Although Roger's transformation had shaken the earth, the two nearby titans paid no attention, still circling the same tree, chasing each other.
With his seven-meter height as reference, Roger judged them no taller than four meters—small-class titans.
"Small ones. Two of them aren't worth fearing."
With that thought, Roger charged with the Jaw Titan.
Perhaps too lost in their strange game, neither titan reacted even as he bore down on them. They didn't so much as glance his way.
At first Roger was puzzled. Then it dawned on him.
He wasn't human right now. He was a titan. To them, he wasn't prey.
That made things even easier.
He lunged. With his height advantage, Roger seized one titan by the neck and slammed it to the ground.
"Roar!!"
The titan screamed in terror as its skull was crushed into the earth.
Blood spattered, coating the Jaw Titan's hands.
"Uuuuuaaaahhh!"
The other titan shrieked, clutching its own face, contorting grotesquely as if to rip its own skin away. Then it dropped to its knees, bowing.
"…Not running?"
Roger frowned. Then realized—mindless titans didn't flee. If they could, they wouldn't be mindless.
But this one was strange. It didn't attack, didn't flee, just knelt, as though begging him to spare its companion.
"Uuuh… l-lord…"
"?!"
It spoke?
Roger was stunned. Human words from a titan's mouth.
It brought to mind what Xavier, the Beast Titan, had once taught at warrior school:
Abnormals sometimes clung to remnants of their human selves, their obsessions driving their behavior.
If this one could still speak, then its actions too were bound to its obsession.
Roger's curiosity was piqued. But only briefly.
Beneath him, the titan without a head still thrashed violently. With its nape intact, it tried to rise.
Roger gave no chance. He sank the Jaw Titan's fangs into the nape, ripping it away. Steam engulfed the corpse, reducing it to nothing but a black husk before vanishing.
"Kuuuuhhh wuuuuuwaaaahhh—!"
The kneeling titan wailed, as though weeping. From its eyes streamed liquid like tears.
"Brother… airship…"
The broken words jolted Roger.
He stepped back, releasing the corpse it had called "brother."
The titan dug into the shattered remains, clawing chunks into its mouth while sobbing.
"Tastes good… ice cream… haven't had it in so long…"
The sight hit Roger hard, dredging up memories best left buried.
"These two were just sent here. Newly transformed… banished."
His voice trembled. He felt sick, choking.
He turned away without another word, then bolted east at insane speed.
No titan could halt him.
Even rare, towering twenty-meter giants failed to catch him, not slowing him for an instant.
So he ran. For a day and a night, pausing only to rest, until he reached a strange place where the trees had grown massive—so vast that even titans had to climb them.
Roger scaled one easily, the Jaw Titan's body carrying him up. On the broad branches, he shed the form, steam hissing away, and opened his pack.
Wild fruit. Again.
His stomach turned.
"Enough. Time to hunt rabbits."
The titan's body still warm, Roger slipped back inside, dropped down, and set to work.
Small size had its perks. Precision. Control. Unlike the Colossal or other fifteen-meter titans, the Jaw Titan could be entered and exited at will as long as the flesh hadn't cooled.
Roger had once seen Anderson half-emerge from his titan's nape to speak with comrades before diving back in to fight. He had always wanted to try it himself.
Paradis was overrun with strange beasts. With no predators to cull them, rabbits had grown obscenely fat, multiplying in huge litters.
Roger tore through them, feasting.
By the riverbank, after a full roast rabbit meal, he was dousing his fire when a scream split the forest.
A human scream.
"Someone nearby?!"
Roger froze.
How could there be people here?
He scrambled back inside the titan, used its claws to bury the firepit, then bounded into the towering woods. Climbing to the highest branches, he searched.
"Damn it. Too careless."
He cursed himself. He had thought Marley wouldn't chase him to Paradis. But he had underestimated.
Clutching the trunk, he stared far off.
There—amidst titans, a small mounted squad was under attack.
They wore dark green cloaks, a silver emblem of wings spread on their backs.
And then, like circus acrobats, they soared into the treetops, vanishing into green.
"???"
Roger doubted his eyes.
What were they?!
And then—those strange soldiers darted deeper into the forest, drawing with them a swarm of titans.
"Damn it!"
"Stop dragging them all this way!!"
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