After smashing through the windows of Headquarters, everyone finally made it safely inside.
Arthur crashed through the glass into the room, and Mikasa followed close behind, landing beside him.
The two exchanged smiles.
"Is everyone all right?" Arthur asked as soon as he landed. He needed to assess their casualties.
"We're fine!" Everyone shook their heads and checked themselves over, making sure they hadn't lost any limbs.
The sounds of Titans fighting could still be heard outside. Clearly, that Titan was killing its own kind.
"We finally made it to Headquarters. That wasn't easy." Arthur let out a relieved breath. After all, dozens of lives had rested in his hands. Not everyone had survived, but their losses had been minimal.
"I can't believe we actually made it to Headquarters." Jean found it hard to believe he had arrived alive.
"It's all thanks to Arthur. Without him, we wouldn't have known what to do." Marco patted Jean on the shoulder with a smile.
"Yeah! We really made it to Headquarters!" Sasha shouted happily.
"Yeah, we can finally breathe a little." Connie nodded, his tightly wound nerves relaxing somewhat.
"Now we just need to replenish our gas and blades," Armin said, looking at his depleted gas supply.
"Right. As long as we have supplies, we'll be fine." Jean was eager, too. Once they replenished their gas and blades, they could return safely to the wall.
"Christa, how are you doing? Are you all right?" Arthur looked toward Christa, who was tending to an injured soldier.
"I'm fine. We only made it here thanks to you, Arthur." After carefully bandaging the soldier's wound, Christa stood and gave Arthur a radiant smile.
"Yeah, it's what I should do." Arthur smiled and patted Christa's head.
Christa felt a little shy, then sneaked a glance at Mikasa. Seeing her hostile gaze gave Christa a thrill of secret delight.
"Arthur, let's hurry and replenish our gas." Jealous, Mikasa stepped between them and took Arthur's hand.
"Sure." Seeing Mikasa's unhappy expression, Arthur awkwardly scratched his head and agreed.
Just then, Jean seemed to spot something. His expression changed, and he angrily strode toward a desk before dragging a male soldier out from underneath it. He was one of the supply soldiers stationed at Headquarters, responsible for delivering supplies to the soldiers on the front lines.
Yet he was cowering here now, and he wasn't alone. There were seven others.
"You bastard! Where are our supplies? Do you have any idea how many people you indirectly got killed?" Remembering his fallen comrades and the hotheaded idiot who had shouted about wiping out every last Titan, Jean's anger flared.
He punched the male supply soldier in the face. The soldier cried out in pain, but he only stared at Jean in terror, neither struggling nor trying to defend himself.
"It's all because of you cowards! If we'd had enough supplies, we never would've lost so many people! And our defenses wouldn't have been breached so easily!" Jean glared at the other supply soldiers and shouted furiously at them.
Marco and the others beside him were also struggling to contain their anger. They couldn't understand it. While they had been fighting bloody battles against the Titans on the front lines, a lack of supplies had left them powerless to do anything but watch Titans slaughter civilians and their comrades.
"We couldn't do anything, either!" Seeing her comrade being beaten, a female supply soldier broke down and cried out.
Jean froze.
"We didn't want this, either, but the soldiers protecting Headquarters abandoned us and ran away. Even Commander Kitz fled and gave up on Headquarters the moment he heard how things were going on the front lines. At first, we were still doing everything we could to send you supplies."
"But without soldiers to protect it, Headquarters was quickly overrun by Titans. Even the supply room was taken. We lost a lot of our comrades, too. Do you think we didn't want to send you supplies?" The female supply soldier was losing control of her emotions.
"..." Everyone fell silent after hearing her account. They hadn't realized this was why their supply line had been cut off.
They had never imagined that Kitz, their commanding officer, had fled in fear of battle.
Jean released the male supply soldier, then clutched his head and sank to the floor, utterly despondent.
The joy of breaking into Headquarters was swept away by the news.
Arthur was also seething with anger. He hadn't imagined that this commander named Kitz could be so utterly worthless as to abandon Headquarters and flee.
Bang! Arthur slammed his fist into the wall beside him with enough force to crack it.
"Arthur!" Seeing him hurt himself like that, Mikasa hurried to stop him, then examined the red marks on his fist with heartache.
"How many Titans are inside Headquarters right now?" Arthur asked the supply soldiers coldly, suppressing his anger as best he could.
"Five. They're all seven- to eight-meter class," a male supply soldier answered after doing his best to recall.
"Five... ha." Hearing that a mere five Titans had breached Headquarters and killed more than a dozen supply soldiers, Arthur hadn't expected these soldiers to be so weak in combat that the Titans had routed them completely.
"Which passage leads to the supply room?" Arthur asked grimly.
Frightened by Arthur's hostile expression, the male supply soldier hurriedly pointed him in the right direction.
"Arthur, what are you going to do?" Mikasa hurried after him and asked.
"Clear out those Titans," Arthur answered.
"I'm coming, too."
"All right." Arthur agreed.
As everyone watched Arthur and Mikasa head for the supply room to clear out the Titans, no one said much. They knew how strong the pair were. Those few Titans were certainly no match for them.
The two passed through a long corridor, then followed the stairs and signs, quickly finding the supply room.
Thud, thud, thud! Heavy, muffled footsteps occasionally sounded from the dark supply room, confirming that Titans were inside.
Although the supply room was so dark that anyone away from a light source couldn't see their hand in front of their face, to Arthur, it was practically a battlefield made just for him.
As time passed, Arthur's body had undergone many changes. His hearing, sense of smell, and vision, for instance, had all improved far beyond those of an ordinary person.
Even in darkness, Arthur could now see everything clearly, as though he were wearing night-vision goggles.
"Three on the left and two on the right, all seven-meter class. We'll lure them out first. Then I'll handle the left, and you take the right, Mikasa," Arthur told her.
"All right." Mikasa nodded without any objection. As long as she could fight alongside Arthur, she was content.
With their simple plan in place, Arthur used his night vision and began drawing the Titans' attention.
Lured by the human before them, the Titans hidden in the darkness soon followed Arthur slowly into a slightly brighter area.
"Now, Mikasa!" Arthur signaled to Mikasa, who was hanging from a roof beam, ready to strike.
Mikasa instantly locked onto the two Titans assigned to her and killed them with two slashes.
"Excellent!" Arthur couldn't help praising Mikasa when he saw that she had finished off her targets. Then he glanced at the three Titans trailing behind him, and his gaze suddenly sharpened.
He unleashed his strength, darting swiftly between the three Titans and slicing away the flesh at each of their napes.
As all five Titan bodies fell to the ground, the supply room was reclaimed.
The two regrouped, and Arthur praised Mikasa's beautiful sequence of attacks.
"Those moves just now were great, Mikasa."
"Thank you, Arthur." Mikasa's cheeks flushed slightly, clearly shy about his praise.
"All right, the supply room is clear. Let's go back and tell everyone to replenish their supplies," Arthur told Mikasa.
Mikasa nodded in agreement, and the two returned to the room where everyone was waiting.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at their safe return. When they heard the good news that the supply room had been reclaimed, another round of joyous cheers erupted.
At Arthur's call, everyone quickly made their way to the supply room. They looked in astonishment at the five slowly evaporating Titan bodies. They knew they couldn't eliminate five Titans with just two people the way Arthur and Mikasa had.
With the supply room reclaimed, everyone hurried to refill their nearly empty gas tanks and replace their depleted blades.
After replenishing their equipment, everyone returned upstairs. By then, there was very little noise outside Headquarters.
Arthur wanted to see what had become of the abnormal Titan that only attacked other Titans, so he led everyone onto the roof of Headquarters.
But the moment they reached the roof, they saw something shocking.