"Sasha, why are you carrying that musket around all day? You even wrap it in cloth. This thing can't even kill Titans." Jean leaned against a cannon, arms crossed, asking in confusion.
Sasha carefully wiped the scope of her sniper rifle with a small white cloth. Hearing Jean, she turned around and stuck out her tongue.
"Bleh bleh bleh! Stupid Jean, you have no idea how amazing this gun is! I can hit a wild boar from eight hundred meters away now! Koris even said I'm a super-amazing sharpshooter!"
Jean: "No way, right? You actually believe people from outside the walls? What if he's lying to you?"
Sasha: "Pah, Jean only knows how to spout nonsense!"
...
Trost District. On top of the wall, it was packed with soldiers from the Survey Corps and the Garrison.
Most of these soldiers looked lazy and slack, but if you looked closely, their eyes were filled with a light called hope.
Suddenly, a burst of clamor arose in the distance. Looking far ahead, a vast horde of Titans was crazily surging toward the wall. In front of dozens of Titans were more than ten soldiers riding warhorses at full gallop, the Wings of Freedom cloaks snapping loudly in the wind.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry! Get ready, all of you get ready! They're coming, the Titans have all been lured over!" The soldiers on the wall shouted. The previously lax Garrison and Survey Corps soldiers immediately sprang into action.
The Garrison troops rotated the wall cannons, calibrated the firing positions, and after aiming, stuffed one heavy shell after another into the barrels.
The Survey Corps soldiers finished putting on their Vertical Maneuvering Equipment, secured the mounting brackets on their arms, and then steel-pipe-like Thunder Spears were installed onto their forearms one by one. All the soldiers stood ready in full battle formation.
Soon, more than ten Survey Corps soldiers charged to the base of the wall. Below the wall was a drawbridge that had long been waiting. At the instant the Survey Corps stepped onto the bridge, they were immediately hauled up onto the wall.
But the leading Survey Corps soldier with reddish-brown hair only guided his warhorse onto the drawbridge, then turned his head to look beside him. Next to him was the Titan meat grinder formed from Eren's hardening back then.
Floch did not hesitate and directly climbed inside. Soon, the swarming Titans rushed up. Several Titans of different heights desperately jammed their heads into the gaps of the hardened bars, opening their mouths to roar at Floch inside and reaching in with their hands to claw at him.
Being stared at by so many Titans created an overwhelming pressure. Floch's face also turned a shade paler, and he couldn't help but take a step back. But very quickly, he firmly stepped forward again.
"Come on!!"
"Fire!!" At the officer's command, the Garrison lit the wall cannons. Boom! Boom! Boom! Cannon fire like thunder roared out as heavy, scorching shells blasted into the Titan horde. Instantly, clouds of blood mist erupted among the Titans.
Jean pulled the rope and said excitedly,
"My turn! Titan meat grinder! Deploy!" Jean released his grip, looking ahead with anticipation as the rope rapidly disengaged, and the massive log it pulled crashed down heavily.
However, an accident occurred. The knot at the tail end of the rope suddenly got stuck on the mechanism, and Jean instantly became like a duck with its neck grabbed, unable to laugh anymore.
Facing the teasing looks from his companions around him, Jean felt utterly ashamed. He hurriedly activated his Vertical Maneuvering Equipment, preparing to cut the rope with his blades, but in the next instant—
Bang! A gunshot rang out. The rope snapped cleanly, and the massive log weighing tens of thousands of pounds crashed down, smashing the heads and napes of several Titans whose heads were stuck in the gaps all at once.
Jean turned his head in a daze. Sasha raised her eyebrows smugly.
Very soon, under the fierce artillery fire, dozens of Titans were reduced to barely more than ten, struggling to cling to life.
"Survey Corps! Our turn! Charge!" Squad Leader Ness, wearing a headscarf, let out a furious roar. Dozens of Survey Corps soldiers roared along with Ness and leapt off the wall, charging toward the Titans.
Relying on the extreme speed of their Vertical Maneuvering Equipment, the Survey Corps soldiers quickly closed in on the remaining dozen Titans.
Ness locked onto a Titan and led the charge, rapidly approaching. The Titan clearly noticed Ness coming closer, roared, and stretched out its hand to grab him.
But this was no longer the era when Survey Corps soldiers had to get in close and slice the Titan's nape.
Ness accelerated, the fans at his waist spinning as gas blasted out. In the blink of an eye, he rushed behind the Titan.
"Die!" He raised his arm high and swung it down sharply, pulling the trigger. A burst of flame erupted from the tail of the Thunder Spear in Ness's hand, and with a shrill scream, it shot toward the Titan's nape like a rocket.
Relying on the powerful propulsion at its rear, the Thunder Spear pierced straight into the Titan's nape without the slightest difficulty.
Ness's finger twitched, and all the thin wires connected to the Thunder Spear snapped.
"Roar!!" A huge mass of orange-yellow flames engulfed the Titan's nape.
Just like that, in only a few short minutes, humanity easily wiped out dozens of Titans, and the soldiers erupted into cheers.
Floch calmly leapt back onto the wall, wiped the grime from his face, then turned around and continued walking toward the horses on the wall.
Marlo stepped forward and grabbed Floch, saying, "Floch, take a break. You've already gone out to lure three waves of Titans."
But Floch frowned and brushed Marlo's hand away, saying without even turning his head,
"No need for you to worry!"
Hitch looked at the awkward Marlo, then at Floch's retreating figure, shook her head, and sighed.
"What a strange guy."
...
Not far away on the wall, Erwin watched his subordinates cheering and smiled faintly as well. The current situation was extremely favorable. In the face of the new weapon, the Thunder Spear, and the Titan meat grinder, Titans had become easy to eliminate, greatly boosting the morale of the people within the walls.
Some stubborn high-ranking officials who had once firmly opposed the Survey Corps' expeditions beyond the walls had recently changed their minds, even becoming more radical than the Survey Corps, clamoring to wipe out all Titans.
"Commander, you've read all the information provided by those Marleyans, right?" Yago suddenly walked up beside Erwin and said.
Hearing this, Erwin's original smile turned bitter as he said,
"I've read it. I never imagined that the world outside the walls would be so complex. Marley? The world? It's all filled with hostility toward us."
Yago also smiled helplessly. He didn't know how to change the world's view of the Eldians, but the most urgent matter right now wasn't that either.
"Commander, you've also reviewed the report on making contact with Zeke, right?"
Erwin nodded with a complicated look in his eyes, then added,
"The brand-new council mechanism you proposed has gained recognition from many people. Electing councilors—this is completely different from the backward councils controlled by nobles in the past. Yago, I have to say, you really are imaginative."
Yago shook his head and said with a smile,
"It's just a small safeguard, that's all. Commander, Titans are no longer a threat, but the future we are about to face holds enemies and a world even more terrifying than Titans."