Armin and his group followed the path that the injured Ossiboros created, broken trees, crushed bushes and flattened grass. They were each carrying bone shards along the newly made dirt trail.
Armin didn't tell them his plan, so Reiner and Floch were probably confused as they carried their piles of shards, clicking and clacking as they smacked against each other.
Luckily, Armin had a white t-shirt underneath, so when he had to use his green shirt as a backpack for the loose bone shards that Ossiboros left behind, his top half wouldn't be bare.
'Not that it's really much look to at,' Armin thought.
"Hey, kid!" Clyde shouted. "You still haven't told me the use of those damn bone shards."
"I'll explain it when the monster is in sight. For now, let's keep moving," Armin told the slim man.
Clyde clicked his teeth. "Give me a break. How about you tell us now,so that as soon as we see the monster, we can implement the plan immediately?"
Armin thought about it. Even though this plan was most likely going to work, he guessed it would be better to hear from some other voices as well.
"Okay, let me know if there are any issues with this plan but…" Armin turned to face them and took out a shard from his shirt-made bag that was as big as its head. "Maybe I was thinking we can create some shard bombs. Using Clyde's ability and his lighter or some friction to make grease fires then all we need is some water to make these shards explode. So…uh…any thoughts?"
Silence blew past the group. They looked at each other before looking back at Armin. He felt his face heat up before he nervously cleared his throat.
"So…uh…any other ideas?" Armin asked, a bit nervous.
"I mean, besides just running blindly, that's probably the best chance we got," Floch started. "But the issue is there is a body of water in this area? Cause if not-"
"Then carrying this shit would be a waste of time," Clyde added.
"W-well in the last test, me and Eren saw a small water, so with that logic…"Armin began
"There must be at least one river," Floch concluded.
"Y-yes," Armin said. "But then again we have to hope that there's a river nearby or this plan will be pointless. And I highly doubt that any of us has any sugar or flour in their pockets."
He mumbled the last sentence to himself before they continued to follow the path. Clyde continued to complain about the size of the shards.
"Floch, do you see the monster nearby?" Armin asked.
Floch closed his eyes. He pressed his eyes for a brief moment before he opened his eyes, revealing their eagle-like look with most of his sclera being taken over by his big brown irises.
Clyde shivered as Floch blinked in his direction.
"That doesn't look right…"Clyde mumbled.
"Says the person who controls liquid fat," Reiner jabbed.
"Oh, go fuck yourself, tin man!"
"Make me," Reiner said with a confident smile. "I'll send you flying like I did with the Ossiboros."
"Guys, not the time," Armin said, lifting his hand. "Take out the monster then fight each other."
"I see the monster," Floch announced. "It seems to be resting in a pile of dirt."
"Yeah, it tends to do that to keep cool while resting in deserts," Armin pointed out. "Most wyverns that live in the desert do that. Anyways, how far was it?"
Floch tilted his head a bit before going back to its standard position."Not too long. With our current pace, we could make it there in a few minutes."
Armin nodded as Reiner and Clyde both scoffed before reluctantly going back to following the trail, Armin sighed as Floch reverted his eyes back to a human's. They followed on the trail a few feet behind Reiner and Clyde.
The walk was quiet. Besides the clicking and clacking of the bone shards slapping each other and the sound of grass being crushed, nobody said anything, not even a whisper.
'I hope that this plan works,' Armin began to bite the nail of his thumb. 'But what if it doesn't work? We don't have a way to hold water. Matter of fact, is there any body of water in this area?'
There was a quiet snapping sound coming nearby but Armin bit his nail harder. 'What if there isn't?This plan can't work without water and if there isn't, carrying the shards would've been pointless and they're gonna blame me for it and..'
"Armin!"
"Huh?"
"We're stopping here," Floch said as he dropped the bone shards. "The monster is within sight and we need to go over the plan before we try it."
"Yeah…yeah,yeah of course," Armin said as he untied his shirt backpack and dropped his pile on top of Floch's.
"Carrying these shards better have been worth it," Clyde growled as he dropped his pile down.
"Can't believe I'm saying this, but I second that," Reiner dropped his pile as well.
Armin swallowed some of his spit as their attention went from the shards to him. He cleared his throat as he began.
"W-well my plan was that Clydecouldn cover these shards in fat-Ii mean grease! Grease!"
Reiner chuckled as Clyde glared at Armin, he averted his glare as he continued,
"Then, we can light them up with your lighter…then Reiner and I can place the shards around it before Clyde can light them up and Floch can…um…do an aerial shower move and drop water from above and then, boom…explosion."
"Why the hell am I doing most of the work?!" Clyde complained. "First I have to grease these fuckers and then I have to light them?!"
"W-well I mean, you have a lighter and if we rub a couple of shards together, it will take too long and if we light them up now, it would get too hot while we're carrying them."
"That's more of a you problem on that scenario," Reiner crossed his arms. "I'll be fine with doing that.
"But the smoke from the grease fire could wake up the monster, so you guys couldn't even place all the shards in time before it started attacking, " Floch added.
"Hmm…fine," Clyde said, begrudgingly. "But where's the water going to come from? We don't have a bucket."
Armin looked at Floch. "Uh well… I didn't think about that…"
Clyde groaned. "Great.Just great…We need water but you didn't think of that far?!"
"Uh w-well I-I mean…"
"I can do it," Floch said. "I'll carry the water in my mouth."
"But what if we don't have enough?" Reiner asked, crossing his muscular arms.
Armin hummed in thought.' We don't have buckets for Floch to carry and I highly doubt that anyone knows how to make a bucket.'
Armin glanced at Floch as he sighed and wiped the sweat on his forehead with his sweater sleeve. The blonde snapped his fingers.
"I have an idea," Armin picked up his green shirt. He looked at the label of the shirt which told the materials that were used to make the shirt.
"60 percent cotton," Armin read off the label. "This could work.Here."
Armin tossed the green shirt to Floch. The taller teen gave Armin a puzzled look.
"Ew, why are you giving me your shirt?" Floch asked, holding the shirt with only his right thumb and his index finger.
"Those are one of your buckets," Armin explained. "Our shirts and sweaters can be used to absorb a bunch of water like a sponge."
"I see. It's like taking your clothes out mid-wash," Clyde said, scratching his chin.
"Exactly!"
Clyde groaned before he unzipped his vest and gave it to Floch, showing his surprisingly toned chest and abs.
"Didn't know you worked out," Reiner sneered. "Judging by your body type, I thought the concept of muscles was foreign to you."
"Heh, looks can be deceiving tin man," Clyde said before flexing his bicep.
Reiner rolled his eyes. "That has nothing on these babies!"
Reiner flexed his biceps as Floch rubbed the bridge of his nose as he quietly groaned miserably. Armin looked at the two flexing their physiques in confidence as he hugged himself and started to look down at the thin green grass.
"Can you guys stop?!" Floch yelled at the two.
Armin's focus went to the monster who was fortunately still sleeping. Armin sighed in relief before Clyde and Reiner stopped showing off.
"Sorry," Reiner approached and took off the shirt from Floch's head and properly placed it in his hand.
"Thanks for your contribution. Anyways, I'll see if there's any water around, just give me a moment," Floch walked behind a nearby tree before he took off his sweater.
Floch put the given clothes in a pile before he took off his shoes and socks and turned into his bird form, his clothes were outstretched but still holding together. He picked up the clothes with his beak and flew, giving a gust of wind behind him.
Reiner briefly turned into his steel form to stand his ground as Clyde and Armin had to grab a nearby tree. The gust of wind calmed itself down until it was gone. Reiner reverted back to normal as Clyde and Armin let go of their helping trees.
"That boy got money," Clyde said.
"Huh?"
"Did you not notice how his clothes were strong enough to resist his transformation? His clothes are custom-made."
"Yeah, I know. A couple of my clothes, including this outfit, are custom made, too," Armin gently pulled his shirt. "But it's really expensive to do so."
"It's irritating that adding a hair strand would double the price of a fucking shirt," Clyde shook his head and chuckled.
'It's understandable once you really think about it,' Armin thought.
When Armin got some of his clothes customised or in other terms "metamised", he was curious about how this would even be possible. According to his research, the manufacturers would slightly wet the hair strand to make it stretch more and retain its elasticity throughout the process and then cut the strand in multiple pieces before they would sow a new shirt with the hair strand infused with the other threads within the sewing process as if it was a thread itself, but then they would dye the new shirt whatever colour the buyer wanted it to be.
"What do we do now?" Reiner asked, his golden-coloured eyes turning their focus on Armin.
"Clyde, can you grease up the shards? I'll keep an eye on the monster," Armin said before he sat down facing the monster from a distance.
He rhythmically tapped his thighs as he heard the sloshing of grease hitting the bone shards.
"Think this plan is gonna work?" Reiner asked, leaning on a tree.
"I can't think of anything else," Armin said, stopping the tapping. "Either this or just wish for the best."
"I mean the latter can't be bad. We were beating it."
"By we, you mean you?"
Reiner scoffed. "Well, certainly not you. You were cozying yourself against a rock."
"I'm not a fighter, okay? I can't just run blindly into battle like you can!" Armin said.
Reiner chuckled. "Yeah, I know."
Armin grumbled as the sloshing stopped.
"Alright, the shards are all greased up," Clyde flicked the excess liquid off his fingers. "So we just wait?"
"I mean, we have to know if Floch can find water before we start planting the shards," Armin explained. "We would've wasted our time if there was no water in the first place."
"Ugh, fine," Clyde sat down and stretched his arms.
Armin continued to keep an eye on the sleeping Ossiboros . The breeze gently glided through his blonde hair.
"Hey, glasses,"
"Y-yeah, what's up?"
"Are you related to that blonde chick? You know the one that was screaming her head off?"Clyde chuckled.
"N-no, we aren't related," Armin fixed his glasses. 'Luckily.'
"Pff, you actually think Krista would be related to this dweeb?" Reiner rolled his eyes. "Sorry, but she's in a whole other league."
"You never know," Clyde shrugged. "Also, what's your guys' deal with her? You know her or something?"
"We went to school with her. Very popular at our school," Armin said. 'And annoying.'
"Same answer here. Matter of fact, the birdbrain up there went to our school too. But of course, I was one of the best."
Clyde grew a smile. "Ooohhh, so you were Mr.Top Dog? Is this true, glasses?"
Armin glanced at Renier, who was looking at him. "To a certain extent."
Armin looked back to see if the monster woke up, but it was still asleep.
'I'm guessing we're too far from the monster to hear us.'
"What do you mean 'to a certain extent'?" Clyde smiled.
"Yeah, what do you mean, Armin?" Reiner repeated in a slightly angrier tone.
"W-well although the majority of our school agreed to that notion. The leaderboards said otherwise," Armin said a bit nervously.
"What did the leaderboards say?"
Armin looked up again to see Reiner looking at him with his arms crossed and tapping his left bicep with his finger. He cleared his throat and tried to explain it in a more friendly manner. "Well, in our school…we have leaderboards. You know, for academics and athletics, but since me and Reiner were in the combat program, we had more leaderboards in terms of strength, speed, accuracy, etcetera, etcetera."
"And what were you ranked?"
Reiner leaned off the tree and stood proudly. "I was fourth in overall athletics being first in overall strength,8th in speed,9th in overall academics."
"Hmm.. not bad but for a "top dog", that's disappointing. What about you, glasses?"
Armin's lips tightened as he adjusted once again. He took a deep breath before listing off his "notable" accolades.
"Well, I was first in overall academics…"
Clyde chuckled and began to clap his hands. "No surprises on that, glasses."
Armin nodded and briefly smiled before returning to its original frown.
"Besides my academics and my accuracy, I was pretty poor in every other category," he admitted.
"How bad?"
"Bottom 10."
"HAHA!" Clyde laughed, falling on his back. "Oh shit! How did you even pass the program?!"
"They put slightly more credits in academics than athletics, so you know…lucky me…" Armin chuckled weakly.
"What were your accolades?Clyde?" Reiner said, taking a few steps closer to the tan-skinned man. "You seem to be criticising my accolades but I want to hear yours."
Clyde's laugh died out as soon as Reiner said that.
"Mine? Geez I don't remember."
"That's bullshit. I highly doubt you would forget something as eventful as that. Like how old are you,50?"Reiner said.
"I'm not 50! Divide that by 2, asshole!"
'Honestly, I thought he was older,' Armin admitted in his head.
Armin heard a high-pitched shriek. When he looked up, it was Floch. The giant brown bird began to slowly descend as Clyde and Armin got up and hugged a nearby tree again. Reiner turned into steel again as Floch became closer and closer to the ground. The bird landed and plopped a pile of wet clothes on the grass.
Floch reverted to his human form and spat on the ground. "Ugh, gross."
Armin let go of the tree and approached the newly wet pile of clothes. "You found a body of water?"
"Yeah, I did. Lucky me," Floch said, wiping the excess water out of his mouth. "Anyways, let's get this over with."
Armin grabbed a greasy shard and tossed one at Reiner. He caught it with ease and looked at him.
"Alright, let's do our part," Armin said before he grabbed a group of shards.