Chapter 21: Counterattack

"Are you ready, Eren?" asked the raven haired teen.

Eren looked down at the Trost District, it had been only two weeks since it had fallen, most of the buildings were still in perfect condition, no titan was inside the district as all of them had been killed already.

The combination of Levi, Liesl and Klemens was more than enough to wipe out any unlucky titan that dared to get close to the breach.

The others were still fearing for the possibility of a third massive wave of titans, but the two Stars of Freedom were not afraid in the least.

They knew what caused the waves and given that they had taken Annie in, there was no possibility of a third wave.

There still existed the possibility that Reiner and Bertholdt would try to jump in at the last moment in desperation at having all their plans, years of preparation, training and infiltration destroyed right in front of their eyes, all thanks to a factor that they could have never imagined.

Eren surviving was the one and only flaw that completely destroyed everything that they worked for, Annie was lucky that she had created a friendship with Liesl, even if she wasn't the one that decided to form it.

If it hadn't been for their friendship the two of them would have captured her immediately and given her to the regiment to interrogate her, Eren didn't know anything, but Annie was an entirely different story, she held precious information about the outside world that was now in Klemens and Liesl's hands.

Eren gulped and repressed his anxiety and all his doubts, it wasn't the time to think 'What if I can't make it?' and he knew it, Klemens made sure that he did so.

"I'm ready" he said, turning then to his friend, the one he had looked up to since the day of the breach in the wall of Trost.

Before that they didn't have the closest of relationship, they were casual friends, as Klemens seemed to keep most people at a distance, but now things were different.

Eren was grateful for what Klemens had taught him and for what he and Liesl had done for him, in the few days were he had been learning how to use his titan powers they had been training him in hand to hand combat

But they did not teach him any new techniques, as he had already learned Annies martial arts and had thus a solid foundation, but by beating him until he learned how to evade and react to certain types of attacks.

That didn't mean that he was on their level, just that he was no far better than before.

Unfortunately for Eren, his regenerative powers gave Liesl an outlet to finally let loose the frustrations of three years of military training, she couldn't beat others as much because hurting them would take too much time for them to recover and her only peer, Klemens, was too strong to just take them passively.

So poor Eren had to be abused in the name of training, fortunately for him she also taught him and didn't limit herself to just beating him senseless.

"Klemens, Liesl, thank you, for everything that you two have done for me" thanked the boy, slightly less anxious about his mission, he felt as if the entire future of mankind was on his shoulders, but in their presence he still felt that there was someone who he could share the burden with.

He couldn't share it with Armin or Mikasa, he wanted them to be happy, not to have hundreds of thousands of lives as their responsibility, but it was different with Klemens and Liesl.

The two of them gave him the feeling that they could stomp on every titan alone, as demonstrated by the tests they did while he was in titan form.

He had been taken outside of his titan form's neck before he could even realize what happened, Liesl distracted him by taking all of his attention and attacking his limbs, meanwhile Klemens appeared from out of nowhere and slashed the neck directly, taking him out.

It was a simulation, but he arbored no doubt at all that in a real fight they were capable of doing even more.

"No problem Eren, isn't that what friends are for?" replied Liesl as she rested her elbow on Klemens shoulder, they were of the same height so she had no problem doing so.

"Yes, now just go and take that huge boulder to block the breach, don't worry about any titan attacking you, we'll kill them before they can even get close to the breach" assured the boy who didn't mind serving as an arm rest for the girl.

"If you say so, then I'll trust you" smiled Eren, it was finally time for humanity to finally begin their counterattack against the titans and taking Trost back was only the first step, after this was Wall Maria.

The plan was for Eren to transform only when he reached the boulder, they had to wait until the order for dispatch came, so they waited while looking at the beautiful view at the top of the wall.

Eren was looking down at Trost, but Klemens and Liesl were looking beyond, they were looking at the territory of Wall Maria.

Klemens was simply enjoying the view, but Liesl was thinking about what lays beyond Wall Maria, about what lays beyond the sea, about the enormous territory filled with people and wonders she couldn't even begin to fathom.

If what Annie said was true then their island was only a very small part of an enormous continent, as she was thinking this an idea was beginning to form in her head, but now was not the time to think about that.

Commander Erwin personally came to deliver their order "Eren, you will make use of your titan form to block the breach by moving that gigantic boulder while you two will protect him from any possible titan, even if I don't think there will be any"

He smiled near the end of his words, in a little more than two weeks since the end of their training as cadets, the two of them had killed hundreds of titan with the smallest of trouble, it was frankly unbelievable.

But so many eyewitnesses and his own eyes make him believe it, two teen killed more titans in two weeks than an entire squadron in years and heavy losses, he considered them a trump card almost as big as Eren in the war against the titans, even if far less valuable in understanding the truth about titans.

"Yes sir!" the three replied, readied their gear and jumped down the wall, into Trost.

They activated their omnidirectional gear, shooting their harpoons into the nearby buildings and activated their gas to propulse themselves in the direction they needed to go to.

They finally reached it a few minutes later, the had taken their time reaching there as they had to make absolutely sure that there was no titan hiding nearby even if they knew that no titan was inside the district, better safe than sorry after all.

"How can it be so rotund?" asked Liesl.

"What do you mean how?" replied Eren with another question.

"I mean, it's literally a piece of wall kicked open, shouldn't it be, I don't know, cubical, at least? But why is it spherical?"

"Don't know, don't care, Eren move your ass and let's get this over with, I want to go on vacation, I'm tired of the army" replied Klemens, not caring in the least about the weirdness of the enormous mass of rock.

"Why can't you just be amazed by the weirdness of the sphere? I'll call it The Sphere of Doom!" said Liesl.

Eren made the error of indulging in her bullshit "Why of Doom? Shouldn't it be something positive given that we are using it to close the breach?"

Klemens grunted, knowing that his friend had stepped on the landmine that is Liesl's weird shit "No! It's of Doom, the doom that the people of Trost felt when the colossal titan kicked the wall open! The Doom that our enemies will feel when they know of our might!" she laughed boisterously as Klemens looked at her with dead eyes.

"I'll call it ball, because it's a ball, now Eren do your thing so the people of Trost can go back to their normal life as soon as possible" said Klemens to stop the pointless chatter.

"Yes, I'm ready" replied Eren, at which the two tasked with protecting him went to a safe distance and enjoy the spectacle.

Eren bit his hand and transformed with no problem, golden lightning bolts hit his position from the sky.

"This is really cool no matter how many times I see it" said Liesl, to which Klemens nodded.

She continued "Hey Kle, I was thinking..."

But she was interrupted "You thinking? That's new" said the boy in monotone and a deadpan face which only helped to piss her off at his comment.

"At least I'm not always thinking about perverted things, you pervert, don't think that I don't see your little friend on attention when we sleep together" counterattacked the girl, dealing him critical damage.

His face got red, but he refused to lose just yet "Said by the person who sleeps using me as a hug pillow and puts my arm between her legs, pervert is not a word of much impact"

"You ass, I don't do that!" shouted the girl back, whose face was now red up to her ears.

Knowing that he was winning again he kept going "Do you know that you talk while you sleep? You have really cute dreams it seems, you once said 'Hug me Kle, I'm lonely'"

"Shut up! Anyway, as I was saying, I was thinking of something" said the girl, changing subject, which caused the boy to grin as he knew he had won.

"After all of this is done I want to go on a vacation in the world outside Paradis, will you come with me" asked the girl.

Klemens looked at her with a fake exaggeratedly offended face and replied "What? You think you can get rid of me that easily? The possibility of you leaving me behind and leave to have fun is zero, so give up on the thought"

Hearing his words made her genuinely smile, it was dazzling from his point of view, more dazzling than Eren's transformation could ever possibly be.

As the talked they kept moving to look at Eren's position to look for any possible titan attack, but seeing no movement, other than the fifteen meters tall Eren carrying a boulder as tall as him, let them relax.

'I wasn't hoping to leave you behind, idiot, leaving without you would be pointless after all' she thought to herself, but he didn't need to know her thoughts to know that was not what she meant at all.

She had many friends for whom she would kill for, but he was different, she would rather die than be in a world without the person she grew up with, her only peer since childhood, the only person that could keep up with her no matter what.

He was the same, to him a world without her was colorless, if he was really born lucky, then being with her was the greatest luck of them all for him.

The two moved to the side of the wall, hanging with their gear and witnessing Eren putting the boulder down without interference by any titan since the beginning, they saw nothing in the distance either, there was no titan nearby at all.

The titan shifters Reiner and Bertholdt didn't even attack, but Klemens and Liesl weren't really worried at the possibility, the two traitors were smart and knew that appearing now, with the two of them on high alert would be a risk they couldn't take.

Klemens and Liesl were the only ones within Trost other than Eren, but that didn't mean that they had no backup, everyone else was stationed at the top of the walls, looking forward to the completion of their mission.

The moment Eren put the boulder down it was so silent that they could hear a pin drop, but that didn't last.

That day, the sound of their cheering could be heard even by the civilians waiting for the good news of their mission.

They had won.