9 Ch 9 – Monkey

As both of them soon entered the dark forest, Zeke glances around with wary eyes trying to catch any clues on what could have caused the death of so many titans, and sooner than he expected, he starts to see a multitude of markings on most of the trees around them similar to a hook of sorts when it latches onto a surface.

'Hmm? Hook marks?' Zeke thought, intrigued by this new clue he founds.

"Pieck, stop for a sec, I found something interesting," he said, and without any retorts, Pieck stops her movements and watch Reiner slowly walk to a tree beside them.

"What is it, Zeke?" Pieck asks, intrigued at Zeke's new discovery.

"The trees, there are markings on them," Zeke said, pointing at a tree that has a mark that was close enough that Zeke could reach while on top of Pieck's titan body.

"Hmm? Where did those markings come from?" Pieck asks.

"It seems to be from something similar to a hook that pierces through surfaces when being shot out, but from this height, it's about 5 meters. A height that a titan has… and below us… there is a weird patch with no grass," Zeke said, pointing at the ground below them that has no grass.

"This weird patch means a titan has died here and burned the grass below it to death from the steam. So titans have been dying here a lot longer than we previously thought," Zeke explained.

"Does that mean they have some means of killing a multitude of titans with ease?" Pieck asks.

"That I don't know. But just remain wary, we don't know what will be in store for us in this forest but protect your nape at all cost, they seem to know a titan's weakness is its nape so they also know our weakness," Zeke said as Pieck nods and continues her march in the forest.

As they continue to run inside the forest, they soon encounter a river with crystal clear water.

"Huh, an untainted source of water that is crystal clear. A very rare sight in Marley," Zeke said, the both staring at the river with enraptured gazes, appreciating the natural beauty this river holds.

"Zeke, what direction should I go? Left or right?" Pieck asks.

"Considering we came from over there," Zeke said while pointing at the right. "Then we should head over left."

Following Zeke's command, Pieck heads over left at a rapid pace and soon, they start to see more marks on the trees around them, and before long, they even saw a wooden plank on the river which causes Pieck to halt her movement.

"A wooden plank?" Pieck said, confused at where this must have come from.

"Are the Eldians of this island living in this forest?" Pieck said.

"Just continue, we should be finding our answers soon," Zeke said, with Pieck nodding, she continues to run along the river and soon, they saw more builds around the area like a wooden dock on the river to probably catch fish, or some wooden targets with multiple holes on its body, and even a wooden platform on top of them.

"Who could have been living in this forest? If they are only able to eat fish and some vegetables, then it must mean they would have low energy reserves and a weak body. But if they are capable of defeating titans, then this must mean… no, they're not a titan shifter, the weird markings and cuts on the napes must mean something else," Zeke mutters as multiple theories funneled into his brain but no plausible answers came.

Just the forest alone is a confusing variable on how a person could live here, a lack of food is very bad if a person is living alone.

But soon, his thoughts went to the back of his mind when Pieck suddenly came to a halt, and when he was about to ask what happened, he looks up to see a wooden wall in front of him in a cylindrical manner that was attached to a series of trees.

"We're here," Zeke mutters as he jumps down from Pieck's back and onto the ground to inspect the structure in front of them.

"No doors? No entrances? There's also no windows or anything like that?" Zeke said, confused with how unpractical this structure was if there is no entrance in the first place.

"Pieck," Zeke said as Pieck who was still in her titan form walks beside him.

"Go try to puncture a hole in the wall, but be careful, there might be some traps in store," Zeke said, with Pieck nodding, she slowly nudges her right arm to the wall and with a simple nudge, a large hole was made on the wall that Zeke could go through.

"Huh?" Zeke said the moment he peeks inside to see a living quarter, a gym, a furnace, some weird pile of clothes, and more that shows a single person has been living here.

"What is it, Zeke?" Pieck asks as she was too big to look inside.

"S-stay right there and be careful. I'll go inside real quick to inspect the place," Zeke said, and as Pieck nods, Zeke went to enter this weird place that they found in the forest through a trail of titans.

With Zeke now inside, he carefully walks around the place trying to see if there was any trap and after seeing that there was none, he slowly inspects the place with the utmost care to find any clues or useful info.

"There are some clothes here, a trash bin there, a fishnet…" Zeke slowly lists out the things he found and after finding nothing interesting, he walks back out of the area and out the wall.

"Did you find anything?" Pieck asks.

"Nothing much, but I got us some new clothes," Zeke said while showing her the clothes he found.

"Sigh, I thought we would find something more important," Pieck said as she stretches her hand out to Zeke.

But soon, as the sound of a tea kettle shooting out steam when the water is boiling appears from nowhere, he sees two cables suddenly shooting right beside him towards Pieck's outstretched hand and the wall on his left, and without any time to respond, he felt a hand suddenly grasping his neck and slamming his head down to the ground knocking him unconscious.

'Zeke down, Cart titan left.' Braun thought, and before Pieck could even process what was happening, she watches the man flies high above her and land on her neck and with one swift slash, Pieck was killed just like that.

Without hesitation, a titan suddenly appears on top of the Cart titan and with one hand grasping her neck, the titan's jaw opens wide, and with a loud audible chomp, his mouth pierces through her nape and swallows her body whole.

Soon, Braun's mind finds a flood of memories entering his mind as little bits and pieces of Pieck's memories enters his mind.

As his body erupts from his nape with a cloud of steam coming out of the opened nape, his eyes opened wide within an instant as he glances at the ground below him where Zeke was supposed to be but he soon hastily bites his finger when he sees that Zeke's wasn't there.

With a zap of lighting, he drops down to the ground with his new Cart Titan body that was pretty similar to Pieck's Cart Titan but just more muscular, and soon, he saw a hairy fist punching through the air right towards his previous titan body's head and looks at his head exploding like a watermelon.

With swift movements, he turns his body around to be greeted by the sight of Zeke's monkey legs which he rushes towards, and with his elongated jaw opening wide, he bites right through his ankles as a shout of pain was released from above him.

'He will fall west so rush over there and swallow his neck.' He thought, and with agile movements, he directly turns his head to the left and watches Zeke's body slowly tumble downwards like a chopped tree right towards his open jaw.

And without resistance, Zeke's head lands directly in front of him, and with horror in Zeke's eyes, he watches Braun's mouth covering his whole face and with a painful death, his whole neck was eaten by Braun as more tidbits of memories floods his mind.

'H-huh?' Freidrich thought as he finds himself in a weird place surrounded by sand and above him were weird lines that seems to go on for forever.

And at the same time that happened, as if a decade and a second has passed at the same time, he finds himself back in the world out of his nape leaving him confused at that split second he was inside that weird place.

'What was that place?' he thought, shaking his head, he glances at the two dead titans around him and nods his head at his plan's success.

'So they are indeed planning to attack tomorrow, it seems like I can now kill all the titan shifters here with ease except for the unknown Jaw.' He thought, his eyes gleaming with a cold light as he jumps out of his nape and lands on the ground safe and sound when gas erupts from his waist.

'So they are now planning to attack Wall Maria and capture Eren, all I need to do is stay there and kill Annie and Eren at the same time at the right place at the right time. If all goes well.' He thought, entering his base while a bottle of flammable liquid appeared in his right arm.

'Then I only need to kill them in one fell swoop just like Zeke and Pieck today.' He thought as he covers his whole base with the liquid, not even a smidge of nostalgia clouding his mind as he takes out a lighter in his right arm.

With a flick, flame sparks from the edge of the lighter which he threw in the middle of the base, and with two hooks erupting from his waist, he starts swinging away leaving behind a flame that would last for a while but he had already taken into consideration of a flame accidentally spreading in his base and onto the forest so he cut off any way the flame could transfer from his base onto the forest.

As he flies through the forest, he easily lands back on the open field of grass to finally test out his new Titan powers.

With a singular bite to his right arm, lightning strikes high above him, and with smoke clouding the area around him, a hairy arm went on to swing the smoke away as a titan that was also weirdly a monkey but far more human-like was seen.

'Huh, I'm also a monkey-like Zeke, I would have expected something else but oh well.' He thought, raising his right arm towards his head so that he can further inspect this new titan body of his.

Walking towards some boulders in the distance, he picks them up and crushes them into little bits and pieces, preparing to do Zeke's signature move of throwing some rocks at sonic speeds towards enemy lines.

Swinging his hand to the back, he swings with all his might, and with a sonic boom, the rocks were hurled forwards at the speed of sound bringing devastation in its wake that left multiple marks and craters on the ground around him.

'… In just the span of a few minutes, I managed to achieve this power after struggling as a weak human for a few years. How wonderful this power is!' he thought, a smile cracking upon his monstrous face that will send shivers down any human's spine as if the being in front of them wasn't a titan, a human, nor a monkey, but instead belonged to a devil who will bring hell over earth if he so wishes.

AN: This is 2014 words, you're welcome.

Think of his Beast Titan form as more of an ape than a monkey, but you don't need to keep that in mind since we're leaving this world soon and Vol2 and 3 and everything after Vol1 would get crank up by a 100 and IR definitely influenced the plot of this novel as a whole.

Also, first extra chapter by the way, send me some more powerstones.

(May 18, 2022 – 175th day of writing)