The soldiers raised their rifles as one.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Titans crumbled beneath the storm of fire. With the cover of the anti-Titan guns, the Survey Corps fought like they never had before. Fear was replaced by fire in their eyes.
A weapon that could kill a Titan in a single shot—
A weapon that gave mankind hope.
What reason did they have not to fight?
"Protect the shooters!" Franz roared over the din of battle. "If they survive and carry these weapons back into the Walls, humanity still has a chance!"
"Yes!!"
The Survey soldiers rallied, instinctively clustering around the carriage. They would die first before letting anything touch the blonde boy and girl wielding their miraculous guns.
The battlefield grew bloodier with every moment. Titans fell, but so did men. Screams were drowned in the roars of Titans and the crack of rifles. Friend and foe no longer mattered—there were only humans and Titans.
Zeke wasn't sure how many times he had pulled the trigger, only that his hands trembled and his shoulders burned with every recoil. Just when he thought the tide was turning, Isabel shrieked from the front of the cart:
"Brother! Behind you!"
Zeke spun around.
A Titan had slipped behind them, its shadow blotting out the light. Its maw gaped wide, steaming breath pouring over them. There was no time to reload.
No time to run.
Survival was all that mattered now. Zeke raised his hand to his mouth, ready to tear his flesh—
Shing!
Two flashes of steel cut through the chaos.
The Titan's body split in half.
A figure dropped between them and the monster, blades spinning in a blur. Before the Titan's corpse had even started to steam away, the man launched himself again. His cables whined, his body arcing in a perfect curve.
The Titan swung at him.
He didn't even dodge—he carved its arm to ribbons and sailed through the spray of blood. In the same motion, he whirled behind its neck.
Slice!
The nape vanished. The Titan crashed down dead.
"So fast!" soldiers on the cart gasped.
"So fast!" Zeke muttered, unable to help himself. Even after all the times he had seen that sword in his past life, Levi's speed still stunned him.
Levi was not yet the "Humanity's Strongest Soldier" Zeke knew he would become. But even now, this so-called rookie moved with a ferocity and precision that set him leagues apart.
"Who is that?" Bertolt whispered, wide-eyed. "He killed two Titans in the blink of an eye…"
"Not just that!" Reiner's voice trembled, his disbelief plain. "He still has room to maneuver!"
The difference was night and day.
They had already seen how the Survey Corps fought. Awkward, clumsy, often suicidal—soldiers diving headlong into Titan jaws, cables snapping midair, comrades dying as often by miscalculation as by Titan claws.
At best, it took two of them working together to down a single Titan, and even then their survival afterwards was luck more than skill.
But this man…
This man moved like the ODM gear was an extension of his body. Blades and flesh blurred together, Titans collapsing wherever he passed. And even after cutting one down, he never stopped moving, never lost the initiative.
As if to declare to the world:
The way I fight is different.
Blood rained. Steel flashed.
Wherever his eyes locked, no Titan survived.
"…Is this really a human?" a soldier whispered in awe.
Zeke exhaled slowly, regaining control of himself. He wouldn't let himself be dazzled too long. He knew Levi all too well. After all, he had been on the receiving end of those blades more times than he cared to count.
"All that damage… all those cuts… all on me…" Zeke grumbled under his breath.
He adjusted his rifle, extra careful with his aim now. Killing Titans was one thing. Accidentally clipping Levi—Humanity's ace, Paradis's strongest weapon—would be unforgivable.
It was a bitter irony.
"I never thought the day would come when I'd be protecting Levi," Zeke muttered, resisting the urge to pull the trigger on instinct.
Humans were so fragile.
One slip, and even the strongest soldier could be gone.
The battle raged on, but under Levi's lightning-fast strikes and the devastating rifle fire, Titans began to fall faster and faster. The last of them collapsed with a final scream, its nape blown apart.
Silence fell.
The surprise assault of strange Titans had ended in an overwhelming victory.
"…It's finally over." Zeke lowered his rifle, his shoulders aching. He wasn't built for this kind of fight. Compared to brawling with Titans in his Beast form, sniping for hours was pure torture.
Just as he let out a weary sigh—
Thud.
A figure dropped onto the carriage.
Zeke's dead-fish eyes widened. His breath caught. Instinctively, his hand shot to the back of his neck.
That familiar terror crawled down his spine.
I'm going to be chopped!!
The other soldiers, who had just witnessed Levi's impossible dance of death, didn't laugh at him this time.
Because they, too, slowly reached up—
And covered the backs of their necks.
The soldier who had carved through Titans as if they were paper now stood among them, expression unreadable, blades still dripping.
On this day…
The Titans remembered the fear of being dominated by Levi.