[center][h1]Trost[/h1]
[@FrostedCaramel]
[h2][color=7ea7d8]Lauren Jones[/color][/h2][/center]

[color=Gray]From her vantage point atop a building only slightly higher than most in Trost, Lauren could see all the way to the breached Wall, see the Titans coming through.  A few members of the Garrison whirred above the heads of the monsters, spinning wildly as if they were out of control before plunging back down towards the Titans to try and slow them down; to her it looked like flies attacking a beast.  Every time they soared back into the sky there were fewer and fewer of them and more Titans, constantly encroaching into the city and searching for their next victims.

[color=9e0b0f]"You realize we're the expendable shield, our deaths are just to buy time... Wanting to survive and actually surviving are two very different and unrelated things."[/color] Emil was standing next to her on the rooftop, he had ordered one of the lads with them to a good lookout position while the other two waited on a different rooftop, weapons drawn but she could see from their stance how unready they were for this; the shaking of their blades was visible even at that distance. [color=9e0b0f]"Your words, as heartfelt as they were, aren't going to save those two if they get into some serious trouble with a titan, and it won't save you either."[/color]  She smiled at his harsh truth, knowing it to be true.  Her words hadn't been for her, she did not need to hear them and neither did Emil; kind and brave words were only needed by those afraid to risk their lives, afraid to fight the monsters heading towards them.  For Lauren, her determination overrode that fear.  She had sworn two oaths, one to Ma and one as a soldier, and both meant surviving.  That was all she needed to keep going.

[color=7ea7d8]"You're unusually chatty, Emil."[/color] She remarked, eyeing a group of Titans swinging around on their flank, the other group would take care of them but it was something to keep an eye on.  It was hard not to look and see how the others were doing but distracting thoughts like that would only get her killed, it was best to just believe they would come through alive and deal with the aftermath if they did not; either way, there was nothing she could do to affect the outcome.  She prayed that Jade would make it out safely, she couldn't afford to lose anybody else. [color=7ea7d8]"Besides, you and I don't need words to keep us alive.  We've got these."[/color] She hefted one of the swords, sunlight dancing across the toughened blade.  When she had first wielded one it had felt so heavy but now it was like an extension of her arm, so familiar to her that she almost felt bereft of part of herself when its comforting weight was absent.

[color=9e0b0f]"You do the distracting, I do the slashing. Don't get in over your head when this starts and if it gets really bad, which we both know it will, we get the fuck out of here and regroup, Cadet Medic."[/color] She grinned as he nudged her, gently pushing his shoulder in return.  [color=7ea7d8]"I thought I was the one meant to be in charge, Cadet Midget?  You'd be no use as a distraction, the Titan wouldn't even spot you."[/color]

Their brief moment of joviality was broken by the heavy thuds of a Titan's feet, close enough now that it could only be heading into their zone of control.  Sure enough, the enormous head of one of the creatures appeared at the base of the street between their buildings, visible over the lower rooftops before the rest of its body came into view.  Lessons from their three years of training ran through her head as she identified it as an 8m class.  Its hair was short and its mouth was wider than usual with teeth edging up its jawline further than on most Titans.  Skinny enough for its ribcage to be visible, the creature had a famished look to it and she could not help but think that that was why it was the first to reach their position; so hungry was it that it had rushed ahead of its fellows for sustenance.  Of course, they knew that Titans did not need to eat, they just ate humans as their method of killing, but that did not stop the impression of hunger she felt radiating from it.

[color=7ea7d8]"You two hold back and intercept any others.  Emil, let's go.  You better cut it cleanly or else you can be the bait!"[/color] She dropped off the side of the building, planting hooks into buildings on either side and swinging herself directly at the Titan.  Its eyes followed her movement and it changed course very slightly to head towards her, arms reaching up from where they had been hanging at its sides in readiness to snatch her out of the air.  Its behaviour was just like those they had been taught about, the ones she had seen in Shiganshina.

[color=7ea7d8][i]Doesn't seem like an abnormal then.[/i][/color]

Just as she reached within its grasp she planted a hook at its feet and dived low with a burst of gas, throwing herself into a spin with blades outstretched to slice chunks out of its legs.  The weight of the creature made the small wounds widen rapidly, blood bursting in steaming piles out of the gashes and onto Lauren's clothes and the cobbled ground.  Already bent over to grab her the Titan fell to its knees as its ankles gave way and she swung herself back to be in front of it but tantalisingly out of reach.  She could see its eyes focusing on her, hands on the ground as it crawled on hands and knees towards her while steam rose from its sliced ankles, the wound already healing at a rapid rate.

[color=7ea7d8][i]I've even got its head bowed for you Emil.[/i][/color]

She could hear more thuds closing on their position and she called back to the other two cadets, without taking her eyes off of the Titan before her, who were watching with intense expressions on their face.[/color]

[color=7ea7d8]"Get ready you two, we've got more incoming!"[/color]