Next chapter is here, people! As always, shout out goes to my good friend ARCEUS-master for editing! Enjoy! :3

''Titans!'' Speech

''Titans!'' Thoughts

Jean was always amazed by how much of the island he could truly see every time he shifted into his colossal titan. Towering over everybody meant a human was like an ant to him. As such, the once-mighty beast titan didn't look like more than a small child in comparison. It made him feel invincible, but he knew that was far from the truth. Sasha and Connie had defeated him plenty of times, but that was only after they had come up with very smart strategies and executed them with excellent teamwork. ''That's right,'' he thought, grinning confidently, ''the beast titan does not know how to deal with me.''

Then there was also the fact that he had no other adversaries to deal with. Jean could focus all of his attention and efforts on the beast titan without worrying about anything else. The absolute horror and incredulity on the beast titan's face told him that he took him by complete surprise. ''So, what are you going to do now, Zeke Yeager?'' Jean thought with a sly smirk as he took another powerful and rumbling step forward.

The icy blizzard and snow that covered Jean's humongous titan form battered the beast titan harshly all across his body, inflicting dozens of cuts and scrapes that were frozen immediately. The beast titan had just managed to get to his feet when he noticed the large foot of the colossal titan about to crush him into a bloody pulp. Reacting purely out of reflexes, Zeke dived to the side. Jean's foot crashed mercilessly into the ground, flattening the earth where the beast titan just stood. A loud rumble reverberated through the area as random trees were uprooted, while dust and mud were kicked up violently.

Jean tsk'ed, realizing the beast titan had dodged his attack. He turned around slowly, noticing that Zeke had backed off from him considerably to get out of the hailstorm. ''Clever,'' he thought, ''using his superior speed to his advantage. Though it seems it will only be a matter of time before I have him frozen solid.'' Pressing on his offense, Jean raised one of his long arms, preparing to swipe it in a wide arc all around him and smack the beast titan in his side lethally.

Zeke seemed to realize that he needed to keep a safe distance, and the fact Jean was terribly slow gave him the opening he needed. The two big chunks of stone he had taken with him as ammo were hurled at Jean's monstrous face with perfect precision and devastating force, shattering against his chin and left cheek. They got pulverized into dust upon impact, doing a decent amount of damage as large cracks appeared all around the areas Zeke had struck him. Jean frowned, not slowing down his attack whatsoever.

''So, you chose to hit me? Bad decision. How will you ever survive this hit from me now?'' Jean thought, his arm swinging through the air mercilessly like he was about to smite Zeke. There was no way the beast titan could dodge now that he had decided to go for offense. While Jean worried a bit about the damage he sustained from a single attack, he knew the damage the beast titan would sustain from a single attack in retaliation would be ten times heavier.

His arm sliced through the air potently, with the enormous momentum of the hit transferring toward Zeke's body the moment he connected the palm of his hand against the beast titan's side. A loud, thunderous clap echoed through the area. The beast titan was violently thrown from his spot with a blast of ice enveloping him, swirling through the air like an unconscious ballerina. He slid against the ground a few times before becoming airborne again, his velocity smashing him cleanly through a few trees until he finally started to slide across the hard surface of the earth below, his fur and skin burning away as he carved a deep crevice across the landscape.

Eventually, the beast titan skidded to a halt around one-thousand meters away from where he was initially hit. Jean looked at his handiwork pridefully, knowing for a fact that should have been more than enough to render the beast titan useless. ''I'm surprised he stayed in one piece through all of that, but there's no way he could've tanked it and still be capable of battle!'' Jean thought, nodding his head inwardly. Now it was just a matter of keeping watch over him until the rest had cleaned up the mindless titans and the cart titan.

However, that's where Jean's train of thoughts came to a complete halt. When he took a look at his hand, he noticed with widening eyes that three of his five fingers were completely missing. Moreover, the palm of his hand was cracked severely. ''What the…'' he hissed in alarm, raising his head to look at the beast titan, who was actually slowly rising to his feet.

While the beast titan had suffered some severe damage from the launch, it wasn't anything he couldn't heal off. The side Jean had smacked was completely intact. Jean was about to gawk at how that was even possible when he noticed why. ''He… he hardened his side much like Eren can,'' Jean thought incredulously. Zeke had a lot more tricks up his sleeve than he'd initially thought.

True, Zeke's left arm was completely demolished, a big gash ran across his torso and his back was completely burned off, but he was still standing. His still usable arm reached down to a big rock that was partially buried into the ground. With some effort, he unearthed it. Zeke glared at Jean with glowering eyes, reared back while aiming, and then threw the massive boulder with a loud roar.

Jean was way too slow to put up any form of defense as the rock soared through the air, perfectly colliding against his chin again and destroying a part of his face in the process. Jean stumbled back slightly as his lower jaw joint was ripped apart while cracks ran through his entire head. ''I need to take his impeccable accuracy into account. He's like Sasha, always hitting precisely what he wants.'' Jean grumbled, knowing he had to improvise if he wanted to defeat the beast titan now. ''However, if you think you're the only one who can throw stuff, then you've got another thing coming!''

Realizing that his left hand was mostly useless after the damage it took; Jean did something that had Zeke shifting uncomfortably. With a loud crack, he ripped off his remaining two fingers, turning them into two lethal makeshift projectiles. He threw them at the beast titan with all the power he could muster, the icicles whizzing intimidatingly with the speed they were traveling at.

Jean loved how he managed to catch Zeke entirely off-guard. While the beast titan had a lot of time to prepare for his powerful swipe, there was no way he could block both of his fingers in the state he was currently in. Cleverly, Jean had thrown one of the lethal projectiles at the general direction of his head while the other was sure to take out one of his legs. ''This is checkmate for you,'' Jean thought assuredly.

Just as he had expected, Zeke hardened his face in preparation for the incoming projectiles. While he perfectly blocked one of the icicles—since it shattered harmlessly against his crystalized face—the other zoomed past his leg and sliced through flesh, bones and arteries like they were made of paper, severing his leg from his body.

Immediately, the beast titan lost his balance and crashed to the ground. His broad and clumsy torso made it so he smashed his face roughly against the earth below, tearing down the pasture and kicking up dust everywhere. ''That was a perfect shot,'' Jean thought with great pleasure, pride practically beaming from his face. He definitely wasn't a slouch when it came to aiming and accuracy, but he'd thrown these two projectiles pretty much automatically. Only after he had hit his mark did proudness start to well up in his body. Now it was just a matter of finishing off the beast titan and he'd won.

Slowly, Jean started to make his way over to the fallen beast titan. Since he'd kicked up a lot of dust, he couldn't really see his opponent at the moment, but he knew he'd pretty much crippled him. ''There's no way he's going to make it out of this one,'' Jean thought confidently from within his lumbering titan, as his massive feet sent shock-waves of incredible magnitudes throughout the area. He was so focused on getting close enough to freeze Zeke solid that he failed to see the barrage of decently sized rocks thrown his way through the smoke until it was already too late.

''What…?'' Jean hissed in alarm, his already damaged face getting pelted so heavily that his lower jaw unhinged completely and ripped off with a loud crack, falling down to the ground like a big piece of a glacier breaking off. Jean cursed loudly underneath his breath. He knew Zeke was trying to decapitate him by slowly demolishing his head completely, because that would cause Jean to be ejected from his titan. ''If that happens…'' he grumbled, now permanently covering his face with his right hand while peeking through his fingers. ''No matter, it's just a matter of seconds before I've crushed him. Then I can get him out of his titan and render him completely useless for the remainder of the battle.''

In fact, Jean was so convinced about his assumption that he never expected Zeke's next move. His icy titan had already raised his foot high in the air, intent to bring it down on the spot where the heavily damaged beast titan had crashed to a halt after he'd smacked him away. However, that's where Jean's confidence died completely with a brief gasp. The smoke cleared enough for him to see that the beast titan was nowhere in sight. ''What the…?'' Jean thought with wide eyes. His heart skipped a beat when he realized he'd been deceived. ''Then where…?''

Out of the corner of his eyes, Jean saw his foe suddenly appear. Zeke's beast titan was clearly on his last legs, but the amber glint in his eyes radiated fire and rage. The roar he let loose was deafening while he threw a very bulky and spiky pillar straight at the colossal titan's left ankle. Jean cursed heavily as it crashed against his pretty brittle joint, turning into nothing but dust on impact. However, since Jean was still standing on one leg, the damage was enough to make his ankle twist awkwardly due to his heavy weight. A loud crack reverberated through the area as Jean's ankle broke, his tibia and fibula fracturing on multiple spots along the width of his talus.

Jean let out a loud yelp as he completely lost his balance, his clunky frame wasn't built to have the reflexes necessary to soften his landing in any way, shape or form. He could only scream as his titan collapsed to the cold hard ground like a sack of potatoes. The crash was so powerful and created such an enormous thundering sound that Paradis Island seemed to shake on its foundations. Icy winds blew in every direction where Jean had fallen, kicking up big chunks of earth, rocks, and dust.

Zeke was completely blown off of his feet, his beast titan frozen so much from the merciless and numbing winds that Jean's titan produced that his hands completely disintegrated into nothing but shattered pieces of bloody flesh when he tried to break his fall. His healing factor had stopped working completely and the damage he had sustained rendered his titan utterly useless at the moment.

Finally, the noise of the crash died down until nothing but the howling of the unforgiving winds remained. Zeke groaned heavily inside his titan. His head was bleeding, as he felt the warm trickle of blood run down his face along with a splitting headache that wracked his mind. He was pretty sure he had gotten a concussion; something that took at least a day before it would be healed completely. Not that he could heal much right now, considering he was currently freezing. He knew he needed to get out of his titan soon if he wanted any chance of aiding Pieck in the battle going on further up ahead. Steeling himself, he prepared to eject himself, until a big shadow looming over him stopped him dead in his tracks.

''There's no way…'' Zeke thought incredulously, completely petrified. Apparently, that crash hadn't defeated Jean's titan completely. Through the dense cover of the smoke, Zeke could see one of his yellow eyes glowing menacingly. The shadow looming over him was the colossal titan's outstretched arm and hand, intent to squash him like a pesky bug and finish the battle once and for all. Even though Jean's arm was heavily cracked, it had survived the fall. While there was no way Jean could stand up or move, he could still move his humongous arm and reach the beast titan. There was also nothing Zeke could do to stop it; he could only watch as Jean raised his arm high in the sky before bringing it down.

Zeke gritted his teeth and closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable to come. However, nothing happened. ''He's probably taunting me, waiting until I open my eyes again to finish me off,'' Zeke thought, still not opening his eyes. A few more minutes passed and still, nothing had happened. Finally, Zeke decided to see what was happening. When he opened his eyes, he saw Jean's hand just a few meters from his face, completely frozen solid. ''He… He froze himself,'' Zeke realized with an odd sense of revelation. He had noticed throughout the battle that his opponent was getting slower and slower as time went on, but he brushed this off as nothing out of the ordinary. Now he understood that this particular colossal titan was very lethal but ran on a very short timer. Silently, he ejected himself from his beast titan, his teeth clacking as he left the devastated area where he'd fought his opponent into a standstill, their frozen titans facing each other silently like monsters from a mythical tale.

Mikasa, at the moment, only felt rage boiling inside her body. She had cut Pieck out of her titan earlier, her anxious sobs only making her want to shut her up even more. ''Please…'' Pieck pleaded, her head turned low. Mikasa just raised her chin with the sharp point of her blade, making a small trickle of blood run across her neck. Pieck hissed in pain while Mikasa's eyes were dark and unforgiving.

''Tell me,'' Mikasa began coldly, completely ignoring the rampaging titans all around her, ''why should I have mercy for you when your only intent is to wipe us all out?'' Mikasa's question was dripping with venom. When Pieck failed to answer, a snarl appeared on Mikasa's face. Like a whirling hurricane, she slashed her other sword downwards straight on Pieck's left shoulder joint. The sharp steel sliced through her flesh and tendons easily, severing her arm from her body. Pieck let out a blood-curling shriek, wailing loudly as blood spewed out of her gaping wound.

Intense pain radiated through her entire being, her vision going blurry as she threatened to pass out right then and there. However, Mikasa would have none of that. She stepped on the wound roughly with her foot, making Pieck shriek even louder. However, the increased pressure kept Pieck from passing out as her healing factor slowly kicked in, causing steam to rise from her wound. ''Aren't we nothing more than Devils that need to be eradicated?'' Mikasa asked, moving her foot over the wound to inflict even more pain on her. ''Just because we live on Paradis Island. Yet, you don't know anything about us.'' Mikasa's words were piercing as Pieck continued to scream and wail in absolute agony.

It was only when she heard a humongous crash and a powerful tremor that she stopped. Mikasa gasped, recognizing what it must have been. ''That could have only been Jean. But that means…'' she realized with growing horror. Did the beast titan really take out Jean? She was so distracted that she failed to see Pieck's counter-attack. She kicked Mikasa straight in her stomach, completely knocking the wind out of her. Mikasa let out a startled gasp as she clutched her belly, momentarily losing all of her strength and giving Pieck the opportunity to push her off of her. Mikasa fell flat on her butt and before she could react, Pieck had already disappeared into the huge cloud of smoke all the mindless titans rampaging about created. She cursed under her breath, preparing herself to set chase after Pieck, however, a ten-meter-class rudely blocked her path by stomping his large feet in front of her. It grinned dumbly, seeing an easy target as it slowly reached down with his hand to grab Mikasa.

''I don't have time for this!'' Mikasa thought, annoyed with the giant as she easily avoided his 'attack'. The titan continued to stare at his hand dumbly, not comprehending how his prey had managed to escape his clutches. Mikasa put him out of his misery by simply slicing his nape, making him fall down with a loud crash of his lifeless body.

When Mikasa landed, another curse escaped her. She somehow managed to let Pieck escape, which meant only bad news for them. She wanted to kick herself for being distracted so easily, but she knew now was not the time. She hummed to herself, debating if she should regroup or continue her assault on the mindless titans. However, before she could make a decision, a voice she recognized all too well shouted out to her.

''Mikasa!''

Turning her head, she saw none other than Levi approach her from the sky with his vertical maneuvering equipment. His face looked as stoic as always, but a sense of urgency was present as well. When he landed beside her, he pointed his blade toward where the smoke and dust seemingly spread as if something had traveled through it at high velocity. Mikasa could only guess it either had to be Sasha's potent bolts or the beast titan's tendency to use rocks as a weaponized form of assault. She really hoped it was the former, but from the look on Levi's face, she knew it was the latter.

''Jean failed to take down the beast titan,'' Levi said. ''I'm sure you heard that loud crash not too long ago. Not much later, I heard a titan shift again and we were assaulted with huge chunks of rocks. I can only assume Jean fought him into a stalemate and then he managed to escape,'' Levi deduced.

Mikasa nodded, noting that his reasoning made a lot of sense. She hoped that was the case because it most likely meant Jean was still alive. ''How are the others doing?'' Mikasa asked, now seeing another barrage of rocks being thrown randomly into the smoke. That confirmed it was definitely the doing of the beast titan.

''I ordered them to retreat for now,'' Levi informed her. ''Remember what Eren told us about being Ackerman's?''

Mikasa nodded her head, on the outside being deadly serious, but on the inside smiling fondly. Eren had taken his time to explain her heritage to her, using the tattoo on her wrist to make it even more clear to her. Honestly, it was still pretty mind-numbing to her, but to know she was using the powers of the titans in a way to take down these humongous, man-eating giants continued to amaze her. It did explain why Levi and she were so skilled and prodigious in dealing with these titans. It came so natural to her that she didn't even think about it. ''I do,'' she said at last, narrowing her eyes while looking at the general direction the rocks were being thrown from.

''Good.'' Levi nodded his head. ''It's our responsibility to take down the beast titan. Together, he won't stand a chance.''

Mikasa wanted to agree with Levi, but another thunderous strike of lighting hitting the earth made her realize the cart was running loose once more as well. She sighed and shook her head instead. ''You focus on the beast titan. I will take down the cart titan. This time, she won't get away.''

Mikasa saw that Levi wanted to ask further what had happened, but in the end, he stayed silent and simply nodded his head. ''Very well. I shall deal with the beast titan then.'' He shot one of his hooks into a random mindless titan to propel himself away and toward the beast titan to face off against him.

That left Mikasa alone once more. Though, she had a very good inkling where the cart titan was at the moment. Namely, right beside the beast titan. She knew that taking on the beast and cart titan at once was going to be a challenge even for Levi, so without thinking twice, she activated her own vertical maneuvering equipment and flew after Levi to aide him.

Zeke eyed the battlefield from a perspective point of view with an angry snarl on his face. Half of his mindless titans had already perished, and Pieck was nowhere to be found. ''Don't tell me these devils got to her,'' he thought, fearing the worst. In the distance, he could still see the supposed attack titan masterfully defending the female titan. There was no doubt in Zeke's mind that he was the brain behind the entire operation against him. ''That colossal titan did a number on me,'' Zeke noted, most of his limbs being completely numb while his healing factor worked overtime. He desperately needed to shift soon, and since he saw that he was losing the battle very quickly, he decided to play a bit riskier. ''I need to take down those soldiers with the flying contraptions first, then I can shift my efforts to those other titans,'' he reasoned.

Growling lowly, he bit down on the skin of his wrist, having healed enough to activate his beast titan once more. A powerful bolt of yellow lightning descended from the heavens towards him, causing flesh and fur to sprout all around him along with a dreadful torrent of steam. Once fully transformed and with his advanced eye-sight, he easily spotted three of the soldiers through the smoke, huddling close to each other. He recognized them as the two captains of the soldiers and one of the females. ''Perfect. If I can take them out, that would really put a dent into their morale,'' he thought sadistically. He didn't have any big chunks of rocks around that he could throw, so he'd had to do with the earth around him.

Slowly, Zeke dug his big claws into the ground, scooping up random rocks that were buried underneath. He knew it wasn't ideal, but it was better than nothing. He glared and cocked his arm backward, and then threw the objects with lethal velocity and deadly accuracy at his targets. His throw was spot on and the only reason he didn't shred all three of them like a Swiss cheese was that a random titan blocked most of his attack amidst its mindless tantrum. ''Shit!'' Zeke cursed, ''I'll just have to hit him with my next throw then!''

Like he was a well-oiled machine, Zeke extended his attack by shifting his weight to his other foot. While his other arm was still in a throwing motion, he spun around so his left arm cocked behind his body. It resulted in him using his own momentum to attack very quickly after his initial throw. Like before, his attack had so much velocity that the stones whizzed through the air like they were on fire. Zeke was sure that this time, there was no escaping his assault. However, as if they possessed god-like reflexes, they all ducked simultaneously and avoided his attack.

Zeke hissed and narrowed his eyes as he saw them scatter around with their flying contraptions. He couldn't follow them anymore as he lost sight of them in the thick clouds of dust. ''That was a golden opportunity I just wasted,'' he realized, frowning at his failure. He could just throw rocks into the smoke and commotion randomly, but he was sure that would do more damage to his titans than the soldiers he was trying to pinpoint. ''It's like finding a needle in a haystack,'' he thought, only the haystack was his property that he was setting on fire in hopes of finding the needle sooner before all of it had burned down completely.

Zeke shook his head mentally. Maybe he did have to target the attack and female titans. However, before he could come to a final decision, the earth-shattering yellow lightning of a titan shifting close by caught his attention. Zeke tensed his muscles, being prepared for anything, only to relax and feel relief wash over him at seeing that it was none other than Pieck. She ran to his side rather urgently, the panic clear on her face.

''Pieck, what happened? Are you all right?'' Zeke questioned. It seemed she just came out of a really close encounter herself.

A low growl escaped her titan's mouth. ''These soldiers are by no means ordinary,'' Pieck said darkly. ''It's like they've trained months in advance for us, perfectly countering everything we throw at them. And then there are those weird titan shifters. Nothing of this makes any sense whatsoever.''

Zeke understood the frustration in Pieck's voice perfectly. He'd like to get some answers too. However, in order to accomplish that, they needed to take down their opponents and fast. They didn't have much time to come up with a coherent plan of attack, though. In the distance, they saw a single soldier approach them, followed very quickly by another.

''Are they going to attack us head-on?'' Pieck questioned incredulously. It almost seemed ludicrous, but there was definitely no back-up for them anywhere in sight.

Zeke grumbled. ''Let's not underestimate them. We've seen what they are capable of. Let's hit them with everything that we got!'' Preparing, he scooped up two big handfuls of dirt and with a mighty roar, threw it at the Ackerman's with every intent to kill them.

And that's it for this chapter people! I know I said this was going to be the final part of this arc, but I was mistaken. I hope you guys don't mind. :P So did you like it, love it, hate it? Review please! I love to read all of them! :D Next chapter Zeke and Pieck vs Mikasa and Levi! Hope to see you then! :D

~Syrup