickening thud, rolling to a stop in a crumpled heap. The Female Titan stood over his small, still form. This was her moment. Her mission objective.
But her movements were not those of a ruthless soldier. They were slow, hesitant, almost gentle. She crouched down, her massive form trembling slightly. Carefully, delicately, she scooped up his unconscious body in the palm of her hand. She didn't crush him. She cradled him, her giant fingers curling around him in a gesture that was almost protective.
She stood to her full height, holding her prisoner—the man she loved. With one last, sorrowful look back at the charging, screaming Scouts, she turned and ran, disappearing into the vast, dark forest.
From her horse, Mikasa watched in utter horror, her mind refusing to process what she was seeing. The monster that had been slaughtering her friends was now running away, carrying the still body of the most important person in her world.
A sound of pure, animalistic rage and despair ripped from her lungs, a scream that was lost in the vast, uncaring plains.
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•To Be Continue•
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