Libertas ↠ AOT

VIII

Light raindrops pattered against Antheia's head while she rode on top of her horse, back at the training grounds with Shadis and the 104th cadets while she observed them completing an endurance exercise that had them running through the harsh weather conditions with bags filled with supplies on their backs.

"Pick up the pace you lead-heeled laggers!" Shadis yelled at them, riding to the side of the group opposite where Antheia was. "Boots waterlogged Arlert? Let's see some hustle! Gear too heavy for you, son? Hell, drop it, leave it in the mud. The Titans will have easier work disgesting you without all the excess baggage," he singled out Armin when noticing that he was lagging behind the rest of the group, riding beside him in order to speak with him before moving to ride up ahead with the others after he was finished.

Antheia turned her head so that she could look at Armin, noticing the beads of sweat that rolled down his face and heavy pants that left him while he desperately tried to keep up with the others. Reiner approached his rear and pulled the bag from Armin's back before placing it on his own, carrying both bags to assist Armin. Antheia had found that Reiner was the most helpful one out of all the cadets when he had aided her in carrying a new shipment of ODMG parts to the maintenance area, she could have carried all the boxes on her own but it was still nice to be offered help and allow her aching muscles some respite.

Reiner had moved up ahead but Armin increased his pace and caught up to him, pulling the bag off him and placing it back on his back while continuing to run forwards. He looked like he was about to pass out at any second but continued forwards, shouldering his own burden and refusing to back down from the challenge. Antheia sent him an encouraging smile, nodding to show that she approved of his decision and believed that he could make it to the finish line. Armin would have smiled back if he didn't think he was about to drop dead.

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The 104th cadets were undergoing their routine hand-to-hand combat training after completing their ODMG exercises, Shadis and Antheia strolling through the fenced off area and keeping their eye on everybody. Most of the cadets weren't taking the training seriously, opting to slack off seeing as it didn't actually count towards their final grade. Even so, Shadis refused to go easy on them and when he had spotted Sasha and Connie goofing around he picked Connie up by his head just like he had done when he first enlisted and messed up the salute, Antheia standing beside him and trying to convince him to let the poor kid go.

The training came to an end when the sun began to sink into the horizon, Shadis ordering everyone to rest and be prepared for the training that would come the next day. Eren had seated himself on the ground, rubbing at his back that still ached after Annie had floored him earlier. Antheia noticed him on the floor and made her way over to him before taking a seat at his side, sharing a brief smile with him before extending a waterskin towards him.

"You look like you could use a drink."

Eren gratefully took the outstretched water and guzzled down as much of it as he could, wiping away the liquid that had spilt down his chin from how eagerly he had drunk it. "What's the point of this training?" He found himself asking when he handed her back the empty drinking vessel.

"Huh?" She responded, arching an eyebrow in slight confusion to his question.

"If we're training to fight Titans, why are we learning hand-to-hand combat?" He re-worded his question with a slight tinge of displeasure.

"Not everybody's training to fight the Titans, some people want to join the Military Police and you'll need to be able to fight people in that line of work, even the Garrison has their fair share of other people causing trouble. Besides, get strong enough and you might be able to throw a two metre Titan," she explained, Eren chuckling a little nervously at her joke—unsure whether she was actually joking. "In all seriousness, it never hurts to be prepared for anything. Going beyond the walls is unpredictable and sometimes being inside them is too, there's so much that we don't know yet. You never know, the enemy could be sitting right next to you..."