A few minutes before that...
As the boys were running for their lives, Hachiman carried Carla, who had lost a leg, on an emergency stretcher he made. Hannes was in front, and two kids, younger than him, were beside their mother. His surroundings were horrible; it felt like he wouldn't enjoy his meal later. But that wasn't what made him anxious.
"Chris was right..." Hachiman didn't encounter any Titans as he brought Carla to the gate of Wall Maria. But the cost was—
"Sorry, boys," he mumbled slowly, his face petrified. But Eren and Mikasa heard it and felt guilty.
Later, they arrived at the gate. Hachiman looked up at the gate, seeing a woman-like logo indicating the Wall of Maria.
"Where are the Titans?!"
"I don't know! They just started running away somewhere."
"Tch! What the hell is happening?"
Many people were crossing the gate, and magically, no Titans were trying to eat them. They heard many murmurs about the Titans' weird behavior. More importantly, Hannes, Eren, and Mikasa felt even more guilty.
Eventually, they passed through the gate.
"Eren, bring your mother safely to the boat. I'll go back to the wall," Hannes said as Eren nodded.
"Alright!—Mikasa, move away! I'll carry the stretcher."
"No, I'll do it."
Hachiman ignored the two as he looked at Hannes.
"What if the boat refuses us?"
He didn't like this man, but he hated himself even more.
"Don't worry, they will recognize the kids and Carla." Hannes couldn't face Hachiman's eyes, guilt washing over him. "Doctor Yeager once saved Shiganshina from a plague. My comrades will let them on the boat no matter what."
Hachiman nodded.
Hannes didn't waste time and ran to join his comrades.
"Let's go, you two."
Both Eren and Mikasa nodded as they headed to the boat.
Hachiman recalled when Miyuki told them his plan in that abandoned building...
"With my tracking skills, I managed to map this entire place. I'll explain it first..." Yu said as he finished drawing the map and then briefly explained it to the boys.
"Old man, can you verify this map?" Miyuki asked.
Hannes looked at it and nodded.
"I've lived in Shiganshina for more than thirty years; this map is accurate."
Miyuki hummed. "Alright… Yu-chi said that we're here." He pointed at the map. "West part of Shiganshina. We're stopping here. If we force ourselves and run to the gate of Maria, we'll mostly get eaten by Titans."
Before that, they had already shared their skills.
The simple reason they had to hide was because the other Titans crowded this place due to Yoshiteru's decoy skill.
"My plan is simple... with Yoshiteru here, we can attract all the Titans again somewhere here, the southern town square, within ten minutes. With the time we gain, Hachi, I want you to bring this woman inside Wall Maria."
"Wait, that's suicide," Hachiman said.
"Yeah, anyway... no one in this place I can trust besides you, who knows how to treat sick patients. We'll adapt to that," Miyuki glanced back at the map. "We'll go straight. This road here has only a straight line with no intersections. I think that will give us an advantage."
Yu hummed.
"I see. By using the buildings on each side, we can prevent ambushes from Titans. We only have to watch out for Titans from the back and front."
Miyuki nodded. "Only you and I can protect Rudy and deal damage to the Titans right now. But don't overestimate our abilities. Just defeating that Titan alone made my hands go numb. So, save as much stamina as we can. Don't force yourself to kill Titans, our main objective is to slow them down and keep running."
Miyuki glanced at Yoshiteru. "Rudy, you have to make sure the Titans follow you."
He nodded. "Got it. I'll activate my skill again and again."
Hachiman thought this was undoubtedly a suicide mission. But he couldn't argue or join them; after all, he was the last one who hadn't awakened his skill.
"Please let me join," a voice said.
"Me too! I'll kill the titans too!"
"No, don't get involved Eren!"
The boys glanced at Hannes and ignored the kid.
"Name?" Miyuki asked.
"Hannes Fischer, vice-captain of the Garrison Regiment, Shiganshina division, sir."
Hannes didn't know why he was speaking formally to these boys, especially the blonde ones, but judging by their clothes, they must come from a noble house. However, the boy with blonde hair and blue eyes seemed to have a crazy plan. Why would they sacrifice themself to become a decoy?
He knew this crazy mentality only belonged to the Survey Corps.
"Hmm…" Miyuki crossed his arms. "No, I refuse. You will get in our way."
Hannes widened his eyes as Miyuki, Yu, and Yoshiteru looked at him, clearly not expecting much from him.
"Before that... You said you're vice-captain, huh? How much influence do you have among the soldiers?" Miyuki asked.
"Yes, sir. I can command several troops, but I doubt it would help in a situation like this."
Miyuki began to think. It would be useless to bring all the soldiers to fight the Titans head-on. These guys might be useless, but he had to find a way to make them useful. He looked at the map again and asked.
"How much heavy artillery do you have now?"
"Thirty-six cannons, sir. We have twenty-six wall-mounted stationed on top of the gate of Wall Maria and ten on the ground."
Hearing this, he saw a glimmer of hope.
But then he considered that the cannons were likely from the 19th century at best.
Miyuki looked closely at the map. He didn't want to die, so he'd use everything at his disposal. But how? If he brought the Titans to the gate of Wall Maria, they all might die there, which went against their current objective.
Then he smiled.
"Well, our plan isn't entirely suicidal. Anyway, from here to here..." Miyuki pointed the pen at the southern town square, then slid it straight to the northern town square. "A perfectly straight road leads us to the open space of the northern square. Right here... we might be able to kill the Titans in one shot."
Yu thought about Miyuki's plan.
Leading the Titans to the northern square would probably take more than 10 minutes, then going back again to the north.
"Then it's around 20 minutes round-trip," he said.
"Exactly," Miyuki chuckled. "Let's hope we don't die first."
Hannes widened his eyes. "You plan to bring the Titans here?"
Miyuki nodded again. "Correct. Are you telling me it's impossible for the cannon's range?"
"No, it's possible."
"Then hear me out. With the time we give you, I want you to prepare the cannons at the top of the wall, aiming them at the northern square. At the same time, relocate all the ground cannons…" Miyuki gestured around the western side of the town square, "Here... to the flank of the town square."
"Why should we move the cannons and not place them at the farthest place? Won't they get eaten by the Titans?"
"Nah, trust me... I promise no one's gonna get eaten in those 20 minutes. I positioned those 10 cannons there so that when the 26 cannons need to reload, these 10 can cover and wipe out any Titans left over. Even if we run out of ammo, we can take down the remaining Titans when they're at their weakest after getting hit by the cannons."
"But will the plan work?"
"That part, we'll show you. What matters is that Hachi will have enough time to bring them to a safe place, and you have to prepare all the cannons and shoot when we bring the Titans to the northern square. 20 minutes is enough time."
Hannes gulped.
It is such an optimistic plan.
He thought they'd died after becoming bait.
After that, the plan proceeded perfectly so far. Right now, Hachiman could bring Carla to the boat that would send her and the kids to the Trost district.
Meanwhile, Hannes became busy with less than 20 minutes they gave him. Somehow, the captain of his unit died, so he managed to lead the soldiers and follow Miyuki's plan.
26 cannons on the top and 10 below.
He instructed his unit to move all the cannons in their position and aimed them at the northern square.
"Mr. Hannes, what is exactly happening now?"
Hannes shook his head. "I have no idea what is going on."
"Will your plan work?"
"This is not my plan."
Hannes looked above the wall and, after some time, saw dust flying in the distance. He gulped in terror, seeing a horde of Titans chasing after three people.
He pointed at them. "It's his plan."
The soldiers around him saw the blonde teen between the black-haired and grey-haired ones. They thought, Hannes wasn't joking, right?
"The Titans are coming! Prepare all the artillery and wait for my signal!"
Since he could see it from this height, he wondered how they managed to pull that off.
[00:16:55]
"Boys! We're almost there, keep it up!"
"RAAAHHHH!"
"…"
Their bodies shook with fatigue after running for about 20 minutes. But the northern square was ahead.
Stomp!
Stomp!
Stomp!
"On my signal!"
Hannes gulped as he saw the boys arrive at the northern square.
The boys kept running as if their lives depended on it.
Miyuki glanced to his left, seeing the reflection of steel, 10 cannons lined up as he the paled face from the soldiers. However, the Titans remained focused on Yoshiteru because of his skill. But, everything was according to the plan.
Miyuki glanced up to where Hannes should be and took a deep breath.
"HANNES! FIREEEE!" he screamed as his voice echoed.
Hannes grits his teeth, "FIREEE!"
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The soldiers on top of the wall fired the cannons together. Balls of light flew into the air then raining the titans at once. The rain comes to an end but the attack was not end there.
"Cannons on the ground! FIREE!" Hannes's scream echoes.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
At the flank of northern square, 10 cannons fired at the same time and managed to kill the remaining.
"Boys, there are still survivors out there. But now, we can take them down while they're at their weakest!"
---
Sitting on top of the titans' bodies they just killed in the northern town square, they were breathing heavily.
"Huft! Fuck. Y'all good?"
Miyuki couldn't keep his focus but asked anyway.
"Yeah."
"I'm fine, dammit!"
He heard Yu and Yoshiteru clearly.
"Fatigue status, boys. Mine is 70," Miyuki said, panting.
"Shit, you got the holy number there. I'm 76." Yoshiteru cursed.
"Hah! Huff! 73…" Yu didn't care anymore as he shut his eyes.
Miyuki smirked as the boys grinned hard. He looked at the time.
[00:13:55]
"No way…" Miyuki's pupils trembled, "That felt like a decade to me."
After all of that, he thought, there's less than 5 minutes left, but he never thought they'd manage to do it better than he expected. He never thought they'd do it so fast in the first place.
"You three!"
The boys glanced at the source; it was Hannes.
"You all fine?"
"No, we're not."
Hannes backed away a little after seeing Miyuki's mood.
"Anyway, we killed all the titans as promised," Miyuki said with a grin.
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
The ground began shaking again.
This vibration… even though the three of them just arrived in this world not long ago, they had more than 10 times the experience dealing with titans than Hannes.
"Boys…" Miyuki clicked his tongue, "The bastards are coming."
"What?" Yu's expression said; You're shitting me? Again?
"Yeah, I know how you feel, man."
Miyuki glanced back as he walked to the top of the pile of titan bodies. Yoshiteru started warming up again and followed him. Yu sighed and followed them. As they reached the top of the titans corpses, Miyuki could see people running, anxiety on their faces.
"Son of a bitch," Miyuki mumbled.
Still far away, the titans were coming.
"Hurry up! We'll close the gate soon!"
"The titans are still coming!"
He could hear soldiers trying to evacuate the people.
"What should we do? The armored titan might show up and destroy the gate behind us," Yu whispered to Miyuki.
"I know that, and we still have so much time left that it might kill us all."
"You three should evacuate to the boat too."
Miyuki glanced back as Hannes talked to him.
"Old man, did the boat depart already?"
Hannes shook his head.
"They're probably still stuck at the back of the line. The boat is overloaded, so they have to wait a little or the mechanism might break."
Miyuki squinted his eyes.
[00:13:15]
"Tch!"
He cursed.
They knew they had already used the majority of their stamina.
A battle royale between them and the titans was never an option.
The road was now clear of people.
Miyuki saw only ruins, titan bodies, and more titans coming their way.
This road had become no man's land once again.
"Mr. Hannes, what should we do?"
"Hannes! We should close the gate now!"
"No! There are still civilians here, you crazy fucker!"
"There's no other way! Help from higher up isn't here yet! Not closing the gate is just suicide!"
He heard the soldiers shouting to Hannes.
People were running from the titans. He even bet some soldiers were running from the battlefield.
These fuckers. They should be ashamed of making non-soldier teenagers like them work on the front line.
But he was aware of this since his past life.
No matter how modern society has developed, there's a rule that still stands: you exploit or be taken advantage of.
As Chris, he applied that mindset to reach the top.
He'd use everything to reach the top!
"Rudy shut them up."
"SILENCE!"
Yoshiteru screamed, and the crowd of soldiers fell silent.
The soldiers started to remember these three who had led the titans before. Furthermore, the one looking at them was the one who had made the plan to kill the titans before.
"Right now!"
Miyuki pointed his sword in his right hand at the titans.
"The titans are coming! Once they start to reach this place, the people won't be able to evacuate! The cannons are now useless! Thus, the only way to prevent it is by fighting the titans head-on!"
"NOOOO!!!"
One of the soldiers screamed.
"There's no way I'll go to that hell again! I don't want to die! Fuck this! I'll join my family on the boat."
"Me too! I'll join my daughter too."
"You bastard! Are you out of your mind?! We can't reload the cannons again after the last attack."
"Who do you think you are?!"
"I'm out of here!"
Hearing this, Miyuki calmly said, "So be it! Run like cowards if you must! But remember this. if that gate falls again, you'll watch your cat, your family, your daughter, or loved ones get devoured by the titans! Hear me out you worthless cuck! Even if you survive this and start a new family, know this: if I die here, then suddenly reborn as your kid. I'll find a titan and kill myself again!"
Miyuki's voice rang out, stopping the soldiers in their tracks, as they vividly pictured the horror he described.
"That's right, fuckers! You'll either die here and become titan food, or run and see your family eaten alive! But don't despair! Remember, we launched a counterattack before, and WE WON! And we'll win once again!"
They looked at each other, then at the three young men and Vice Captain Hannes standing triumphantly atop the pile of titan corpses. They began to question: didn't these guys defeat the titans before?
"Think about it! If you have anything you wish to protect, then fight!" Miyuki roared, lifting his bloodied sword to the sky. "Or just die pathetically, whining like a bitch about how things never get better!"
He glanced back at the titans, and the soldiers felt their spirits ignite, their gaze transformed with rage.
"EVERYONE, ADVANCE!"
Miyuki shouted as he jumped and charged forward.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"WOHOO! ALRIGHT, BROTHER!"
"Sigh…" Yu sigh. He removes the ODM gear after his gas runs out.
Yoshiteru and Yu followed him as the soldiers let out their war cries.
Fwosh!
Fwosh!
Fwosh!
A hundred silhouettes cast the three of them, the sound of gas echoes as the soldiers maneuver above them.
[Passive skill: Charisma has been awakened!]
[You have a natural charm to command an army. By increasing your army's morale, their stats will increase by 5%]
[Player Ishigami Yu has received a 5% buff!]
[Player Zaimokuza Yoshiteru has received a 5% buff!]
These system messages wouldn't matter if he and the boys died here.
He'd use everything.
At this point, he didn't need to make Yoshiteru use his active decoy skill again.
Instead, Miyuki was prepared to use these soldiers as decoys to protect himself and the boys.
Above all… he refused to die here on a mere tutorial floor!
[00:10:46]