The Bloom Titan (1/2)

CH.45: Action

The Garrison captain grabs Erwin by the collar. "What the hell are you thinking, Erwin!? You won't evacuate the people from the city? That Titan will be on top of us by dawn!" He yells at him. Hanji slams her hand down on the table.

"That Titan is an Abnormal." She says calmly. The Garrison captain turns to look at her, a hideous expression on his face.

"Why the hell does that matter?" He shouts in frustration. I clear my throat.

"If you allow me to speak, sir, ma'am." I say looking from the Garrison Captain to Hanji. Hanji nods telling me it's alright. I step forward to the edge of the table. "The Titan in question is only attracted to large groups of people. We can these outliers Abnormals. It won't give a small village a second glance, but it's making a beeline for this fortified city." I point to Orvud district on the map in front of us. "Therefore, if we were to evacuate the citizens to within Wall Sheena," I then move my finger onto within Wall Sheena. "The Titan would change course to target them, bringing the wall down on its way. Finally, it would reach Mitras, the city with the highest population, and deliver a devastating blow to humanity." I finish.

Hanji grins softly. "Look who's done their research." She turns back to the table. "On our way here, we attemted to use Eren Jeager and Ezlyn Harper's power to control Titans, but Rob Reiss's Titan did not react." I snort at remembering Eren accidently insulting Levi by shouting, 'You tiny old man!'.

"The only place we will be able to stop that Titan is just outside the walls of Orvud Dirtrict." Erwin starts. "That is why we must have the citizens remain here as bait. However, this does not change the fact that our first duty as soldiers is to protect the citizens. In case we are unable to halt the target, we'll take the precautions to ensure that nobody will be harmed. We'll announce an emergency evacuation drill for Orvud District so they will all be ready to evacuate should the worst happen." He finishes.

The Garrison captain gulps and lets go of Commander Erwin's collar and looks down at the ground. He sighs and look up again to the Commander. "It seems there's no other choice..."

"The target has the lagest body we've ever seen in a Titan. As such, it presents an easy target. Wall mounted cannons should be effective, but if they prove insufficient, the Survey Corps will throw everything we have at it." Erwin looks over at Eren and I and everyone else does the same. He was refering to the plan from earlier about feeding one of us to Rod Reiss. I look down at the table.

Can we pull this off?

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Dawn broke and the predictment was correct. The massive Titan had crawled it's way over quickly but we were prepared for that. The northern Garrison soldiers were lined up along the wall with all of the cannons.

"Fire!" The Garrison Captain yells as he fires his own cannon. With that every single cannon went off towards Rod Reiss. Craters were formed on Rod Reiss's back and the ground around it.

The cannons were loud making me cover my ears. I never usually minded loud noises but this time my ears were sensitive. I jumped and huddled close to Jean, hiding behind his back. He didn't mind as he was my friend after all.

Rob Reiss stopped dead in his tracks. "Did that do it?" Commander Erwin ponders. I came out from behind Jean and peeked over Historia to look at the Titan properly.

The cloud of steam moves violently and a titanic hand swishes past it, continuing it's hunt to kill. The cannons fire again and I scramble back behind Jean for 'safety'.

The Commander sighs. "The ground cannons are even less effective." He says, sounding disappointed.

"Of course they are. Even the wall mounted cannons can barely hit the nape despite having a better angle. What's going on here?" Levi blurts.