"Shoot them down! Quickly!" The Marleyan soldiers panicked, continuously pulling their triggers as bullets poured down like rain toward Levi and the others.
Although Levi was incredibly fast, the dense barrage was still a huge threat. A scorching bullet grazed past his cheek.
"Tch!" Levi frowned slightly. A small patch of red appeared on his face, but it didn't affect his advance at all. The other members of Levi Squad had been sent by him to assist Eren and the others in battle. Compared to the Titan warriors, the rifles in the hands of these Marleyans were far more dangerous.
"Captain, how should we proceed?" A-Five accelerated midair to catch up with Levi and asked what to do next. Although they knew the Beast Titan seemed to be an ally, they weren't sure how to handle the situation.
Levi fell silent for a moment as Yago's earlier words surfaced in his mind.
...
Several days earlier, Yago had sought out Levi alone.
"Captain, Zeke doesn't know our real plan. In his eyes, our goal is still just to disrupt the World Assembly and weaken Marley. So for now, we can't reveal our true intentions.
I've already talked to Eren as well. He'll cooperate to keep Zeke stable for the time being. But the Beast Titan's power is extremely strong—we need to make sure it doesn't interfere. Zeke will definitely try to use our strength to stage an escape in front of Marley, so I need you, Captain, to play along." Yago narrowed his eyes as he spoke, clenching his fist. That expression didn't look like that of a good person at all.
Levi crossed his arms, roughly understanding Yago's meaning. As for setting Zeke up, not only did he not oppose it, he even somewhat supported it. After all, Zeke had caused considerable damage to the Survey Corps before, so Levi found it hard to have any good impression of him.
"And then? Play along… you want me to actually take that guy out?" Levi asked.
Yago scratched his head. "Uh… better not. After all, there are still many Marleyan Volunteer Army members on Paradis Islan
d. No matter what, they're Zeke's subordinates—we can't go too far."
"I see." Levi felt a trace of disappointment.
But Yago suddenly coughed twice, his gaze drifting as he added,
"Ahem, but… making the Beast Titan lose its combat ability is definitely necessary. And Zeke will surely want to make it look convincing. So when the time comes, missing an arm, breaking a leg, losing an eye or something… that should all be pretty normal, right…?"
...
The memory ended, and Levi's eyes instantly turned cold.
"Leave everything else to you. The nape is mine. Don't hold back—go all out!"
A-Five froze for a moment. Wasn't the Beast Titan supposed to be an ally? And they were going all out? Still, he nodded in agreement.
In an instant, all the Ackermans locked their gaze onto the Beast Titan.
For some reason, Zeke suddenly felt an unprecedented sense of danger.
Holding her breath and adjusting her condition, Sasha hid on the balcony of a building, using it as cover. No Marleyan soldiers noticed her—including the sniper.
After roughly estimating the sniper's position, Sasha decisively stood up and raised her rifle to aim.
Perhaps fortune favored the Marleyan soldier. At that moment, he happened to turn his muzzle toward Sasha's direction. Through his scope, he immediately spotted her—and the sniper rifle with a scope in her hands.
Sasha also noticed that the soldier was aiming straight at her, and her heart skipped a beat.
They fired almost simultaneously—Bang!! Bang!!
The two bullets barely brushed past each other.
Clang! A white mark appeared on the Marleyan sniper's helmet, while the strap of Sasha's ammo pouch was shot through. The pouch slipped off her body and hung over the edge of the balcony.
The Marleyan sniper wielded a Garand Type II, far more powerful than Sasha's Mauser rifle. In an instant, overwhelming firepower suppressed the balcony where Sasha was hiding.
At this point, Sasha had only one bullet left in her chamber. Her ammo pouch was hanging off the balcony, and she couldn't expose herself to retrieve it.
"So unlucky. Next time I'll definitely bring two more pouches… yeah, and stuff them with some jerky too! The jerky from Yago's place is really delicious!"
Despite having only one bullet left, Sasha remained completely calm.
The Marleyan sniper kept his eyes locked on the balcony. The moment that person dared to show themselves again, he would blow their head apart like a watermelon!
Whoosh! Behind the balcony, Sasha suddenly stood up. The sniper's pupils shrank, his finger immediately moving to pull the trigger—
But in the next instant, a piercing pain shot from his right eye straight into his brain, as if a dagger had been stabbed through his eye socket.
"It hurts!" That was the Marleyan sniper's final thought.
A bullet struck with perfect precision, piercing through the scope in his hands and drilling out from his head.
"Yay! Hit!" Sasha smiled happily. As expected, guns were much easier to use than bows.
"Captain Magath! Those guys are heading for the Beast Titan! They're too far—we can't intercept them!"
Magath looked toward the Beast Titan in the distance and immediately felt a bad premonition.
At this moment, the Beast Titan grabbed two more handfuls of rubble. But as he watched several Ackermans rapidly closing in, Zeke began to panic.
"Hey, hey, hey! That's too many! Way too many! What are you trying to do!?"
The Beast Titan suddenly hurled the rubble—Boom!! The already ruined venue suffered even more devastation.
Whoosh! A-Five was the first to rush to the Beast Titan. The Beast Titan let out a furious roar, its long arms and massive hands grabbing toward A-One.
A-Five calmly dodged, drew his twin blades, and activated his Vertical Maneuvering Equipment. Gas burst out violently—cold steel flashed! Blood sprayed as the Beast Titan staggered. Its left leg was severed by A-Five.
But it didn't stop there. A-Five reversed his grip and continued slashing upward like slicing a radish. The Beast Titan's furry left leg instantly turned into a mangled mass of blood and flesh.
At the same time, A-Two, A-Three, and A-Four charged in with blades tightly gripped.
The Beast Titan's arms flailed uselessly. In the next moment, the entire arm shattered from the fingertips onward, blood spraying everywhere.
"What the hell is going on!?"
The Beast Titan lifted its head and saw a familiar figure leaping high into the air.
"Levi!?"
But before Zeke could react further, another petite figure had already rushed in front of the Beast Titan. A-One's blade fell in a swift strike, and the Beast Titan's lantern-sized eye burst open in a spray of blood. Zeke's vision went black.
The grappling hooks shot out, embedding deep into the Beast Titan's neck. Gas propelled the body forward at high speed, circling behind it. Levi slowly drew his twin blades, his eyes icy cold.
"Sorry for the poor hospitality—please bear with it."
"ROAR!!!" The Beast Titan's final howl sounded exceptionally tragic.