Mikasa lit her torch from Levi's and trailed him by a few meters. The tall ceiling seemed all by itself to promise danger after her experience in the gatehouse; and, like the roof of an immense mouth, it left her with the uncomfortable sensation of being swallowed into the bastion as they turned the corner and she could no longer see the light from the courtyard. His order was forgotten, but also superfluous. Stiff-shouldered, with a white-knuckled grip on her torch, she scoured the darkness obsessively.
Levi spotted the titan first. At his warning she was already reaching for her sword -- but then by the dim flickering torchlight she watched a huge hand smash him against the pillar and wrap him. His dark head vanishing into the shadow of the fist... She saw it with a rising sensation of dread, so each hair ticked up on the back of her neck, and a strangling, soothing certainty: no. It would not be permitted.
The other titan, the one Levi first spotted, still lumbered towards her as she dashed halfway around the pillar in a narrow arc and the torch in her hand flickered low in her rush. She dropped the wire into the titan's shoulder - of the arm that gripped Levi - from the other side. It howled in pain. As she flew up it tried to reach for her and slammed its arm around the pillar to no purpose. She clambered desperately onto its shoulder and fired another line into its neck, and stabbed the butt end of the torch deep into its ear canal. The titan groaned and bucked uselessly; persistently stupid, it could neither conceive of how to step back from the pillar far enough to use its arm freely, nor how to shake its head to loosen the torch. Both hands freed, now, she drew her other blade.
A dark focus flattened her perception. She stabbed a sword into the meaty crest of the titan's arm and slashed downward and towards the chest to sever the muscles that allowed it to lift its arm. At once the limb fell and dangled loose as a hung carcass. Like the gouging of eyes, like the slashing of jaws, she'd learned this from Levi.
Launching herself back up, she searched for anything, anywhere, from which to propel herself for a slash at the thing's neck, but there was only darkness. Fine, by strength alone then. By hacking, like she'd done in the hallway, while the titan lurched and screamed and reached for her with its still-functioning hand. She saw that hand drop away as she tore out the last critical ribbons of flesh. She never saw the one reaching for her from behind.
joins you in tldrland
Levi spotted the titan first. At his warning she was already reaching for her sword -- but then by the dim flickering torchlight she watched a huge hand smash him against the pillar and wrap him. His dark head vanishing into the shadow of the fist... She saw it with a rising sensation of dread, so each hair ticked up on the back of her neck, and a strangling, soothing certainty: no. It would not be permitted.
The other titan, the one Levi first spotted, still lumbered towards her as she dashed halfway around the pillar in a narrow arc and the torch in her hand flickered low in her rush. She dropped the wire into the titan's shoulder - of the arm that gripped Levi - from the other side. It howled in pain. As she flew up it tried to reach for her and slammed its arm around the pillar to no purpose. She clambered desperately onto its shoulder and fired another line into its neck, and stabbed the butt end of the torch deep into its ear canal. The titan groaned and bucked uselessly; persistently stupid, it could neither conceive of how to step back from the pillar far enough to use its arm freely, nor how to shake its head to loosen the torch. Both hands freed, now, she drew her other blade.
A dark focus flattened her perception. She stabbed a sword into the meaty crest of the titan's arm and slashed downward and towards the chest to sever the muscles that allowed it to lift its arm. At once the limb fell and dangled loose as a hung carcass. Like the gouging of eyes, like the slashing of jaws, she'd learned this from Levi.
Launching herself back up, she searched for anything, anywhere, from which to propel herself for a slash at the thing's neck, but there was only darkness. Fine, by strength alone then. By hacking, like she'd done in the hallway, while the titan lurched and screamed and reached for her with its still-functioning hand. She saw that hand drop away as she tore out the last critical ribbons of flesh. She never saw the one reaching for her from behind.