Uprising(2)

Meanwhile, along the busy streets of a certain city, three hooded people were moving amongst the crowd.

"Sorry captain, could you wait a minute?" Christa stopped suddenly.

"What is it?"

"I want to get something for them." She pointed at a group of emaciated kids sitting at one corner of the street.

"No. We're heading to the hideout." Levi rejected her request. Erwin had charged him with keeping them safe, and his priority for now was to get them out of the city to the outskirts where their horses were.

"It won't take long, captain. How about just this one time." Eren decided to interject on Christa's behalf.

The plight of the children reminded Eren of the early days when he first escaped to Wall Rose with Mikasa and Armin.

They were starving and had to survive on bread handouts that were not enough to fill their stomach at all. At that time, he was so overtaken with rage at the titans that he had no appetite to eat. But of course, the ever-protective Mikasa as one would expect refused to indulge the boy and stuffed bread down his throat, forcing him to eat.

"Tch, make it quick." Levi relented. He was thinking that since he hadn't seen any signs of the Military Police moving against them yet, it should be fine. According to Erwin's estimate, there should be some time before the government moved against them.

Christa's eyes lit up and she quickly ran to a street vendor nearby who was selling some fruits. She brought some and then passed it to the group of kids, who gobbled down the food instantly the moment they received it. In their eyes, Christa was like an angel from heaven.

"The food situation within the walls is still a huge problem, even after so many years, it doesn't seem to have improved." Eren lamented.

Christa sighed. "It's also because the government ignores them. There is nothing done to take care of orphans … many of them lost their parents during the fall of Maria and the disastrous attempt to retake it right after."

"Armin's grandfather died in that incident."

"What? ... he never told me that. " Christa's face sunk as she murmured with displeasure. The tone drew an inquisitive glance from Eren, increasing his suspicions that there was something going on between Armin and Christa.

Not that he was against it. Christa was indeed very beautiful in Eren's eyes, and he would be happy if Armin got together with him. But Eren could help but feel a little upset that Armin had been so sneaky about it and didn't share this with him. There he was the other day convincing him to acknowledge his own feelings to Mikasa, and his friend hadn't even done so to his supposed lover.

One should lead by example!

"Done? That's enough time wasted. Mov- "

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

Before Levi could finish his sentence, the sound of gunshots interrupted him. He had already grabbed Christa and jumped away. The shots fired from afar missed them just barely.

Christa was too slow to notice and would have been dead if Levi had moved any slower. Many years under the harsh unground and battling with titans had honed the captain's danger sense to an extent way beyond that of an ordinary human. It had saved Levi on many occasions and saved him this time as well

Eren reacted at the same instant, leaping away in the opposite direction and triggering the ODM gear underneath his cloak.

The experience accumulated from the years he'd spent in the survey corps had given Eren too a keen sense of danger and allowed him to react instinctively to threats. Hunting titans outside the walls meant one had to always be on guard, and veterans of the Survey Corps who had survived expeditions were not to be messed with easily.

However, little did he know that soon amongst the enemies coming for them, there would be one even more fearsome than the titans …

*BANG*

A group of people immediately leapt off the ceilings, pursuing Eren. Another round of bullets whizzed past him, shattering windows and eliciting screams from the passers-by who scrambled away for cover.

"It seems like they can't fire the rounds continuously," Eren murmured quietly to himself as he assessed the situation calmly, noting the time taken in between the gunshots. Any ordinary soldier would have lost themselves in panic, but not Eren. He was someone who had gone through life-and-death situations against the titans many times and was quickly able to come to a decision.

[Blade Fury]

Eren clicked two blades into place, then made a skilful u-turn and accelerated at maximum speed right at his enemies the moment they had just fired their rounds. With the effects of the Master ODM skill, his speed was way too fast for them to react.

Eren's spinning figure flew right past the pursuers, his blades cutting through their bodies and sending them tumbling to the ground.

However, the reprieve was short-lived. Just a few seconds later, another series of shots rang out from the rooftop that Eren passed by. Three men leapt from the building, their pistols aimed menacingly at him.

Eren felt a hint of fear. The fact that the pursuers were still after him, meant they anticipated not only that he would split up with Levi, but even the route he would take as well. Whoever was behind the plan was terrifying.

'I should probably take the longer route out, the fact that they were lying in ambush here … did they predict that I would actually split up with Levi and that I would take this way?' Eren raised his blades in position while contemplating his next course of action. 'In that case …'

He decided to go for a short route, but he would have to deal with the pursers. With a click, he launched two grapples sideways and changed his direction in mid-air. His action stunned the military police personnel that were going after him. They were supposed to be the hunters, not the hunted!

That was the last thought in their mind as a figure simply whizzed past them. Eren swung his blades through them as he did, dispatching them with ease. The sudden burst of speed had rendered them unable to react in time.

Although he didn't have much trouble dealing with the Military Police due to the incredible speed he could reach. Moving his ODM gear at maximum speed whenever he engaged consumed too much gas. He couldn't afford to keep it up forever.

*BANG*

There was the shattering of glass as a shot narrowly missed him. Behind him, a lone pursuer closed in fast. Eren recognized the person's face.

"You're that person I met at the graveyard from Inner Mitras. Kenny!"

"Oh? Ya memory's pretty good." The man smirked. "I would love to see the colour of ya brains … but unfortunately that would be against the orders. How bout just surrenderin' nicely?"

"Is that how you try and convince someone to give in? You suck at words."

"Haha! A certain midget used to tell me that too many years ago."

For some reason, the man gave Eren an extreme sense of danger. When he first noticed Kenny, Eren had instantly accelerated to his maximum speed; trying to shake him off. Yet, the man had been able to keep up with him. In the entire Survey Corps, there were very few who could do that. He was certain that using the same tactic he used earlier wouldn't work.

Eren did a u-turn in mid-air and threw his blades right at Kenny, then closed in on him. The throwing was meant to distract him, while he would use that moment to change into a new pair of swords and use the blade fury skill on Kenny to cut him down.

However, Kenny parried away the two incoming blades and dodged his attack in one smooth movement.

Eren was astonished. Kenny had read his movements and countered them flawlessly despite him going at his fastest speed. The level of reactions was simply absurd!

"Not bad," Kenny smirked and aimed his pistols at Eren, firing once again.

One of the bullets grazed Eren's cheeks this time, leaving a line of red with blood dripping. It was now Kenny's turn. He accelerated in an astonishing burst of his speed and kicked Eren in the stomach, knocking him back.

The impact of the collision sent him crashing downwards through the door of a warehouse.

Eren forced himself up at once and hid behind a stack of crates.

Clutching his chest, he took deep breaths to steady himself. The person before him gave Eren a very strong sense of foreboding. He had easily blocked the blades he had thrown with ease and was even able to predict all of his movements despite him moving at maximum speed.

How did such a person never remain unknown? With such ability, there should have been some rumours about him. But he had never heard of anyone called Kenny.

His priority, for now, was to get to the forest outside the city as soon as he could, a place where he could transform safely without harming the civilians. Unless Kenny was a God, there was no way he could kill a titan using those bullets of his; he would have to give up the chase.

"Come out, come out, ya little rat."

Kenny's ominous voice reverberated throughout the warehouse along with his footsteps.

Eren decided he would bet it all on his next move. Hexagonal slash was his most powerful skill, he didn't believe that Kenny could survive unscathed if he used it in melee range.

The footsteps drew closer and louder. Eren counted to three and leapt out of his hiding spot, unleashing his strongest move.

[Hexagonal Slash]

Kenny responded immediately, blocking the flurry of strikes that descended upon him, meeting every blow head-on. When it came to the last few strikes, however, they were aimed right at his gear. Another strike was aimed right at his chest which he hurriedly blocked at the last second, the momentum of the attack causing the old man to fly backwards.

'I have to get out of here first!'

Eren immediately took advantage of the moment to escape through the back door; Inwardly, shocked at how the person had managed to survive his assault. This was a move that was enough to dice a titan's hand into tiny chunks of meat. Yet the man before him was unharmed and deflected nearly ever single one of his blows!

Meanwhile, Kenny lay on the floor unmoving, his hat covering his face. Shortly after, a blonde girl landed beside him.

"Captain Ackerman, you dead yet?"

"Ya Idiot, like hell I would be. I blocked that brat's attack but … my gear's been ruined by him." Kenny replied, inwardly a little impressed by Eren's attack. It was a rapid flurry of strikes unleashed consecutively. Eren had intended to take his life with that attack, but as soon as the boy realized the first few strikes were being blocked, he altered the remaining ones to aim for his equipment instead. That caught Kenny off guard and he wasn't able to defend it properly.

"Lord Reiss said that Eren was a member of Levi's squad."

"Hmph. The little runt must have taught him those moves. Do we have the other target captured?"

Traute shook her head.

"That idiot King. I told him we needed more time to prepare, but he insisted on moving at once." A scowl crossed his face "Now I'm even further from my dream."

(1.9k words+)