"Haha, so this really is reality, huh? What kind of daydream was I having? Or had I lost my mind, thinking I could fight Titans? Anyone with a normal human brain could figure it out. How could we possibly win against monsters that huge..."
Jean laughed vacantly twice, tears glinting at the corners of his eyes. He stared numbly at the two enormous Titan heads, frozen in place.
In a flash, a towering blast of thunder came hurtling in, blasting apart the heads of the two Titans before Jean. Half of each Titan's body exploded with a deafening crash.
Reiner's pupils trembled as he watched it all unfold, the terrifying lightning flashing over and over in his eyes.
Was this a Titan's power? Could it be the Founding Titan?! Terror filled Reiner's heart. If this was the Founding Titan, they were facing an incredibly powerful opponent. He looked toward Annie beside him.
Fine beads of sweat had formed on Annie's forehead. She stood ready for battle, preparing to bite the web of her hand.
"What?!"
Jean stood rooted to the spot, drenched from head to toe in Titan blood. A few tiny scraps of flesh had even flown into his mouth.
"What was that?!"
"Lightning! It was lightning!"
"Has a god come to save us?"
Some of the soldiers hiding inside the room, driven nearly mad with fear, dropped to their knees and bowed on the spot.
"Cough, cough!" Jean snapped out of his daze and hurriedly spat out the filthy scraps of Titan flesh.
"Woohoo! Taking flight!" Carried by his momentum, Chen Si flew into the headquarters building.
Chen Si was the Founding Titan? Reiner gritted his teeth, his guard raised to the utmost.
Annie's pupils shrank sharply as she stared fixedly at Chen Si. Was Chen Si their target...?
"Annie? Annie!" Chen Si waved a hand in front of her face.
"Staring that hard, huh? Pretty handsome, aren't I? It's all thanks to the fighting techniques you taught me. Look, aren't I super strong now?" Chen Si flashed an innocent smile, showing eight teeth.
Annie narrowed her eyes and curled her lip.
"Fighting techniques aren't that powerful."
"That just proves how special the techniques you taught me are, doesn't it? Miss Titan..." Chen Si leaned close to Annie's ear and spoke softly, a teasing curve lifting the corner of his mouth.
Annie's pupils contracted sharply, and she hurled a vicious punch at him. Chen Si hurriedly ducked out of the way.
"Annie!" Reiner cried urgently, his nerves on edge.
"Hey, Annie, I was only joking! I meant you're as strong as a Titan." Chen Si hurriedly explained.
Annie took a deep breath.
"That joke wasn't funny. I hate it when people say that about me." Annie covered for her unusual reaction.
"Okay, okay, my fault." Chen Si turned away, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. Annie, you should come over to my side someday.
This time, Chen Si had wanted to intimidate Reiner and the others. In particular, he wanted to show Annie his strength so he could recruit her later.
"Is that Top Graduate Chen Si? Didn't he die?"
"Is Top Graduate Chen Si a god?"
Chen Si smiled and waved at the people hiding beneath tables, behind chairs, above and below the door, in front of and behind tables, and piled on top of one another.
"The divine lord is smiling at me... Ah... Mm..." A female soldier's face flushed crimson as she bit her finger, her legs trembling.
"A ghost! It's a ghost!" shrieked one of the soldiers in the human pile. Suddenly, the whole stack tumbled to the floor, knocking over tables and chairs as people rolled out in every direction.
"Huh? There were this many people in here?" Chen Si said blankly before turning toward Jean.
"Hey, Jean, what happened to you? You look awful. Why are you bleeding so much?" Chen Si asked in confusion, looking at the blood covering him.
"Your buddy got here too late and let you get badly hurt." Chen Si threw an arm around Jean's shoulders, looking heartbroken.
"You... You... Are you a person or a ghost?! Is this Chen Si's dead body possessed by an evil spirit?!" Jean stared at him with a sickly expression, utterly terrified.
"It was just a little electricity. Look how scared you got. I'm alive and well, so of course I'm human."
As he spoke, Chen Si leaned toward Jean and felt his own face as though looking into a mirror.
"With a face this handsome, how could I not be human?" Chen Si said, then brushed up his bangs.
"You conceited bastard." Jean shoved Chen Si away. The Titan blood on him slowly began to evaporate into steam.
"But... thanks..." Jean said, curling his lip.
"We're fucking buddies!" Chen Si grinned, showing eight teeth, and slapped Jean hard on the back.
Whoosh! A nearby window shattered, and Connie, carrying Armin, flew inside along with Mikasa.
"Mikasa... You're still alive too?" Jean said, bewildered.
Mikasa looked at Jean and nodded.
Then she hurried over to Chen Si and cupped his face, turning it this way and that, inspecting him over and over before finally letting out a relieved breath.
Jean covered his face. What a damn bastard.
"That lightning you unleashed must have taken a lot out of you. Don't push yourself. Keep yourself safe." Mikasa took out a handkerchief and wiped Chen Si's sweat.
Warmth filled Chen Si's heart at her words. That last attack had indeed used up forty percent of his mana, but it had looked impressive enough. He could have killed them with the tiniest bit of electricity, but that wouldn't have been nearly as stunning.
Anything was worth it for the sake of showing off, and his mana would be full again in a few minutes anyway.
"Don't worry, Mikasa. I keep a level head-unless you're in danger." Chen Si looked at her and spoke gently.
"Mm!" Warmth spread through Mikasa's heart, and she nodded.
"That was close. My gas canister's completely empty. Getting all the way here really pushed it to the limit," Connie said, lifting his gas canister.
"By the way, what was with all that lightning covering your body just now?" Jean asked Chen Si. He was still full of questions. For a moment, Chen Si had looked as though the god of thunder had possessed him. Jean had thought a god had descended and had nearly knelt down.
"Oh, that? It's a kind of biological magnetic field. You can call it bioelectricity. You have that electricity too. I'm just stronger and faster, so my lightning looks more intimidating. Ah, forget it. You wouldn't understand even if I explained."
After spouting that nonsense with a perfectly straight face, Chen Si waved a hand and looked at Jean as though he were illiterate.
"Tch! So you've read more books. What's so great about that?" Jean turned his head aside and curled his lip.
Just then, another Titan appeared, about to shove its enormous, ugly face inside.
Jean, Connie, and Armin were terrified. Mikasa's gaze sharpened as she prepared to raise her blades, while Chen Si zapped the slowly evaporating scraps of flesh on his shoes to make them disappear faster.
The Titan had just opened its huge mouth, baring its teeth to bite down on them, when an enormous fist suddenly sent it flying.
A closer look revealed that it was Eren in his Attack Titan form.
"Armin! Your battle plan worked!" Connie cried excitedly.
"Listen up, everyone! That Titan is an Abnormal Titan that goes after other Titans and kills them, and it has absolutely no interest in us humans! If we make good use of that Titan, along with Chen Si and Mikasa's strength, we can all get out of here!" Connie shouted excitedly, pointing at the Attack Titan.