✓ Blood Lust (Levi Ackerman - Attack on Titan) #wattys2021

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Jump. Swipe. Stab. Repeat. My ears block out anything else. I can't bear to hear the sounds of the cadets dying. I have to keep pace with Levi. We have to reach the Beast Titan at the same time or we'll die.

"Their lives...were they meaningless?" my father's words echo in my head as I slash another nape.

We hit him at the same time, as in sync as we were back when we discovered Reiner in the wall. I take out his Achilles heels, knocking the monster to his knees as Levi slices up his arm. My husband's speed and agility is leaps and bounds above mine but I still create a pest of myself to his lower region as he's blinded.

"What happened to all that fun you were having?!" he screams and until now, I didn't fully realize what unlocking the Ackerman power meant.

Levi has cut the Titan shift out of the body, a blade in his mouth by the time I drop beside him.

"After transforming, if your body is severely damaged, it's too busy to let you transform. Isn't that right?"

"I say slit his throat," I grin at the man, getting his attention for the first time. My nails dig into his face, my inner sadist coming out from the past.

Levi digs the blade in deeper. A rumbling startles both of us and a large mouth is coming through the smoke. We both jump out of the way, watching as the mysterious blond man is taken away by the carrier Titan.

"Oh fuck. No, the serum, Levi. What if my dad is still alive?" I ask, starting to go after them.

He grabs my arm, stopping me. "We have more pressing issues at hand." The titans we weren't able to kill have suddenly awakened from their slumber and are turning on us with a purpose. We have nothing to grab onto.

"I'll get the heel. You get the nape," I yell at him, swinging around the ankles of our foe. Our strategy goes well, despite being out in the open. By the end, we're exhausted. Levi catches me when my foot slips coming up beside him on the wall. We're both covered in blood.

I see the same man from before, talking to Eren. I dart out onto the roof. My blade points at him in defense of the fifteen-year-old and so he doesn't take Bertholdt. I'm in no shape to fight him, neither is Levi. We'll have to track him down another time.

"You look so much like your mother," the man says suddenly, catching me off guard.

"How do you know her?" I think he's just trying to mentally mess with me. "What is her name, prick?"

"Lily." He tilts his head. "I don't bluff, Eliora." He turns to look at Eren. "I'll be back to rescue you, Eren."

"Over my dead body, Beast."

"Tsk." With that, he's gone as the carrier Titan helps him out of the city. I turn to look for Levi. He was in a worse state than me, having exerted himself way more. He falls beside me.

"That was the last of my gas! Give me your gas and blades and I'll chase after him!" He screams at Eren and I. Eren complies while I don't want to kill someone that has an insight to my mother.

A cough from behind startles us. I can't believe I've overlooked a charred body this whole time.

"Eren, who is that?"

"It's...Armin."

I cover my mouth, trying hard to not throw up whatever I've eaten in the last few days. The stench of burning flesh hits me all at once and I race to the edge of the roof, upchucking bits. Not like the city can get any worse.

"Captain, get the syringe!" Eren cries out at the same time Mikasa falls down near us. "We'll have him eat Bertholdt."

Levi slowly pulls out the box. I can't tell if it's from exhaustion or from hesitation.