"You must wait for an opening before you act. Unless you can see where all the gunmen are, don't make a move. Understood?" Important things bore repeating, and Arthur stressed his instructions once again.
"Understood." The others nodded.
Meanwhile, Annie and the others, who had split off from Arthur's group, followed the wagon tracks to a clearing. The tracks disappeared there, so the bandits were probably nearby.
They were most likely lying in ambush in the surrounding bushes and trees.
Bang! A gunshot rang out, and a lead ball struck the ground in front of Annie, Jean, and Ymir's horses. The three hurriedly reined in their mounts, panic showing on their faces.
After a whistle, several bandits emerged from the surrounding bushes. Three carried guns, while the others held machetes and axes.
"Hahaha! Boss, you were right! They really did come after us. Three more sets of Omni-Directional Mobility Gear! Those'll fetch a nice price!" one bandit shouted with a vicious grin.
"Heh. When have I ever been wrong? They weren't going to give up on that little wench so easily." A middle-aged man with a scar on his face stepped out from behind a tree, a gun in his hand.
He appeared to be the leader of the bandits.
"Stay calm. Christa and three of the gunmen still haven't appeared," Arthur said, shaking his head at his companions as they stirred impatiently in their nearby hiding place.
Hearing this, Mikasa and the others could only settle down for the moment.
"Damn it! We've walked into an ambush!" Jean feigned panic. He knew he had to reinforce the bandits' impression that only the three of them had come.
"You recruits really are a bunch of idiots. But that works for us. Three more sets of Omni-Directional Mobility Gear, all for free." The bandit leader gave the three a contemptuous look, then eyed their gear greedily.
"You bastard! Where's Christa?!" Ymir demanded angrily.
"You mean the blonde girl? She's fine. Honestly, I ought to thank her. Without her, I wouldn't have gotten three more sets of Omni-Directional Mobility Gear for nothing." The bandit leader laughed.
"What you want is our Omni-Directional Mobility Gear, isn't it? You're really just after money, right? How about we make a deal?" Jean began putting the lines Arthur had taught him to use.
"What kind of deal?" The bandit leader sounded interested.
"We give you our Omni-Directional Mobility Gear, and you let Christa go. I'm sure you only want to make money, not make an enemy of the Training Corps. If anyone gets hurt, you and your accomplices will all become wanted men," Jean continued.
The bandit leader paused at Jean's reasoning. After all, his argument made perfect sense. The only reason they had risked coming to the Training Corps' training grounds was to steal the recruits' Omni-Directional Mobility Gear and sell it on the black market.
There was indeed no need to earn the Training Corps' hatred over a single girl. Besides, the Training Corps supplied recruits to the other military branches. They could end up being hunted down by several branches at once.
"All right, I agree. Give me your Omni-Directional Mobility Gear, and I'll release the girl." After weighing the pros and cons, the bandit leader knew that if he fled now, the Training Corps' soldiers would not have enough time to catch him.
"Before we make the trade, shouldn't you show us some goodwill? Let us see Christa and confirm she's safe, for example." Pleased that the bandit leader had taken the bait, Jean continued speaking calmly.
"Why do you have so many demands?!" The bandit leader sounded displeased, but after a sigh, he still gestured to his men.
One of his men understood and whistled. Before long, someone drove a carefully concealed wagon out into the open.
Two gunmen sat on the wagon, and Christa was in the back, her hands and feet bound and her mouth gagged. Still, she appeared unharmed and remained conscious.
The sight of Christa lifted everyone's spirits.
"Get ready to move. I'll take the leader. Mikasa, rescue Christa. The rest of you, take one gunman each," Arthur ordered.
Mikasa and the others nodded, poised to spring into action.
"All right, you've seen her. Now hurry up and hand over your Omni-Directional Mobility Gear!" the bandit leader shouted impatiently.
"Of course." Jean nodded, then exchanged a glance with Annie and Ymir beside him.
The two understood and pretended to remove their equipment. Just as all the bandits' attention shifted to Jean, Annie, and Ymir-
"Move!" At Arthur's command, Mikasa, Reiner, and Bertolt, who were already prepared, shot out using their Omni-Directional Mobility Gear.
Whoosh! Arthur fired his grappling hook and flew toward the bandit leader. To defeat the bandits, he would seize their leader first.
"What?!" The bandit leader barely had time to register Arthur hurtling toward him before Arthur sliced off his gun arm with a single stroke.
"Aaaaargh!" The bandit leader clutched the stump of his arm and screamed.
"Boss!" The nearby bandits froze at the sight of their leader's severed arm, then quickly recovered and rushed to help him.
As the gunmen raised their weapons to shoot Arthur, Reiner and Bertolt burst into action, prioritizing the greatest threats. Together, they cut down all three gunmen.
Mikasa dispatched the two remaining gunmen guarding Christa with two swift slashes.
The situation reversed in an instant.
"Great job, Arthur!" Jean was overjoyed to see Arthur seize the leader.
Annie and Ymir stopped pretending and joined the fight, taking on the bandits who were trying to pick up the guns.
"Don't move. If you don't want to die, tell your men to surrender!" Arthur said coldly, holding his blade against the leader's neck.
The bandit leader knew he had lost, and he did not want to die. He shouted to his remaining men.
"All of you, drop your weapons!"
Seeing that their leader had been captured, the remaining bandits knew there was no hope. They stopped resisting, dropped their weapons, and crouched on the ground with their hands over their heads.
"Tie each other up!" Arthur shouted at the remaining bandits.
After all, there was no telling whether they might make a desperate last stand.
The bandits had no choice but to bind one another, leaving themselves unable to resist. Arthur then roughly bandaged their leader's wound, tied him up as well, and confined him with his men.
By then, Mikasa had untied Christa and brought her over to the others.
"Christa!" Ymir pulled Christa straight into her arms and kept rubbing her head against her, her face filled with the joy of having her back.
"Ymir, let go." Christa felt embarrassed with everyone watching.
Ymir reluctantly released her.
"Christa, are you all right?" Arthur asked with concern.
"I'm fine. They only tied me up." Christa shook her head, assuring him she was unharmed.
"That's good." Arthur smiled.
"Everyone, thank you for saving me." Christa was deeply grateful to them for rescuing her. She had almost given in to despair, unsure whether anyone would come for her.
She had even thought she would simply die there.
Yet so many people had refused to abandon her and had risked their lives to save her.
"Arthur deserves most of the credit. If he hadn't figured out how the bandits thought, we really wouldn't have had a way out," Jean said modestly.
"Yeah. Without Arthur's carefully thought-out plan, they would've wiped us all out," Reiner agreed.
"It really was a good plan," said the usually quiet Annie.
"I have to admit, his approach was pretty good." Even Ymir, who had little affection for Arthur, agreed with him for once.
"How can you say that? Without everyone working together, the plan never would have worked," Arthur said modestly.
"Arthur, thank you." Christa looked at him gratefully, though there seemed to be more than gratitude in her eyes-some other, unnamed feeling.
"No need to thank me. It was what I should have done." Arthur waved a hand.
"All right, let's wait here for the instructor and keep an eye on these bandits so they don't escape," Arthur suggested, looking at the bandits and their leader, the biggest catch of them all.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
After a long wait, Instructor Keith finally arrived with a group of soldiers just before dawn.
Seeing that everyone was safe, Keith breathed a sigh of relief. Then he learned that Arthur had led the others in not only rescuing Christa but also capturing the bandit leader, leaving him thoroughly impressed.
Later, soldiers from the Military Police Brigade came to the Training Corps and took all the bandits into custody.
The bandits' audacity in robbing people on the Training Corps' training grounds even drew Commander Pixis's attention.
From Keith, he learned that Arthur had led several recruits on a rescue mission, freeing the hostage and capturing the bandit leader in the process.
This made Pixis even fonder of Arthur, and he once again commended Arthur, Mikasa, Annie, Reiner, Bertolt, Ymir, and Jean.
He also declared that if Arthur joined the Garrison, he would personally train him.
Although Arthur did not agree, everyone knew he had a bright future ahead of him. Perhaps he would even become a commander someday.