Keith stammered incoherently. When he regained his composure, Asahi was right beside him, his hand patting his shoulder.
"Keith Shadis?"
"Ah, yes! I... I am here?"
Seeing the fire-breathing commander of the Survey Corps suddenly become so timid, Asahi was slightly confused. Did he look that terrifying?
He didn't know that his current stance with the sword resting on his shoulder might not be "terrifying" to some, but it certainly didn't look "friendly" to anyone.
Keith overcame his initial fear and became overjoyed instead. He didn't care where the man came from, only that he was extremely strong.
"The nape! They only die when cut at the nape!"
"The nape? Got it."
Asahi nodded, and once again vanished from Keith's sight. Keith turned in shock, only to hear the rush of wind. Asahi was already standing right on the Titan's nape, plunging his sword down.
"Oh, right, the Yeager family has been evacuated."
He left his final remark, leaping between rooftops to leave, abandoning Keith before the dissolving Titan corpse.
Keith could confirm that his eyes were not deceiving him. Asahi hadn't used the specialized gear but was able to leap several meters high onto a rooftop in a single bound, and he possessed that terrifying speed.
"A monster..."
Keith fired his grappling hooks and took off. The Yeager family was safe, and with that mysterious man operating on the battlefield, surely half the population of Shiganshina District could safely retreat behind Wall Maria.
However, he did not anticipate the events that followed. The Titans didn't just want to swallow Shiganshina District; they wanted all of Maria!
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Asahi moved nimbly like a ghost over the tiled roofs of the houses. Occasionally, he would swoop down and save someone from a Titan's hand so quickly that they didn't even realize they had been rescued.
What was the concept of Asahi's pure physique?
The world record for the long jump is 8.95 meters.
The world record for the high jump is 2.45 meters.
The world record for the 100-meter sprint is 9.58 seconds.
Asahi could easily surpass all of them with just a slight bend of his knees.
His movement speed was nearing the sound barrier limit, moving so fast that the naked eye couldn't catch him. He easily launched himself onto rooftops five or six meters high. He leaped across the gaps between rooftops and roads.
Not to mention his strength. He could break walls and demolish houses with his bare hands. One punch could pierce a metal plate, bend and twist rebar.
Perhaps to Asahi's previous enemies, these feats were trivial. But to ordinary people, he was a true monster.
Slice!
A seven-meter-tall Titan was struck by his sword across the nape, nearly severing its head. Its body crashed into a nearby house.
Seeing the mother and child still frozen in place, Asahi frowned and shouted.
"What are you standing there for? Run!"
The mother snapped back to reality, quickly bowed her head to thank him, and fled with her child in her arms.
He never wanted to snap at anyone, but in this dire situation, many people were disoriented by fear. A loud shout was necessary to wake them up.
Asahi didn't dare to delay even a moment, aiming straight for the densest cluster of Titans. The fact that they were gathered there meant that a large number of people were also gathered there.
A girl panted heavily, running into a dead end, covering her mouth in fear. Praying that the large beings outside wouldn't find her.
Unfortunately for her, the light from above was blocked by a gigantic shadow.
"No! Let go of me!"
The Titan grinned, reaching out its hand to grab the girl's head, regardless of how she struggled.
Just then, a dark shadow flashed, slicing across the Titan's two eyes, causing it to lose its orientation. Its hand released the girl back to the ground. She looked up, witnessing Asahi just landing on the rooftop.
He leaped onto the Titan's shoulder, then circled around behind and plunged the sword right into the center of its nape. Just as Keith said, it died instantly.
"Don't stand there anymore, run."
Not forgetting to leave a warning, Asahi continued to move.
Gradually, the screams became much less frequent than before. The residents and the Garrison soldiers realized that a mysterious person was traversing the battlefield, slaying Titans with terrifying efficiency. This greatly reduced the pressure on the evacuation.
With the strength of one man, he changed the entire course of the battle.
"Commander of the Survey Corps, sir, is that..."
Looking at the Garrison soldiers who usually scorned their Survey Corps, now wagging their tails like dogs non-stop, Keith couldn't help but feel a little sardonic.
"That is not one of our people. But he is our ally. Continue to maintain the evacuation."
"Yes... yes!"
Erwin, standing nearby and listening to the conversation, said nothing. However, the image of Asahi, along with the strange behavior of both Doctor Yeager and his Commander, kept popping up in his mind.
"I really want to meet that person..."
Erwin muttered, pulling the hood of his cloak over his head, and continued to carry out the evacuation of the residents through the gate with his fellow Survey Corps soldiers.
Even with Asahi's help, the pressure was still immense. Because the small areas protruding outside the Wall, like Shiganshina, existed to lure the Titans. Due to this design, the residents of Shiganshina could only escape through a single exit.
And even after entering the territory of Wall Maria, the residents still had to move further inward by boat. They had to abandon all their belongings, carrying only themselves so the boats could have the greatest capacity possible.
On a boat, a blonde boy stood up from the cabin, his face anxiously looking out at the crowded port.
"Armin, sit down."
The older man next to him said. The blonde boy, Armin, still did not sit.
"But... but Eren and Mikasa haven't arrived yet..."
"Ah, there they are!"
He was delighted to see the two children unharmed, and Grisha and Carla were safe and sound too.
Due to Doctor Yeager's special status, the family was allowed onto the same boat as Armin. However, their expressions were all very solemn, especially Grisha's.
Their safe reunion was exchanged for the life of another person.
If Asahi hadn't appeared, he would have followed his old route into the inner city for his rounds, coincidentally avoiding this disaster. However, his wife, Carla, might not have been so lucky. It was highly possible she would have been crushed by that rock slab, buried under the rubble, because she hadn't left the house at that time.
Asahi, whether directly or indirectly, had saved the entire Yeager family.
And he had abandoned him.
Meanwhile, the man Grisha thought was dead was still leaping vigorously. Titans entered human territory like wolves entering a flock of sheep. But Asahi faced the Titans like a seasoned hunter facing his prey.
He stood on the smoking corpses of several Titans, silently observing the strange thing before him. Unlike normal Titans, this one crawled on all fours with a contorted neck. Its speed of movement and reaction were several steps above the regular Titans, and its actions were very unpredictable.
"A mutation?"
Asahi muttered, his eyes locked on its movement.
Thud!
The mutated Titan lunged straight toward him with the movement of a frog. Asahi evaded the powerful bite of its protruding jaws with only a slight dodge, swung his sword, accurately slicing the creature's neck, and leaped away.
Boom!!!
The mutated Titan slammed into a row of houses with the wound near its nape. In a fraction of a second, it had twisted its neck so that the part Asahi struck was the front, not the back, luckily surviving. However, when it turned its face, it had already sealed its death sentence.
The mutated Titan, with its unpredictable actions and high speed, was the nightmare of countless Survey Corps warriors whenever they encountered it. But when facing Asahi, it couldn't last three seconds.
Slice!
A sword strike severed the nape of this mutant. He climbed onto the highest structure nearby, observing the battlefield situation.
Asahi was in the middle of Shiganshina. In front of him, Titans continued to pour in from the hole in the Wall. The residents were either eaten or had retreated. Behind him was the evacuation area. Although there was some delay, the Titans had been relatively cleaned up by him.
"Now I just need to continue..."
Rumble! Rumble!
He noticed a distinct sound of footsteps. He turned his head in surprise.
Only a Titan could produce such a loud footsteps. But these footsteps "had force" and sounded like a human's.
A human... preparing to sprint?