The fall of Astapor

The Unsullied commander saw the Pure Titans charging toward the city gate.

He immediately shouted for everyone to hurry inside. The Unsullied also saw the Pure Titans pursuing them and quickened their pace.

After hurrying as fast as they could, all the Unsullied finally made it into the city, and they all breathed a sigh of relief.

But before they could relax, the Pure Titans slammed straight into the gate. Everyone jumped in fright, thinking the Pure Titans had broken through and charged inside.

On closer inspection, however, the gate was shaking violently but still stood firm.

Seeing the state of the gate, the Unsullied commander knew that, since those titans had no fear of injury, they would break through sooner or later if they kept ramming it like this. He immediately ordered some Unsullied to hold the gate, lest the Pure Titans strike hard enough to knock it clean off.

At his command, a hundred-man squad of Unsullied immediately went to the gate, taking turns bracing their hands against it.

The Unsullied holding the gate groaned inwardly under the Pure Titans' blows. Only those bracing the gate like this could know how powerful the impacts were. With every blow, they had to muster every ounce of strength to hold it.

Moreover, the tremors from the impacts were so violent that they felt as though their internal organs were about to be shaken out. Fortunately, they were taking turns, or sooner or later the shaking would have caused internal bleeding.

The Pure Titans continued ramming the gate tirelessly. By then, the Unsullied commander had finished counting those who had escaped into the city. There were only a little over three thousand; all the rest had been abandoned outside.

After finishing the count, the commander went up onto the city wall and met the slave masters.

When he reached the wall, he happened to see the last few abandoned Unsullied outside being trampled to death. He was in great anguish, for he had given the order to abandon those men's lives and retreat with the rearguard, leaving them there to be slaughtered by the titans.

When the slave masters saw the commander come up, they immediately unleashed a torrent of abuse:

"What the hell are you good for? I entrusted ten thousand Unsullied to you, and you just abandoned those men and ran back?"

The slave masters knew full well that the commander had already done well to escape with even a small portion of their fighting force, but they still pinned the blame on him.

For the slave masters were also afraid of the titans. They dared not leave the city to fight the enemy, nor did they dare send troops to attack the titans. With nothing else they could do, they could only vent their anger on the commander.

More importantly, the slave masters had no way out of their current predicament. These titans feared no injury and had undying bodies. They could not imagine how to defeat such enemies.

Most importantly, there were still a hundred thousand Dothraki cavalry behind the titans, while the titans prevented their Unsullied from forming battle lines to resist the cavalry. Once the gate fell, only death awaited them.

All they could do now was attack the titans ramming the gate as much as possible and see whether they could find a way to kill them. Otherwise, the gate would fall sooner or later.

Meanwhile, Eren saw that the Pure Titans had killed all the Unsullied and reached the foot of the wall, where they were ramming the gate. Once he judged the time was about right, he ordered Modun and Flock to attack.

Upon receiving the order, Modun and Flock transformed into titans amid a burst of yellow light and charged toward Astapor.

After transforming, Modun bounded forward on all fours.

Flock, meanwhile, could only run normally after transforming. As he ran, however, he let out a wild roar, took control of three nearby Pure Titans, and charged toward the gate.

At Astapor, the soldiers defending the city kept hurling stones and shooting arrows at the titans battering the gate and those beneath the wall. One soldier happened to hit a Pure Titan in the nape with a stone.

The Pure Titan struck in the nape immediately collapsed and rapidly vaporized. The people on the wall were somewhat shocked at the sight. They had no idea what had happened, and even the soldier looked bewildered, for he had merely tossed the stone casually and did not know what had happened either.

Though the titan had died, the steam from its vaporizing body obscured their vision. By the time the steam dispersed, Modun and Flock had also charged over.

The defenders on the wall spotted these two unusual titans and immediately fought back. They did not need to wound or kill them; stopping their advance would be enough.

As Modun and Flock drew close, they also saw the remains of a dead titan. Though surprised that a titan had died, they kept charging without stopping. They were intelligent titans and also knew that a titan's weak point was its nape.

Still, after this titan's death, they would be more cautious in the future. They also knew now that the Power of the Giants was not invincible.

Once Flock drew close, he crouched slightly. Seeing this, Modun immediately used Flock's body to launch himself upward, leaping straight to the edge of the wall before heaving himself over and onto it.

The defenders were all shocked to see Modun vault onto the wall. Though the earlier titans had undying bodies, they clearly lacked intelligence. This masked titan was plainly intelligent.

But once they recovered, they immediately launched a counterattack against Modun. From the titan that had just died, they had learned that titans also had weaknesses. As long as they found those weaknesses, they had a chance.

When the slave masters on the wall saw Modun vault up, they immediately had people escort them down. They also knew they might not be able to hold out this time, so, just in case, they hurried home to pack their wealth and luggage and prepare to flee by ship.

Modun slaughtered everyone around him on the wall, while Flock, below it, used Hardening to form armor around his fist. With repeated, forceful punches, he smashed straight through the gate, pounding the Unsullied behind it into pulp.

Flock wrenched the ruined gate apart, then crossed his arms to shield his face and chest and charged straight into the gateway passage. Thanks to Hardening, his charge was unstoppable. Whether spears were thrown or arrows shot, they all bounced off the hardened crystal.

Once Eren saw that the gate had been breached, he ordered the cavalry to charge. At his command, the riders surged toward Astapor.

Modun and Flock began slaughtering those who resisted inside the city, while the cavalry also began entering and searching for the slave masters' mansions to plunder. After coming down from the wall, the slave masters had begun preparing to move their wealth, only to hear the sounds coming from the wall. Some abandoned their vast fortunes and fled with only a small portion.

The greedy slave masters, however, were caught squarely by the cavalry pouring in. The treasures they had just carried out of their vaults fell straight into Eren's hands, saving the effort of hauling them out again.

As for the fleeing slave masters, because they had taken only treasures that were easy to carry, they successfully reached the harbor and escaped by ship.