"My bullets are empty! Hans, hurry and pass the ammo box over!" A Marleyan soldier anxiously twisted his head and shouted at the supply soldier behind him.
The soldier named Hans hurriedly lifted an ammo box and ran over.
"Coming! The ammo box is here—" Before he could finish, Hans froze in place.
"What are you doing!? Hurry and pass the ammo box over!" the Marleyan soldier cursed loudly, but Hans's pupils shrank sharply, his face filled with shock.
The Marleyan soldier only felt a faint breeze behind him, and the shadow on the ground was swallowed by a dark silhouette. Turning his head, the Marleyan soldier saw a sight he had never witnessed in his life.
The figure leaping high before him held two gleaming blades in his hands, and the cloak behind him spread out like wings.
Instinctively, the Marleyan soldier raised the rifle that no longer had any bullets. Pfft! The blades pierced through the Marleyan soldier's heart. His body immediately lost strength and collapsed limply to the ground. In the final instant before his consciousness faded, the Marleyan soldier thought,
"So this is… the devil of the island."
Pulling out the bloodstained blades, Ness shouted, "Quickly eliminate the enemy!"
One figure after another leapt onto the city wall. In the stunned gazes of the Marleyan soldiers, flashes of blades, bullets, curses, and screams intertwined atop the wall.
At close range, facing the agile Survey Corps who dared to fight Titans, the Marleyan soldiers had no resistance at all. The rifles they regarded as their second lives could no longer play much of a role.
...
Clack! With a crisp sound, the hardened crystal at the back of the Armored Titan's neck was smashed with several large cracks by the Fate Titan.
Seeing this, the Fate Titan changed his fist into claws, and sharp hardened bone claws appeared between the Fate Titan's fingers.
Crack! Along the fissures, the Fate Titan's bone claws stabbed into the back of the Armored Titan's neck.
The sharp bone claws pierced through Reiner's shoulder inside the Armored Titan's nape, and the Armored Titan let out a terrifying roar.
Locking down the Armored Titan, Yago inside the Fate Titan's nape began to exert force, preparing to forcibly rip Reiner out from the back of the Armored Titan's neck.
Perhaps the pain stimulated Reiner, and the Armored Titan struggled violently.
Creak creak! A teeth-grinding sound like bones being crushed rang out. Yago's expression suddenly changed.
"No way!"
"Roar!"
Rip!! Scalding Titan blood splashed onto the ground. The Armored Titan staggered free from the Fate Titan's restraint, but the price was that only one arm remained.
That's right—the Armored Titan chose to twist off his own arm to break free.
On the other side, the Fate Titan raised one hand, watching the blood evaporate from his fingertips, while the other hand gripped the severed arm that was still steaming, with a bone shield still attached to it.
Crimson eyes once again looked toward the Armored Titan, whose body rose and fell as if gasping for breath.
Without hesitation, both Titans chose to charge at each other again.
The Armored Titan raised his head, leaned forward, and rushed toward the Fate Titan.
Strangely, halfway through the charge, the Fate Titan stopped, twisted his body, raised both hands high, and assumed a golf-swing posture. In the Fate Titan's hands was the Armored Titan's arm, which had not yet fully evaporated.
"Roar!!" The Fate Titan swung his arm in a full arc and smashed it viciously toward the charging Armored Titan.
Bang!!! The bone shield on the severed arm made intimate contact with the Armored Titan's face. The bone armor on the Armored Titan's face shattered, and along with it, the entire head of the Armored Titan turned into a chaotic mass.
"Really a handy weapon—just a pity it's not durable." Yago sighed, then discarded the Armored Titan's severed arm.
The Armored Titan now lay on the ground, steam rising from his shattered head, but such an injury could not be repaired in a short time.
"Seems the Thunder Spear won't be needed."
Flipping the Armored Titan's body over, the Fate Titan formed claws with both hands and tore toward the Armored Titan's nape. No matter how hard the hardening was, before the Jaw Titan's bone claws, it would sooner or later become fragments. Flesh, blood, and shattered hardened debris immediately scattered everywhere.
Very soon, a faintly undulating figure was exposed at the back of the Armored Titan's neck.
With one grab, the Fate Titan yanked Reiner out from the nape and held him up in front of himself as if holding a toy.
Reiner's entire body steamed, strands of muscle still clinging to his face. His body had lost all strength. He struggled to raise his head, meeting a pair of eyes crimson as blood.
The Cart Titan, sprinting at full speed, soon reached the trap laid by the Survey Corps. Neither Pieck inside the Cart Titan's nape nor Zeke, frowning as he sat atop the Cart Titan's back, noticed the hidden killing intent ahead. Nor would they have imagined that the wagons abandoned halfway by the Survey Corps had been meticulously prepared just for them.
"Wait! Something's wrong!" Koris, with keen observation, suddenly shouted. He quickly raised his sniper rifle with a scope and fired—bang!
The bullet flew out and precisely struck the ground beside Marlo's feet as he was holding a match.
The dirt kicked up by the bullet splashed onto Marlo's face, startling him.
"Marlo! Danger!" Hitch, reacting in time, lunged and knocked Marlo to the ground. They hid behind a wagon. The wagon they were at was safe; the other wagons were all filled with gunpowder, and the fuses igniting the gunpowder ultimately connected to these two wagons.
At this moment, the fuses had already been lit, and scattered sparks raced along the fuses toward each wagon.
Delayed by Koris's interference, the Cart Titan also halted its steps.
The next moment—boom!!! Towering flames shot into the sky, accompanied by violent explosions. Pieck inside the Cart Titan's nape felt a surge of panic. If not for Koris, at the Cart Titan's speed, they would have arrived at that pile of wagons at the exact moment of the explosion.
Zeke's face was extremely grim. He could see it clearly—this was a trap prepared for them, and he had almost fallen for it. What enraged Zeke even more was that the course of events not only failed to follow his expectations, but everything that happened instead gave him a feeling of being toyed with and manipulated.
"They didn't fall into the trap! Hitch, what do we do!" Marlo asked in a fluster, but Hitch herself looked equally lost, not knowing what to do.
"Go!" With a short, low shout, several figures rapidly darted out from their hidden positions. The Vertical Maneuvering Equipment activated, and five figures charged from all directions toward the Cart Titan and Zeke.
"You really are… infuriating!!" Zeke ground his teeth and growled. He pulled out the short blade at his waist and viciously slashed his palm. Brilliant yellow lightning immediately enveloped Zeke.