Aberrant Horde (3)

"So many black flares … an aberrant horde?" Mikasa saw countless black flares littering the once earlier peaceful blue skies.

"That's in Eren's direction!!! Oh no!" Mikasa panicked and thought to herself. She knew that it was extremely difficult to survive an aberrant horde attack from Squad Leader's Ness lesson.

"I have to go?" Mikasa was about the ride off in Eren's direction when she felt someone tugging at her cloak.

"Natalie!"

"Mikasa, you can't go, even if u went ... it's too late, you know that." Natalie refused to release Mikasa as she sorrowfully told her.

"No, Eren is alive, I HAVE TO GO !" Screamed Mikasa, as she shook her body violently, attempting to break free.

Eren was in great danger! She couldn't leave him alone.

"Mikasa.." Natalie grabbed her and embraced her in her arms.

"Please… be safe. You promised you would take me out when we got back to Trost. I just want to be by your side... That's all I ask" . Tears were falling from Mikasa's eyes as she gripped the red-colour scarf around her neck tightly.

======

"ARGHH"

The sound of flesh and bones breaking could be heard as a survey corp's member screamed in despair.

"SEAN! "

Beneath the black smoke flares, a fierce battle continued to unfold between the 3 aberrants and remaining survey corps members.

Sean had lost almost his entire squad and was now about to be eaten. He had planned on approaching the titans from different sides and attacking from there.

By using their advantage in numbers, he hoped to split the titan's attention, allowing his comrades a chance to strike at them.

But before his squad could complete the encirclement, one of the 10-metre titans suddenly lunged forward with his entire body and mouth wide towards someone. This sudden unexpected action from the titan led to the person's death.

At that instant, his other squad members started to panic and be distracted, causing them to fail to dodge the other 10-meter class titan whose hands were going towards them at an incredible speed. Resulting in more of them being killed.

His squad at the moment had already lost all morale to fight and were being slaughtered.

Only Marie and Eren were left. Eren was desperately trying to find a way to take down the titans, he was originally planning on taking advantage of an opening that Sean's squad could create to once again disable the movement of these huge titans, but who would have known the power of emotions?

Upon seeing one of their squad members eaten alive, Sean's entire squad was too caught up in the feelings of that instant.

They were survey corps members, this was not their first time meeting a titan, but the loss of someone they had known for years was bound to have some effect in one manner or another. They were after all humans, not robots.

It would take extreme mental resilience, fortitude and experience to still remain unfazed in such a circumstance.

That instant of inaction and loss of attention span would prove to be fatal, as it allowed the aberrants to further catch and eat some of them. Everything fell like dominos.

As Eren observed the tragic scenes unfolding, he was trying to calm his mind and find a way out. To engage an aberrant titan straight on with their attention on you... head-on was simply suicidal.

If they outnumbered the titan it would still make sense. But right now there were only 2 of them and the only option left was to take them on here, if they dragged this on, their horses would get more and more tired. They could not keep this up any longer.

"Marie, split up now! If the titans split up I might have a chance of taking them down , even if it's against two. " Eren shouted at her. He had to create a condition as favourable for success as possible. Every less titan he had to deal with was a good thing.

"Okay! " Marie nodded, she didn't say much as she pulled at her horse and started galloping in another direction. As a veteran and squad leader, she knew that they had to settle the battle right now and here.

She couldn't think of any plans to deal with the aberrants chasing her so all she could do was trust Eren and his instructions.

"Good. . .EHH?

"All the three titans are still chasing me!"

"...."

Eren's face was now turning extremely ugly, his last hope for taking out the aberrant separately had failed, not even one of the aberrants had turned to follow squad leader Marie.

They were all chasing after him, and sprinting! There was no way Marie would be able to rejoin with him in time even if she changed directions now.

There was a limit to how long his horse could continue galloping, the titans were catching up already.

Eren took a deep breath. He could visualize a path, thanks to his skill, that would take him through one of the napes of the 10-meter titan.

This would serve as a ladder also for him to approach the 12-meter titan and take it out.

The only problem was that unlike the previous aberrants he just killed, there was no one to distract the titans. He would have to approach them head-on.

This was a one versus three.

He would have to dodge the hands that would try to grab him as he approached the nape. And these were aberrants! Their actions are much faster than normal ones.

The titans' attention was fully on him. Throwing his blades to disable the eyesight of the titans? This was out of the question. He was down to his second-last pair of blades, he had to keep another pair as a backup just in case.

His lack of experience with real titan combat meant he dulled his blades too quickly, he also had to expend a pair earlier also just to disable the eyes of a 5-meter class titan to survive.

And would he be able to change his blades fast enough in combat? Every wasted action and second during the process could prove fatal.

"I`ll have to utilize my skill, it'll be a gamble, if the speed of my ODM gear is fast enough for me to reach the nape of the 10-meter titan before their hands can grab me, it'll be a victory for me! This is going to be a battle of speed." Eren thought to himself, gripping his blades tightly, he was gathering his resolve for a do-or-die situation.

He quickly pulled at his horse, making a sharp U-turn.

The very instant he turned around, he fired his grappling hooks, one latching onto the right shoulder of the 10-meter class titan and the other towards a short tree beside it.

CLICK CLICK CLICK

Eren's speed instantly reached the limit, seven times that of normal people. He could see multiple gigantic hands converging on him fast.

SWOOOSHHH , the sound of air brushing past him could be heard.

Thankfully, he was faster.

He had managed to dodge the hands that were coming for him.

Flying past, Eren had now reached the right side of the 10-meter titan. Releasing the other grapple hook latched onto the tree, he let the remaining hook on the titan's right shoulder serve as a pivot.

The momentum from the burst in speed swung him in and took Eren right to its neck.

SPLAT

SPLAT

In quick succession, after taking out the nape of the 10-meter titan by swinging around its right shoulder to reach it, Eren quickly went for the 12-meter class right beside it. The bursts of 7x speed allowed him to dodge the attacks from the aberrant.

He had now taken out 2 of the titans.

One remaining.

Eren stood on the nape of the 12-meter class titan, which was slowly falling down.

He quickly composed himself once more, taking a deep breath, he jumped off and fired his grappling hooks towards the nape of the last remaining 10 metre class aberrant.

"YOU'RE MINE!" Eren screamed.

The hands of the titan were still too slow to catch Eren, whose body whizzed past the titan in a flash.

He slashed his blades ferociously at the nape of the final titan.

SPLLLLAT

A huge chunk of flesh fell out, as the titan slowly tumbled down. He had won.