Chapter 14: A Shifter Titan
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Naruto, for a moment, contemplated the enormous damage he had caused with the power of the Gem, before seeing a new notification appear before him.
First, he landed, while touching the reactor again, before observing the new screen.
[Event Detected!]
[You have eliminated 10 Titans, taking your first step as a Titan hunter in this new world.]
[Reward: Titan Roulette Ticket ×1]
Naruto stared at the notification with curiosity, wondering what exactly this new thing that had just appeared was.
He tilted his head slightly as he continued observing the floating screen.
"A ticket?" Naruto repeated, curious about the new word. "Can I use this to spin the roulette and win something random?"
[Exactly, Naruto.]
Naruto slowly nodded. He looked at the screen again, where the reward he had recently obtained was displayed.
At that moment, a new notification appeared before him.
[Would you like to use the roulette ticket?]
[Yes] - [No]
Naruto observed the screen for a moment before deciding to press the [Yes] button.
Since he already had an idea of what he was doing, he simply let the process continue.
After all, he was curious to discover what he would obtain.
As soon as he pressed the accept button, all the screens suddenly disappeared. In their place, a huge multicolored roulette appeared before him, divided into nine slots.
With a quick glance, Naruto noticed that each one had a different name, but all of them shared the word Titan at the end of their names.
The roulette began spinning for several seconds, until it gradually started losing speed.
Finally, it stopped on a slot of an intense dark green color.
[Congratulations!]
[You have obtained: Attack Titan]
[The power of the Attack Titan has been successfully integrated into your body.]
[You can transform at any time, as long as you meet the necessary conditions.]
[Enjoy your new ability!]
Naruto looked curiously at the screen that appeared before him, while the roulette faded into nothingness.
He wondered what he had obtained.
"So, Aetheria... how do I use this, or what?" asked the blond Uzumaki curiously, not noticing as a faint golden glow appeared in his eyes.
[The simplest way to activate this power is by hurting yourself, for example, by biting your hand. That will trigger the Titan transformation.]
Naruto raised an eyebrow at this, but dismissed it. He looked at his hand for a moment, before proceeding to bite it hard.
Seconds passed, but nothing happened.
He looked at the back of his bloodied hand, while a small amount of steam began to rise from the wound, which healed moments later.
"Aetheria, why didn't what you said work?" asked the blond Uzumaki, while looking around, expecting something to happen.
[Well, Naruto, besides injuring yourself, a shifter must also have the intention of wanting to use the power.]
Naruto nodded again, this time understanding what Aetheria wanted him to do.
He stared at the back of his hand. Without hesitating for even a moment, he sank his teeth hard into his own hand.
Blood began to flow again.
At that very instant, thin rays of an intense white-golden color began coursing throughout his body, crackling with increasing violence.
BOOOOOOM!
A colossal pillar of energy ascended toward the heavens, accompanied by immense bolts of lightning, while completely enveloping Naruto.
The power of the transformation was so immense that the earth shifted several meters beneath his feet.
The gigantic golden pillar of light connecting the earth to the sky was so immense that it seemed to hold up the very clouds.
Inside and outside that pillar, countless bolts of lightning roared without rest.
A gigantic silhouette began to take shape within the pillar.
First, a skeletal structure appeared. Then, thick muscle fibers sprouted as if they were being woven by an invisible force.
Tendons stretched one after another, while enormous arms, legs, and a colossal torso formed at an impossible speed.
Seconds later, everything calmed down, leaving only a curtain of smoke around whatever Naruto had transformed into.
At that moment, when the dust had dispersed enough, a towering figure could be seen.
It was a fifteen-meter-tall Titan, with an athletic and muscular build. Its pale skin had a fibrous texture that highlighted every muscle.
With long, wild, and messy blond hair framing a terrifying face, along with dark blue eyes and a small grimace on its mouth.
The Titan's mouth opened slightly, releasing a small amount of steam before letting out a roar that echoed through the air.
Naruto observed everything in surprise, while examining the inside of the place where he found himself.
All around him was nothing but scattered flesh, covering every corner of that strange space.
Furthermore, he noticed that his body was completely immobilized, trapped inside that mass of flesh.
Without meaning to, Naruto made a sudden movement and, with his strength, freed himself from the flesh that held him captive. The same thing happened with whatever was connected beneath his eyes, leaving clear marks beneath the eyelids.
The moment the Titan lost that connection, half of its body lost mobility.
As for Naruto, he remained motionless, observing in confusion what had just happened. Even so, he decided to leave that place completely, regardless of what exactly it was.
Upon emerging, accompanied by a small amount of steam, he carefully observed his surroundings.
He realized that he had emerged from the nape of the Titan, while a large amount of steam began pouring from the creature's body.
With a jump, he reached the ground, now destroyed by the transformation, and contemplated the appearance of what he had become.
Even in that form, they shared many similar features.
"So this is what the power of one of the Titans is..." Naruto murmured, while observing the enormous body of the Titan.
Shortly afterward, the Titan dropped to its knees, before collapsing completely onto the ground, creating a curtain of smoke upon impact.
At that moment, it began to vanish into large amounts of steam.
[Exactly.]
[This is considered humanity's greatest strength in this world: a person with the ability to transform into a Titan.]
"Interesting... very interesting," the blond spoke, while continuing to observe the Titan as it decomposed.
His blond hair swayed slowly in the wind, while those dull blue eyes remained fixed upon it.
Constant steam escaped from the Titan's body, while its flesh began to disappear little by little, leaving its bones exposed.
Shortly afterward, all the skin and flesh had disappeared, leaving only the skeleton, which, to the Uzumaki's surprise, also began to fade away.
While all of this was happening, the Uzumaki remained thoughtful for a few moments, until, almost unconsciously, a smile appeared on his face.
"This is getting interesting..." he murmured.
For a moment, his eyes narrowed as he seemed to make a decision.
"I suppose it's time to find out."
Without giving it any more thought, Naruto raised his hand and sank his teeth into it hard.
Blood began to flow, while thin rays of energy jumped across his entire body.
This time, instead of the colossal pillar of light from before, a great golden bolt descended from the sky and triggered the transformation.
Although it lacked the overwhelming magnitude of the pillar of energy, it was still just as impressive.
The bolt struck Naruto directly as a sphere of energy filled with orange lightning completely enveloped him.
Seconds later, the Attack Titan appeared once again. Only this time, Naruto didn't try to leave it, but instead decided to test it out.
With somewhat clumsy movements, he began to walk, guided solely by his own experience as he figured out how to do it again.
The enormous Titan took one step, then another.
At first, every movement was stiff, almost mechanical, like that of a newborn trying to understand how to respond to the commands of its own body.
Naruto frowned from the nape of the giant. Every sensation reached his mind with surprising clarity.
The weight of the arms, the tension in the legs, the balance... it was as if that monstrous body were an extension of his own.
"So this is what it feels like from here..." he murmured with a smile. "It's like controlling my own body, only without actually doing it."
He slowly raised one arm and clenched the gigantic fist. The muscles contracted instantly, responding without delay.
Then he tried the other, alternating the movements until both obeyed naturally.
With everything he had seen up to that point, although this wasn't the most incredible or crazy thing he had ever witnessed, it was still something interesting to experience.
"I'm starting to like this," said the little Uzumaki as he continued moving forward with his Titan. "Well, I'd better go see what's beyond that wall."
Naruto narrowed his eyes as he observed the immense wall in the distance. However, something caught his attention.
Far away, a figure began moving between the trees.
Naruto sharpened his gaze. It didn't take long for him to distinguish the silhouette of a Titan. It was much taller than the ones he had seen up to that point. Its gait was clumsy, but every one of its steps made the ground tremble slightly.
"That one is big... a little bigger than the first one I fought," Naruto said to himself, referring to the two Titans he had defeated with his own hands, not the ones he had eliminated using the power of the Gem.
As if it had sensed his presence, the Titan raised its head and fixed its empty eyes upon him.
An instant later, it let out a deep roar and began running, tearing down a nearby tree with a single swing of its hand as it charged directly toward him.
Naruto gave a faint smile as he watched it approach.
"Perfect," he said. "Let's see what you can do, Attack Titan."
The thirteen-meter Titan was the first to attack, lunging forward with a massive bite aimed directly at the Attack Titan's face. However, Naruto reacted instantly.
With a quick and agile movement, he dodged the charge and responded with a powerful punch.
The impact was so brutal that the Titan's head exploded instantly. Furthermore, the punch didn't just destroy the Titan's head. The force of the impact caused its entire neck to twist backward while its enormous body was lifted off the ground for a few moments, before crashing heavily among the trees.
A moment later, thick steam began to pour from its neck, slowly regenerating the lost head. But Naruto didn't give it the slightest chance to continue.
With a simple stomp, he completely crushed the Titan's nape, killing it once and for all.
[Progress: 8/10 Titans eliminated]
Naruto smiled upon seeing the notification. He was now only two Titans away from obtaining the next Titan power, but before continuing his hunt, he wanted to find out what was hidden behind those enormous walls.
"Although this was a little entertaining, to be honest, it was also pretty boring," he said while scratching his cheek with a carefree smile, turning his gaze back toward the wall. "Well... I suppose this is only the beginning."
With those words, he directed his gaze toward Wall Maria in the distance.
So he simply began running in that direction at the maximum speed the Titan could reach, which was quite fast.
Within just a few minutes, he managed to reach the vicinity of the wall.
A little steam escaped from the nape, before Naruto emerged.
He made the finger gesture, before his webs shot out, using them to propel himself upward.
When he was close enough to the edge, he clung to the walls, but at that moment, he finally noticed that his jacket had completely disappeared.
"Eh... Aetheria, what happened?" a confused Naruto wondered, while continuing to look himself over.
[Well, Naruto, due to the extreme power of the transformation, combined with the heat released, it caused your clothes to disappear.]
Naruto nodded at Aetheria's explanation before continuing to climb, adhered to the stone wall.
Once he reached the top, he noticed that there was no one present, aside from a few cannons and the rails that ran along the wall.
He simply shrugged and put the matter aside while taking in the sight of the beautiful medieval city of Shiganshina.
Naruto remained silent for a few moments atop Wall Maria.
The stone streets, reddish rooftops, and medieval-style houses gave the city a peaceful, almost welcoming atmosphere. From atop the wall, it was difficult to imagine that this place lived under constant fear.
It was a peaceful sight.
Far too peaceful.
Naruto crossed his arms as he surveyed the area.
"Why hide behind such enormous walls?" he murmured to himself. Before his gaze shifted toward the outside, where the forests and plains stretched all the way to the horizon, where he could see many Titans wandering everywhere. "Although... if it's because of those Titans, I suppose it makes some sense."
He briefly remembered the battles he had fought moments ago against those three Titans.
Each Titan had fallen in just two blows, with none of them presenting a true challenge.
To Naruto, those giants were nothing more than a nuisance. They were slow, clumsy, and predictable; little different from the common zombies they had fought before, in New York, except for the fact that they were much larger and considerably more annoying.
However, that judgment was completely conditioned by his own strength. For he was tremendously mistaken.
The Titans were not weak. For the vast majority of people, a single one of those creatures was enough to condemn an entire squad. They were monsters that had forced humanity to take refuge behind three immense walls for more than a century.
It was simply that Naruto was far too powerful to perceive them as a threat.
And that difference in power prevented him from understanding the true horror those giants represented to this world.
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