BLOODSPORT

Episode 8 [II]

Rhea jumped back in fright from what she saw! What the hell was that? Bertholdt caught her and held her arms lightly in place. A blush crept its way up on her cheeks, and she prayed to god no one would notice. Unfortunately Jean's eyes glared at her from across the room when Mikasa, Connie and Armin broke through the last glass window. Thank god they weren't dead!

"Mikasa, you're..." Jean started. Lord save me, Rhea thought while rolling her eyes. And he was mad at her for blushing at Bertholdt. At least she wasn't making a fool of herself by stuttering. But truly Rhea wondered why her best friend would like Mikasa after she made everyone feel awful with her terrible speech and led us into a fight, without her head thinking clearly!

Connie tapped on his now empty gas tanks, "wow. Close one. I was running on fumes. We made it here, though!" he started patting Armin on the back, "you're a goddamn genius! From now on, as far as I'm concerned, your word is law!"

Rising to his feet, Connie stated, "Check it out! We found an abnormal that's got a bone to pick with its own kind. And the best part? He couldn't care less about us!"

Rhea stared at the abnormal in both horror and amazement. This Titan was unlike any other that Rhea has crossed paths with. He even looked different from the others; where their bodies were either skinny or full of fat, the abnormal had a strong physique.

"That's right, you heard me: this big beautiful SOB's our ticket out of here!"

Rhea glanced at Bertholdt whose eyes were wide with fear. He looked nervous, but she didn't know why. All their problems had been solved with this abnormal. Placing her hand on his shoulder, he snapped out of his thoughts. "You alright?"

"Yeah, just concerned is all." he turned on his heel and walked over to Reiner, leaving Rhea confused.

"You mean like fighting fire with fire?"

"Listen to yourselves," Jean spoke up. "Titans are not going to help us! You're out of your mind if you think this could wor-"

"It is working." Mikasa said. "For whatever reason, he's rampaging against them. Stand back and let him do it. Trust me. You'll see. Either way. What choice do we have? Right now that thing is our best chance at survival."

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"Good news!" Jean declared as he walked out of the storage room with a bunch of weapons in hand. Rhea got up off the stone floor to observe exactly what her friend found.

"Courtesy of the Military Police. And covered with a layer of dust." Jean cocked the gun out from the wooden crate. "Are you absolutely sure buckshot is the way to go? I mean come on guys. Are guns even effective?" he questioned.

Armin had spread a map out on the floor, which everyone hovered over, including Rhea herself. "Should be from close range," she remarked.

"Exactly and they're bound to be better than nothing," Armin added. "We're looking at seven Titans in the supply room, of the 4 meter tall variety. If we time this perfectly, this much ammo ought to be enough to do the trick."

Rhea listened intently as Armin explained his well thought out plan. "Step one: we lower a group into the area via life to get the Titan's attention. Step two: when the Titans come within range, the group fires in all four directions simultaneously, blinding them. Then the hard part. The moment of truth, as it were. Before the Titans recover, seven of us swoop down from the ceiling and strike their vital regions. That's it. That's the plan. It puts all our lives on the line. We screw up, we're dead." Armin concluded.

"And who pray tell are the seven?" Rhea inquired.

Armin looked anxiously around the group before stating, "Reiner, Bertholdt, Mikasa, Annie, Jean, Sasha, and you Rhea. you guys were all top in the class, I know you can do it. You'll be the difference between life and death for us."