Paradis Island, East Coast, Free Port.
A line of warships lay docked at the port, while several airships hovered alone above the coast.
"Rat-tat-tat-tat!" A sustained burst of heavy machine-gun fire kept Armin and the others pinned down.
"Crack!" The soldier holding the heavy machine gun fell.
Sasha raised her heavy sniper rifle and picked off a machine gunner, then said, "Looks like there are still dozens of soldiers here!"
"Get down!" Connie tackled Sasha to the ground.
"Rat-tat-tat-tat!" Seven or eight Soviet Army soldiers rushed forward, spraying fire from their submachine guns.
"Damn it, how many of them are there?" Jean shouted, throwing three hand grenades that went off in three violent explosions.
The gunfire briefly died away, then started again.
"Armin! We're almost out of ammunition!" Mina called anxiously after firing back with the machine gun.
Armin's expression darkened. After arriving here, they had exchanged fire with a Soviet Army garrison nearly a hundred strong, while they had only the few rifles and hand grenades Yelena had supplied.
"Reiner, turn into a Titan already! Can't you make yourself useful as the Armored Titan? Is it your homeland that's about to get trampled flat, or mine?" Jean shouted as he returned fire.
"I don't know what's going on. Transforming into a Titan takes a huge amount of stamina now. I don't seem to have enough left to transform. I need more time!" Reiner said through gritted teeth, staring at the cut in his palm.
"You looked so impressive just now, I thought you'd gotten stronger. Turns out you're still the same as ever, except for smashing through doors," Jean sniped.
Reiner's expression shifted at those words. Looking at Jean's long face, he wanted to argue, but said nothing.
"What about you, Sasha? Can't you turn into a Titan too?"