The Claw

Silence descends on the battleground, broken only by the ominous hum of the Claw Titan, named after its nefarious clawed hand and black mist surrounding its body.

Meanwhile The cadets, still processing the gruesome spectacle, exchange wide-eyed glances. This is beyond the realm of their training, the unknown stretching out before them like a shadowy abyss.

Jean's eyes narrowed, his gaze fixed on the colossal titan. "What the hell is that thing?"

Mikasa, always vigilant, tightened her grip on her gear. "No time for questions, we need to-", her voice was cut off as she felt a hand on her shoulder. 

With urgency in his tone, Kaito said with a soft voice, "You guys go," directing Sasha and the others to sprint toward the safety of the HQ, "I will distract it for some time".

However, Christa, ever the voice of reason and concern, tries to protest, her words hanging in the air. "But—"

Kaito doesn't entertain any debate. "We don't have time, we can't let this roam freely" he said with a unrefusable tone, the force of his command cutting through the chaos like a blade. His vampiric instincts, heightened by the unfolding events, leave no room for hesitation.

The urgency in his voice resonated with the gravity of the situation, and some of the cadets looked at each other for a moment and fueled by a mix of fear and determination, restarted their run, weaving through the looming swarm of Titans.

Kaito was about to head in the incoming titan's direction when he was blocked by the black haired girl standing in front of him.

"Kaito, you go with others, I will do it", Mikasa said, looking at the monstrous titan with a fearless gaze. She had already lost Eren, the one she had promised to protect, her last family member. If her life could provide others a chance...

Her brown eyes met Kaito's. He had a small smile on his face, "I can handle it Mik, others need you more now"

"You-" her voice faded off as she felt Kaito's grip on her shoulder tighten a bit.

"Please?"

"...Ok"

Before leaving, Mikasa's eyes met his, a look of concern apparent

'That does put a smile on my face', he thought. With the cadets gone, he refaced the creature.

At last as everybody left, Kaito took a deep breadth to calm his mind as survival instincts were screaming at him like a rock concert in his head.

Nothing in the script had prepared him for the this Titan, a monstrosity that seems to have taken a detour from the pages of simple ugly deformed still-human looking titans.

With a breath that feels more like a gulp, he settles a million questions swirling in his mind. Survival first, existential crises later. 

One thing was sure that this thing was no where present in official story and its presence here was directly an attribute of him.

The Claw Titan stood motionless. Its eyes are hidden in darkness but Kaito could feel its unnerving gaze on himself.

The other titans, bizarrely enough, are ignoring it and that was weird.

Kaito's no Titan expert, but even he knows that in the wild world of Titans, leaving aside the Founding Titan, the rest of the mindless Titan gang never spares the other nine Titans.

The titan moved, its big legs taking slow steps toward Kaito. Kaito jumped o a different building, but the titan changed its path to again head in his direction.

"No escaping, eh? Let's see what you got, bastard", Kaito mumbled.

In a daring move, Kaito faced the red titan head-on. He intercepted the spiky hand hurtling towards him with a flash of his blade. The clash of steel against monstrous force echoed through the chaos. 

Despite his vampiric abilities, Kaito strained against the relentless power of the red titan. 'Hardened skin?', the moment his sabre struck its skin, the unreal toughness became apparent. 

As it was designed for, the blade quickly broke off, allowing Kaito to quickly reposition himself out of its path. Landing on top of a church building, Kaito stared at the menacing titan.

On the corner of his eyes, he saw the cadets zip-lining through the swarm of titans, some had reached inside the building while some were on their way. A thousand questions were running in his mind regarding this titan, but he sidelined irrelevant ones and focused on the combat. "The skin is crystallized, but its not natural like that of armored titan, its more like Female titan hardening, just more wild and more stronger". He switched the blade of his sabre and jumped toward it again.

The Claw Titan finally moved earnestly, its claw slicing through the air, a crimson streak aimed at Kaito. He dodges with a dancer's grace, his body twisting and turning to dodge several attacks while fruitlessly trying to damage it back. 

Its numerous protrusions served as a natural barrier to attack its nape directly, not that his blade would be able to pierce its hide anyway. Switching his tactic, he began attacking its joints, but it was also useless as unlike Armored Titan's armor, which were external plate like thing, this thing seemed to built out of crystal itself.

"Fucking hell", the titan suddenly did something unexpected, accelerating at the last moment. Kaito, unable to fully evade, felt the searing pain as one of its claws graze across his back, leaving a long gash in its wake.

A grunt escaped his lips, as he clenched his teeth against the agony.

Wounds were no new thing to him but for whatever reason, the current one hurt like a bitch. Blood leaked without rest from his wound as he backed away a bit and waited for the wound to heal. In some seconds flesh knitted together in a gritty display of vampiric regeneration.

The Titan's defense was already a bitch to deal with, but alteast earlier he could dodge the attacks. But now, Kaito was barely saving his head or any other part from leaving his body.

The Abnormal Titan, now awake, had its hands full with other mindless titans. It was trying to move toward the Claw Titan but other titans had already began attacking and eating its body. It was resisting fiercely but each attack left it more injured than before.

Fortunately, most cadets had sought refuge in the HQ. 

Kaito, refocused on his immediate threat, found himself in a tight spot as the Claw Titan charged towards him again from behind,

The colossal hand slammed where Kaito had stood, sending shockwaves rippling in every direction. A narrow escape led him into a nearby building, avoiding a gruesome fate of becoming a blood spatter.

"No fat chance I am gonna fight this darn creature now," Kaito resolved, opting for a strategic retreat. But a deafening boom echoed through the air before he could take another step. 

The walls crumbled, revealing the misshapen face of the Red Titan peering through. Its malevolent eyes, resembling vortexes of evil, locked onto Kaito. Time hung suspended for a moment, a silent exchange of intent.

The first to break the stillness was Kaito, his hands armed with the remaining blade striking towards the eyes. He was mere meters away when the world blurred, and a sudden sense of weightlessness engulfed his body. 

The ground rushed up to meet him as his body crashed into it, skidding for several meters. Time resumed, and Kaito spat a mouthful of blood, the rest trailing down his face.

A searing pain enveloped his senses. Slowly shifting his gaze toward the source of agony, Kaito realized something was missing—or more accurately, wasn't there anymore. His whole left side was mangled, his left hand completely absent. The gravity of the situation hit him, a cocktail of shock, pain, and realization flooding his mind.