Ten tree-like posts had been set up on the athletic grounds. Each about ten meters tall, they were for the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment’s unveiling prior to the inspection matches. With footholds in place of branches, these simple substitutes, less than half as tall as actual trees, seemed unreliable. As long as there were places to sink in the anchors, however, Kuklo and the others could take to the skies. The posts had to serve for their demonstration.
Unlike the gallant expeditions of the Survey Corps, everything about the contest seemed plain. The audience consisted only of government officials, military brass, and a few other concerned parties. All in all, they numbered only about fifty people, but it sufficed for publicizing the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment to keypersons.
Kuklo and company came very first on the program. They would be making practice runs in the way of unveiling the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment. A large dummy sat on the grounds in place of a Titan.
How would the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment alter anti-Titan combat? Could they really beat the Titans to begin with? Kuklo and the others’ mission was to answer these questions definitively with their demonstration.
“Don’t overthink it. You don’t need to try to show them anything special. Just do what you always do, and you’ll provide the results we need,” Jorge instructed the recruits.
Putting aside Kuklo, who was used to being observed, Cardina, Rosa, and the others were all nervous to varying degrees. Failure was not an option, so it was little wonder they couldn’t relax.
“You’ll stop worrying once you’re up high,” Kuklo declared flatly. The demonstration wasn’t taking place on the ground. Though the posts were only ten meters high, the view from them would be drastically different. From that height, the spectators would blend into the scenery where they could be ignored.
“Then I’ll just pretend they’re potatoes or something,” Cardina said, scratching his head.
“That’s probably the right approach,” Rosa seconded. “We have an inspection match waiting after this, so we need to save some of our strength.”
While the run was all that mattered to Kuklo’s team, the mock battles to be held afterwards offered the other recruits a final chance to self-promote. The matches were crucial to them, especially if they were aiming to join the Military Police.
It doesn’t matter one way or another to me. Still, Kuklo planned to go all-out in the match to gauge where his abilities stood.
“Let’s go.” He pulled his controllers out of his holsters.
“Did you check your harness?” Cardina teased.
“Just don’t fall. It’d be shameful to see,” Rosa said.
“I’m okay.”
After Kuklo’s accident, they made a point of inspecting their harnesses before wearing them. Going forward, the plan was to add inspections and maintenance of the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment to the routine.
Kuklo turned his attention to the top of a post, then fired an anchor using his controller. Feeling much like a bird, he rushed into the air. His visual field suddenly opened up and the world transformed.
They really could be potatoes. With his bird’s-eye view ten meters off the ground, the people below him seemed like a simple mob. From up there, differences in social status and talent meant nothing, government officials and recruits all potatoes. Nothing about them could put anyone on edge.
As if to chase after him, Kuklo’s comrades sped to the same heights. They split into two groups, each rotating around their target, the dummy. One group went clockwise while the other went counterclockwise. Both made sure to vary their altitudes as well.
The audience let out cries on the ground, but the wind whooshing past the recruits’ ears blocked the exact words. The reaction didn’t sound bad at all, though.
After maneuvering for a time, the team shifted to attack mode. Appending single-edged swords onto their controllers, they confirmed the location of their target, the Titan dummy, and settled on routes to its weak point, the medulla oblongata. Approaches weren’t hard to deduce against a stationary target.
Kuklo lifted his body to a point higher than the Titan, then moved horizontally to swing around to its back, bringing the nape of the dummy’s neck in sight.
There! Locking in on the Titan’s weakness, Kuklo began swooping down toward it. He moved from upper right to lower left in a slashing motion as if he himself had become his blade.
He aimed strictly at the Titan’s nape and not its body. An attack anywhere else yielded nothing more than a tactical advantage. Forming a V with the single-edged swords he held in each of his hands, Kuklo slashed at the Titan dummy as if to slice away its medulla oblongata. True to their mark, the blades gouged it out.
Cardina, Rosa, and the rest of the recruits followed in succession toward the dummy. They came from above to below, from below to above, or on the level, and sliced. This proved their ability to strike a Titan’s weak point from any angle. The team exchanged glances, finished their run, and returned to the ground.