CHAPTER - 5 { Graduation Part-1 }

Year- 850

Time- Midnight

Location- Training Camp

The sky was filled with black clouds, the intense rain fell down heavily.

Grm!

The roars of thunder and flashes of lighting illustrated the scene of cadets carrying weighted backpacks on their back and running.

In the center, the commandant rode on his horse while he scanned the cadets.

All of these cadets showed exhaustion and were extremely weak due to the run which started in the morning.

"Come on! Only one last round and you all can rest for the night!"

The commandant encouraged, even though there wasn't any need for that.

Vlad was at the front together with a few strong individuals like Mikasa.

Even he was tired. His back hurt a lot but he had to continue running or else all the hardwork for those three years would be in vain.

"Damn it!"

Cursed Vlad. He gritted his teeth and increased his pace leaving behind the other cadets.

He formed a gap of 10 meters from others. But that was the maximum he could create at the end.

"Ha… Ha… Ha…"

Vlad breathed quickly, his vision was becoming blurry. There were many times when he passed out while running.

Not to talk about others. Armin Arlelt was completely exhausted and was scolded by the commandant, Keith Sadies.

Reiner Braun decided to help Armin by picking up his bag for him but seeing that his other friends didn't need help, Armin took back his bag from Reiner and ran.

The commandant was very satisfied with the performance of all these cadets, especially Vlad.

* * *

In a forest area surrounded by tall and thick trees, many titan test dummies were set up.

Wuss!

The cadets swung with the help of the ODM gears and arrived at one such test dummy.

On the nape of the test dummies were some artificial form of flesh fixed.

After years and years of fighting against the titans, humanity was successful in finding their weakness.

Because even if a titan had their limbs cut off, even with their heads smashed, they would still survive those injuries.

Only after one cuts off the connection between the body and head of the titans, will they die.

The back of the neck, nape, of these titans was one such part that's best and easiest to cut.

Slice!

The cadets worked together and cut off three big chunks of artificial flesh from the nape of the titan test dummy.

On the ground, three soldiers wrote down the grades of these cadets.

"Look! That's the one commandant told us about."

One of the soldiers pointed towards a tree far from them. There on a branch, stood a man with his arms crossed over his chest.

Vlad scanned the area before him, the distance of the trees, the speed of the wind, and any other details.

"Fuu…"

Closing his eyes, Vlad exhaled deeply. Then he immediately took action.

Holding the switches, he pressed the switch which shot the hooks to the trees in the front.

Wuss!

Jumping from the tree branch, Vlad released the switches as the strings were being pulled back in the gear.

Press.

Vlad then pressed the switches which released the high pressure gas in two quick bursts.

Each burst of gas consumed only about 1 percent of the total gas in the two cylinders around his waist.

Together with the gas cylinders, there were two iron wire propellers with plug-in blades. The blades are made from an Ultrahard steel, which is both supple and strong, capable of rending Titan flesh.

It can only be manufactured in the blast furnaces of factory cities. Soldiers usually carry more blades in boxes built at the sides of their thighs.

The switches, also called Hand grips, serve as hilts for the wearer's swords as well.

But unlike the other cadets, Vlad didn't hold the blades in the normal way. Instead, he held the blades in such a way where the blades pointed towards his back.

Even the soldiers were not used to this style of holding the blades. For them if they hold in such a way, they would be titan food.

Few meters away from another titan test dummy, in the air, Vlad moved his hands and gripped the blades tightly.

As he pulled the blades out of the containers, a metallic sound of metals scrubbing against each other was produced.

"Haaah!..."

The hooks ripped off their grips and came back inside the gear as Vlad spun in the air around the test dummy's nape.

Slice!

Vlad joined the blades at the ends to form a V-shape, which was used to slice off a huge piece of artificial meat from the nape.

No, not just the flesh, but also a small portion of the wood as well. For doing what Vlad just did, one had to have enough strength in their body.

Wuss!

As Vlad cut off the flesh, he pressed the switches which shot the hooks out at two different trees.

Such performance of strength, and extreme control of his ODM gear made the soldiers shocked.

Secretly, the commandant was watching Vlad with a huge grin on his face.

"Vlad Birsha, the greatest talent ever seen in a cadet. His performance, top notch. If we could have just half of his talent in every cadet, titans would have been playthings."

The commandant muttered with a sad expression thinking about the other cadets who barely reached till this year.

* * *

The sun was gazing at the land, where hundreds of cadets were practicing hand-to-hand combat.

Vlad stared at his opponent, Grace Firan, who was just as big and tall as him in size.

"Vlad, I have been observing you for a long time. Today, you will have to admit that in hand-to-hand combat, you are inferior to me!"

Grace loosen his fists as he dashed forward trying to catch Vlad with his palms.

'Haha! Finally, I can show my talent! I will be in the top 10, no, I will be the number 1!' Grace thought within himself, as he did his best.

There was just a meter distance between the two, Vlad still didn't make his move.

His black eyes, with the white lines, stared at Grace with pity and some boredom.

What Vlad looked at was Grace motion extremely slowly. No, it wasn't that Grace was slow.

It was that the entire world appeared slow in Vlad's mysterious eyes.

"No matter how many times you try…"

Grace felt a strong grip on his wrists. He stared with his wide eyes as Vlad was already close to him.

"No matter how much you have improved…"

Even if Grace used his full strength to free himself from Vlad's grip, he just couldn't.

"You can never beat me…!"

Vlad twisted his upper body while swinging Grace over his body.

Thud!

Grace was picked up and thrown over on the ground by Vlad with simple steps.

Standing straight, Vlad looked down at Grace with dark empty eyes showing no emotions.

Grace felt goosebumps all over his body as he didn't try to get up from the ground in fear of Vlad.

"Better…"

Said Vlad low voice which was only heard by Grace and the soldier overseeing their practice.

The day soon darkened as night approached quickly, it was already the time for dinner.