Chapter 51 - Wilderness (5) (1/2)

(3rd person's POV)

Almost everyone present, couldn't believe their eyes.

In front of them, an abnormal 22 meters titan, was being beaten senseless. Its body was full of cutting marks. Though it can rapidly heal within seconds, the speed of which the wounds are forming is much faster than it can heal. With every slash into flesh, it shrieks in horror and desperation.

Earlier, Marco had told them to escape and run for their lives but they didn't think it was necessary anymore

Though it was dark, they could still see with the help of the moonlight. At first, everyone thought Athanatos, who was fighting with the titan, would be pummeled within seconds. They were terrified. There were no way for them to kill a titan this 'abnormal' without their gears. But instead, what they saw was just a one-sided massacre. A man, less than 10 times the size of his opponent. Humanity's worst enemy was being thrashed without any resistance.

First was its eyes. He stabbed Eren Titan's eyes right after the two clashed, effectively taking away its sight. And without its vision, the titan was helpless. All it could do was to violently upheave its environment while trying to catch the little fly that's bugging it.

While trying to recover its eyes, it began to stumble around, so the little man can't get near it. But that proved to be useless. Athanatos was totally unfazed by the titan's insanity.

He took one of his spare blades and connected them to the left hook of his gear. Essentially, he had a whip sword, capable of the craziest maneuvers possible.

Of course, not everyone could use this. The whip sword by itself is very weak. But by using the centripetal force while he's moving at a high speed, he can do damages that normal people can't ever hope to replicate.

Imagine a 5 kg sword swinging around at a third the speed of sound. It's definitely not fun getting hit by such an object.

”Eren, stop being retarded. I'm really gonna castrate you.”

〚GRRR GRAA GRAAAAA!!!!!!!〛

”Ok, then...”

Seeing Eren still without reasons, he decided to just knock him unconscious.

Pulling the upper trigger of the right sword, he shot out his right anchor toward Eren's head. Then he once he begins to get some momentum while running, he jumps while simultaneous pressing both lower triggers.

The gas propelled him upward with exceptional speed. Then... once above a certain height, he pulled the right lever to reel the anchor back in while concurrently shooting out the whip sword into the air.

He was now 30 meters above the ground, with the whip sword being much higher than that.

Then do a 360, he shot back his right anchor into the titan's back, specifically, where the heart would be. With full speed, he pulled himself toward the titan's heart but the titan movement was too erratic.

Halfway flying, he suddenly spins madly in midair. This caused the whip sword to make its way toward Eren's knees and slice both of them apart.

Now on its knee withs the back wide open, Eren's titan was full of opening.

Still moving with great momentum, he shredded apart Eren's back like it was buŧŧer.

〚GAAAA!!!!〛

The titan wailed in pain. It tried to heal back, releasing heated air in the process. But that didn't do anything much to Athanatos except making him cutting the titan faster.

With just one sword, he butchered his way into the titan's heart. It took him 20 seconds total to make it all the way through his destination before this happened...

”D-don't cut me!!! I'm sorry.”

”Hii! I'm sorry!!!”

”... if an apology can solve everything... then what's the point of the police and the laws.”

”Huh?”

”...So... why didn't you stop fighting when you woke up?”

”I-I really went berserk!”

”I know, my question still stands, though. Why didn't you stop fighting when you woke up?”

”... I'm sorry... I wanted to fight you for real.”

”You sure? Don't you mean if I were weaker than you, you would have fun beating me up? Am I right?”

”O-of course not! Why would I do such a thing.”

”Wait a minute! How did you know I was here? Why didn't you attack the nape?”

”Normal titans don't have a heartbeat. You do.”

”Ah, I see... NO, I DON'T! How can you even hear such a thing.”

”You are making me do this Eren. [You will now believe what I say. You will now believe what I say].”

Yes. Eren was awake. After he turned into a mindless titan, he woke up right after his eyes were stabbed. But seeing how strong he was, he didn't want to lose to his friend, who has been tormenting him for more than the last 4 years. So, as any sane person would, he pretended to be beserk and teach his friend a lesson.

That didn't work and he got beaten the hell out of him. Sadly, he couldn't plead not guilty since his friend found out about his scheme.

But suddenly, he noticed a flaw in Athanatos' argument.

All titans have their weakness in their nape, besides him. So how does his friend know that? That's simply impossible unless Athanatos already knew beforehand.

Too bad for Eren though. Being a smart ȧss got him hypnotized into believing whatever his friend said.

”Yes.”

”You're not going to question me alright?”

”Yes.”

”Good. I'm a nice person. Don't make me kick your ȧss again, you M.”

”Yes.”

”Ok, you're gonna go out there and say this...”