Chapter 24: Captain, Please Accept Our Knees (Fourth Update, Monthly Ticket Bonus)
The grappling hooks of the Three-Dimensional Maneuver Gear shot out, and Su Xiao moved flexibly near Annie using the surrounding buildings.
Su Xiao had no intention of anchoring the hooks onto Annie herself—that would be suicide.
After swinging through the air for a distance, Su Xiao immediately ejected gas and swept past Annie’s field of vision.
A gleaming blade light flashed in Annie’s eyes, and one of her eyes went dark. She hadn’t even seen how Su Xiao had drawn his sword.
The sharpness of Su Xiao’s blade stimulated Annie’s nerves. She covered the back of her neck with one hand and kicked sideways at Su Xiao in midair with one leg.
Su Xiao immediately increased the gas output of the Three-Dimensional Maneuver Gear, lifting his body slightly higher to barely dodge the sweeping kick.
Whoosh. The strong wind rustled Su Xiao’s clothes. If that kick had landed, he would have been sent flying like a ball—maybe even beyond Wall Rose?!
“That was close. Who is that?”
“Yeah, if he’d been hit, he’d be dead for sure.”
“No idea who it is. No Corps uniform, but he’s got the gear. Still, this guy’s strong.”
Around the battlefield between Annie and Su Xiao, some Training Corps members had gathered. These were Annie’s peers.
The golden-haired goddess: Historia, the foodie: Historia Reiss, the bald-headed: Connie Springer, the conflicted guy: Jean Kirschstein, and others were all there.
Today was the graduation day of the 104th Training Corps, so Eren’s peers were all on the battlefield.
After graduation, Training Corps members had the chance to familiarize themselves with the walls, which was why the “Titan Trio” chose today to attack the walls.
Su Xiao was locked in combat with the Female Titan. The new recruits seemed to want to help but were deterred by the Female Titan’s terrifying destructive power.
Annie’s base hand-to-hand combat skills were formidable, and after transforming into a Titan, she was even more absurdly strong. If these people dared to approach, Annie would surely crush them into meat patties.
Of course, that assumed Annie could bring herself to kill ruthlessly.
If everyone rushed in now, Annie would likely choose to flee. She simply couldn’t bring herself to massacre her fellow trainees.
In the original story, Annie was nearly broken after seeing the corpses of her peers vomited up by Titans, muttering “I’m sorry” repeatedly. If no one else had been present, she might have knelt and wept before the bodies.
On the battlefield.
Su Xiao used the Three-Dimensional Maneuver Gear to glide swiftly through the air, occasionally leaving wounds on Annie’s body.
Annie’s body was too large, with a wide attack range, so Su Xiao didn’t want to get completely close. Although he could use the gear, it wasn’t his fighting style. Wearing it, he felt his combat effectiveness had dropped.
All he needed to do now was stall for time. Eren was only a dozen meters from the hole.
Annie noticed this too. She immediately controlled the Female Titan’s arms to grab the nearby bell tower, snapped it off with force, and hurled it with all her might at Su Xiao.
Boom.
Dust flew everywhere as the bell tower’s spire plunged into the ground.
Seizing the opportunity, Annie turned and ran, moving at incredible speed toward Eren.
Annie’s running posture stunned all onlookers. She was running too fast—no Titan had ever moved that quickly.
Whoosh.
Su Xiao controlled the Three-Dimensional Maneuver Gear to eject gas at full power, his body almost forming a straight line as he charged forward.
Annie was indeed fast, but Su Xiao’s gliding speed was even faster. He swept past her side.
The moment he overtook Annie, Su Xiao’s right hand gripped the Dragon-Slaying Flash tightly. The blade tore through the air with a terrifying howl, aimed at Annie’s thigh.
Annie noticed this too. The area about to be struck immediately crystallized, as if covered in a thin layer of ice.
This was the Female Titan’s hardening ability. Blades from the Titan world couldn’t cut through it.
But just because Titan-world blades couldn’t cut it didn’t mean the Dragon-Slaying Flash couldn’t. Of course not. The Dragon-Slaying Flash was now a Blue-quality weapon—a true killing tool.
Clang.
A sharp slashing sound rang out. Inside the Titan, Annie was stunned. She felt her body tilting forward.
Boom.
The Female Titan crashed headfirst into a cluster of houses, one severed leg flying far away.
Su Xiao’s forward momentum slowed. After landing, he skidded a dozen meters before stopping, even smelling the burnt rubber of his boots.
Looking at the Female Titan struggling to rise, Su Xiao let out a long breath.
Jumping onto a rooftop, Su Xiao saw Eren standing before the hole.
“Go, Eren!”
Armin’s shout was so loud Su Xiao could hear it from a distance.
As if responding to Armin, Eren let out a roar and used all his strength to hurl the massive boulder on his shoulder toward the hole.
Boom!
The boulder firmly sealed the hole, blocking the light and the surging wind from within.
District Three had successfully defended, far ahead of the other two districts.
Both the Red Spider Lily and the Brotherhood members saw this, but they couldn’t stop it—or rather, they didn’t dare to.
Eren was surrounded by Survey Corps members, with Commander Erwin himself present. If they tried to stop Eren, the Reincarnation Paradise would immediately judge them as having betrayed the inner-wall faction. The consequences before completing the faction mission were unbearable for both adventure groups.
The Titan world was in Peace Mode. Reincarnation Paradise didn’t encourage contractors to kill each other, and interfering with other districts’ defense was even more serious. So both groups could only watch helplessly.
Su Xiao naturally chose to proceed. The sooner this mission was completed, the better.
……
……
A series of prompts appeared, and a smile crept onto Su Xiao’s face.
His plan had succeeded. Though there had been some twists along the way, he had handled them with his personal strength. Indeed, no matter how clever the mind, without matching strength, everything was empty talk.
The prompts roughly meant that Su Xiao was now essentially free. The final “Return Qualification” mission would only appear after the defense mission ended.
Now, Su Xiao’s first-place position was locked, and due to his outstanding performance, additional rewards had been added—though they could only be claimed after the defense succeeded.
……
In a street within Wall Rose, a large number of contractors had gathered. These were contractors from District Three without an adventure group.
After Su Xiao, their “captain,” had left, these contractors felt the pressure and banded together, starting to hunt Titans within the walls to compensate for their mission failure losses.
“The defense mission is actually complete?”
A contractor looked stunned.
“Haha, mine’s done too! What happened? Wasn’t that hole lost?”
“Check the Reincarnation Paradise prompts. Holy shit! Our captain is seriously fierce. He carried all forty-two of us. I’ve never even heard of such a godly person.”
The contractors quickly pieced together the situation. Their captain had completed the mission with a ferocious record of carrying forty-two people.
……
The completion of the defense mission let Su Xiao breathe a sigh of relief. Using the Three-Dimensional Maneuver Gear, he jumped onto a rooftop to survey the surroundings.
“Good. No other contractors.”
Su Xiao rolled his shoulders, preparing to engage in a serious life-or-death battle with the Female Titan before him.
Crack, crack…
He began unbuckling the Three-Dimensional Maneuver Gear. Inside the Titan, Annie was puzzled. Was this guy giving up?
Annie had guessed wrong. Su Xiao was preparing to go all out.
Taking off his shirt, Su Xiao crouched naked from the waist up at the corner of the rooftop, staring at Annie. Pale blue arcs of electricity surged across the surface of the Dragon-Slaying Flash.
“You were having so much fun running just now. Why stop?”
Su Xiao relaxed his entire body, sizing up the Female Titan with interest.
Seeing Su Xiao in this state, Annie felt cold sweat trickling down her back.
This might be the most dangerous enemy she had ever faced. After her severed leg regrew, Annie stood up warily.
She was no longer thinking about how to defeat the enemy before her, but how to escape.
PS: (The monthly tickets really pushed through. Two more days to hold on. Looks like these four updates these past days weren’t in vain.)