Rita kept fighting alongside her troops, by the southern wall.
The barrage of falling Titans had eased a short while earlier, but occasionally a new Titan came crashing down.
There was no end in sight, only growing exhaustion. The one saving grace was that none of the Titans were ten-meter-class or larger.
When they fell they wrecked rooftops and smashed through the floors, in most cases bringing the walls and supports with them. Each time great clouds of dust billowed into the air. The Titans’ mangled bodies pumped out vapor as they regenerated.
Some residents had been cooking, and fires had broken out in a few neighborhoods. Columns of black smoke rose from these, too. The cannons bombarding the Titans from above also threw up continuous streams of debris.
It was as though Quinta had been swallowed by a many-hued nimbus.
Visibility was poor, and it was almost impossible to keep her eyes open. They grew moist, and overflowed with tears.
Standing at ground level with a blade in each hand, Rita gritted her teeth and gazed up at the wall. The scene was reminiscent of half a year earlier. Then, too, they had resorted to cannon fire to keep the Titans at bay, destroying house after house and scarring the earth with innumerable craters.
But those buildings had been part of an illegal shantytown. These were different. These buildings were sanctioned, inside the wall, yet under relentless fire. They were being blasted apart.
The day had come. The day they were overrun by the Titans.
Most of the residents had already been evacuated to the east wall. The only things left moving were the monsters and the Garrison soldiers.
Yet another five-meter-class was charging in towards her. It had broad shoulders and greasy hair that fell to its shoulders. Its eyes narrowed in a joyful expression, the Titan leaned in over her and stretched its arms.
Rita adjusted the angle on her Vertical Maneuvering Equipment and fired an anchor upwards. It drove into the eaves of the building behind her. Manipulating the trigger, she set the wire to reel in, weaving a path between the Titan’s arms and rising to the third floor in no time. The Titan raced on beneath her and crashed into the building with an incredible boom. Still hanging by the wire, Rita was thrown against the wall. She hit it, rebounded, and hit it again. She grimaced, fighting to endure the pain.
“Commander?!” one of the soldiers called out to her, looking up from nearby.
“I’m fine!”
She began to lose height, and unpleasantly hot vapors enveloped her.
The Titan’s arm was twisted out of shape and steaming as it lay embedded in the wall, having knocked away part of the building near the corner. The supporting pillar had snapped, and the whole edifice was listing to the side.
The Titan pulled its injured─and rapidly regenerating─arm out from the wall and tilted its head upwards. With the same joyful look, it opened its huge mouth directly below her.
She felt a chill roll down her spine, and her hair stood on end.
“Or maybe not…”
The whole building was tipping now. Rita would be eaten alive if she didn’t do something.
She jerked her wrist and pulled the anchor from the building’s eaves. She purposely fell feet-first towards the Titan’s face.
She threw her legs apart at the last moment, landing with one foot on each of its lips. The Titan’s tongue lashed and wriggled below her thighs.
It tried to snap its mouth shut. Rita jumped, somersaulting and brandishing her blades. As she descended toward the creature’s back, she cut a hunk of flesh from its neck. A fresh blanket of steam flared out. The Titan went limp, fell to its knees, and tipped headfirst into the half-destroyed building. It plunged right through, seeming to merge with the structure.
Rita landed on the ground and shot an anchor before the rush of debris could hit her. The wire carried her all the way to another building.
Another Titan toppled from the wall, just one block away. The roof of a four-story building was blown to smithereens. Yet more debris and steam spewed out.
The soldier who’d expressed concern for Rita started to dash, no doubt to try and take down the newcomer, but he wasn’t wearing the equipment. Lacking the skills, he hadn’t been allocated a set.
“I’ll take this one, so help anyone still stuck here!”
“O-Okay!”
“Go, now!”
Rita lowered her center of gravity, then fired an anchor in the vicinity of the nearest rooftop. As soon as she felt the impact of the anchor burrowing in, she switched the wire to rewind; as though shoved from behind, she floated into the air.
The building’s wall came hurtling in. She pulled the anchor free and kicked off the wall, jumping almost vertically upwards in the direction of the roof. The world opened up, and Quinta spread below her in every direction.
She fired an anchor again, this time at the building next to where the Titan had fallen. Setting the wire to reel in the moment the anchor broke a tile, she pulled herself towards the building, skillfully killing her momentum as she came in to land.
She scrutinized the building ahead of her.
A plume of dust and steam wafted out of a gaping hole in the middle of the flat roof. The Titan in there was relatively small, probably a three-meter-class. At that size, it had plunged through the roof perhaps but not the fourth floor. The moment Rita considered this, a dark shape rose up from inside the steam. The outline began to reshape itself and formed a Titan’s head. It was definitely a three-meter-class, standing with only its head protruding through the ceiling.
She wasn’t in its visual field as of yet.
Running without any conscious thought, she closed the distance between her and the back of the creature’s head.
When she was less than three meters away, the Titan turned to look straight at her. It had tangled black hair and looked awfully sleepy.
Rita stopped herself from hurling a curse and fired an anchor instead. Its end stabbed the Titan between its eyebrows. Its head flinched, moving back a notch.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Rita manipulated the trigger. The wire tugged at the Titan’s head, forcing its throat into the edge of the hole in the roof. Rita, herself, was drawn up into the air and towards the Titan.
It opened its mouth.
She could see the glossy sheen of its teeth.
A split second before they collided, Rita pulled the anchor free. She kicked off the tiles and sailed over the Titan’s head. Before she cleared it, she released the blade in her right hand and took hold of the creature’s tangled hair, dampening her inertia. She let go and landed with both feet on the roof, spun a half-circle, and executed two swipes of the blade in her left hand. The strike severed the monster’s nape.
The Titan’s body turned slack, and its head vanished into the depths of the hole. Moments later steam cascaded out of the opening like a geyser and formed a column.
“Nice.”
She’d taken it down with the bare minimum of effort. It was good luck, and didn’t happen often.
She crouched and retrieved the blade she’d let go of.
A soldier landed next to her─a young girl, still bearing traces of innocence but already skilled with the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment. The mere fact that she was alive richly testified to her prowess.
“R-Reporting in!” The young girl straightened her posture even as her eyes were drawn to the diminishing column of steam. “All the civilians are now gathered by the east gate. We have all the wagons we could find, positioned at the front.”
“How many did you secure?”
“Just over thirty.”
It wasn’t many, but more than she’d initially hoped. She had to be content.
“We prioritized getting the children into the wagons,” the subordinate continued her report.