"Don't get caught up fighting! Stay in formation and don't get separated! If anyone runs out of gas, the teammate next to them will carry them!" Arthur shouted to the others following him after slaying a titan blocking their path with a single slash.
"Yes!" Everyone nodded in acknowledgment.
Arthur, Mikasa, Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie formed the main fighting force, clearing the titans blocking the road ahead.
Sasha, Connie, Marco, Ymir, Christa, Jean, and Armin stayed on either side of the formation, dealing with any titans that slipped through.
Among the remaining soldiers, the weaker ones stayed at the rear, while the stronger ones helped clear out the titans.
"Mikasa!" Arthur called when he spotted six titans ahead.
"Right!" After spending so much time together, the two no longer needed many words to communicate. A single exchanged glance was enough.
They attacked from the flanks, charging straight at the six scattered titans. Against their overwhelming strength and seamless coordination, the six titans posed little threat.
As the six titan corpses crashed to the ground, Arthur and Mikasa swiftly returned to the head of the formation.
"Incredible! There were six of them!"
"Great! At this rate, we'll definitely make it to headquarters!"
"Arthur is so strong, and so is Mikasa! Those two completely turned things around!"
Their outstanding performance instantly bolstered everyone's confidence and fighting spirit.
"How are those two flying so fast? I can't even keep up with them." Watching their speed far outstrip his own, Jean struggled to keep pace.
"Yeah, I wish I could move that fast too," Connie said enviously beside him.
Next to them, Armin frowned as he watched Arthur's and Mikasa's Omni-Directional Mobility Gear.
He knew their speed came entirely from burning through gas in exchange for greater mobility.
That was fine for a short fight, but headquarters was still a long way away. If they kept this up, something would definitely go wrong.
Mikasa still seemed to be doing all right, but Arthur was the real concern.
After all, Arthur had slain the most titans, which also meant he had consumed an enormous amount of gas.
Armin knew Arthur was pushing himself like this because of Eren's death and because he bore the weight of so many people's lives.
Armin knew he had to stop Arthur quickly. If this continued and Arthur really ran out of gas, no amount of strength would let him fight titans without his Omni-Directional Mobility Gear.
Deeply worried, Armin was just about to go warn Arthur.
As though Armin's fears had come true, Arthur's Omni-Directional Mobility Gear suddenly sputtered out. It released a little gas, then went silent.
Arthur, who had been moving at high speed, faltered in midair. Without gas to keep him airborne, he plummeted straight down.
Fortunately, Mikasa had been keeping a close eye on Arthur from beside him and reached out in time to pull him back up.
The sudden mishap left everyone terrified. Thankfully, nothing worse had happened. If they lost Arthur, their main fighter, the consequences would be unimaginable.
With Arthur's gas depleted, everyone had no choice but to land on a rooftop and stop.
"Damn it." Irritated, Arthur knocked on his gas canister. Once he confirmed it was empty, he threw it away, bitterly wishing there were a more economical fuel.
"Arthur, are you all right?" Christa hurried back from the rear. Seeing Arthur fall had turned her little face deathly pale; she had thought something had happened to him.
"I'm fine. I just ran out of gas. Luckily, Mikasa saved me." Arthur pulled out of Mikasa's arms, completely oblivious to her faintly flushed cheeks, which betrayed the turmoil in her heart.
"Arthur, use my gas. I've still got plenty." Christa detached one of her gas canisters and handed it to Arthur.
"Okay. Thanks, Christa." Arthur nodded, took it from her, and fitted the gas canister onto his gear.
"Arthur, are you all right? You really scared us back there." Jean, Connie, and Armin came over to Arthur, their faces full of concern.
"I'm fine. I just ran out of gas, and I've already replenished it." Arthur smiled and waved a hand to show that it was nothing serious.
"Thank goodness it was only the gas. Still, that was way too reckless. You were already running low, and you still went charging around like that," Jean scolded.
"Sorry," Arthur apologized.
"Arthur, don't do that again. If Mikasa hadn't saved you in time, the consequences would've been unthinkable," Christa said, the lingering fear clear in her voice as his caring girlfriend.
"Okay, I'll be more careful." Arthur nodded.
Then Arthur turned to Mikasa. He stepped over and knocked on her gas canister, discovering that she had very little left as well.
"Arthur, let Mikasa use my gas. I don't need that much." Hearing that Mikasa was also nearly out, Armin gave her half of his gas.
"Thank you, Armin," Mikasa said.
"It's nothing. Besides, you're our main fighters. You should get priority when it comes to gas," Armin said with a smile.
"Reiner, how is everyone holding up?" Arthur asked, turning toward Reiner, who was keeping watch.
"It's not looking good. A lot of people barely have any gas left. I'm afraid they won't be able to use their Omni-Directional Mobility Gear after we go much farther," Reiner said with a troubled expression.
Reiner's report gave Arthur a headache. Losing their gas meant losing their ability to move quickly, and with so much distance still to cover, that was a serious problem.
Although he could lead them to headquarters, he certainly couldn't guarantee that no one would be killed or injured. He wanted to keep casualties at zero, but he also knew that was utterly impossible.
Just as Arthur was considering how to minimize their casualties-
Sasha, who was keeping watch nearby, suddenly shouted in alarm.
"Twelve o'clock! A fifteen-meter titan!"
Everyone looked in the direction Sasha pointed and saw a powerfully built titan with long black hair. Unlike the other titans, whose faces were either disgusting or hideous, this one was actually rather handsome, and its muscles marked it as different from the rest.
"What is that?" Arthur studied the strange titan in confusion. He could sense that it was extremely dangerous. This was the first time a titan had ever given him a sense of impending danger.
As far as Arthur could see, this titan merely looked different from the others and had a more muscular build. There didn't seem to be anything else unusual about it.
Just as Arthur wondered why this titan made him feel threatened, an eight-meter titan emerged from among the buildings in the distance.
The instant the eight-meter titan appeared, the strange titan roared as though it had spotted a hated enemy, then suddenly charged toward it.
Before the eight-meter titan could react, a fist slammed straight into its face. The tremendous force instantly burst its head apart, sending flesh and blood flying.
"..." Everyone fell silent as they watched the strange titan's actions.
They wondered if their eyes were playing tricks on them, because they had just witnessed something unbelievable: a titan had attacked another titan.
"How is that possible?!" Arthur was just as shocked. From everything he had observed, titans never attacked one another. What on earth was going on?
Standing nearby, Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie also looked shocked and tense, staring fixedly at the unusual titan with conflicted expressions.
"My eyes weren't playing tricks on me, right? That titan just attacked its own kind, didn't it?" Jean asked dazedly, nudging Connie with his elbow.
"I saw it too. That's definitely what happened." Connie's mouth hung open in astonishment.
"A titan attacking another titan... how is that possible?" Armin, too, felt his understanding of the world falter. For the first time, the knowledge about titans he had learned in class had failed him.