Hours passed before his father found him in the stands where he had gone to watch the rest of the contests.If Drake had remained in that locker room with the rest of them, he would have broken something. More specifically, he would have broken the Trost boy. Sneering in his face as he did. Drake had Eren's sneer stamped in his memory. He seethed at the image.Suddenly, the crowd cheered, redirecting his attention to the contests. Drake welcomed the distraction with ease. With the hood of his shirt up, he managed to stay hidden in the crowd. Sid Nivron stepped into the arena, swords drawn and held ready at both his sides.The view of the fights so high above was a thing to behold.A red-faced man next to Drake screamed his approval. "Tear him apart! Hell yeah!" He yelled, his weak chin wobbling with the effort.Tear him apart?There was no one in the field but Sid, and yet the cro
By the time Eren got to him, Sid was a bloody mess. He reached the doors just as they heaved his new friend's body into the room. Eren reached out, slipping a strong arm beneath Sid's underarm and held him up out of instinct. He let Sid rest all of his weight against him. Unlike what he expected from Sid's lithe frame, the young man was heavy. "I am a fucking mess, friend." He grinned at Eren. Eren led him back towards the locker room, albeit clumsily, their motions awkward. "That has to be the understatement of the year." "I will get blood all over you." Sid was delirious with the blood loss. Eren tried to shrug which ended up being a strange twitch of his shoulder, seeing as he was basically carrying Sid. "There are worse things than that, I guess." He said, to which Sid grinned tiredly. "Eren Trost, the epitome of positivity." said Sid, causing Eren to chuckle despite the grim situation. He helped his friend to a low chair next to Tiana. Sid gasped with pain as he
When Eren emerged from the darkness behind the doorway, night had taken over. He had to wait a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the unnatural glare of the lights in the arena. Across from him, standing as tall as a god, Gaine Winchester waited. Eren sensed the MANNA crackling just beneath his skin. It was going to be a tough one, even if he had to say so himself. "Are you ready?" Gaine called, flexing his arms. He was amused, Eren could tell. Eren held his chin high, the way he was sure his mother must have turned her nose up at the Winchesters. "The real question is, are you?" Gaine began to say something but was cut off by the loud voice of the moderator, informing them of the rules of the fight. They were the last contestants in what was potentially the most vicious bout of the day. It was known now that Gaine was one of the strongest of the young ones, if not the strongest of them all. A prodigy. Meanwhile, Eren was walking, seething rage. Anyone with eyes
"To those who shall spill blood in our honor today, and those whose blood shall be spilled, we salute you." The announcer had said at the start of the contests. Gaine Winchester was in the locker room savoring a mouthful of river grapes when he heard the statement, and he had nearly spat his grapes with mirth. It was not that Gaine did not think this statement to be in praise of himself and his peers. It was how it sounded coming for one who had never been involved in the act of the spilling, literal or otherwise. The man had made it seem almost comedic, almost literature worthy, these acts of sheer violence that were soon to follow his speech. "Violence is always, always, a misdeed, my son. But sometimes, it is a necessity," Gaine's father had told him when he was younger, long before he felt the first quickening of MANNA inside him. "Sometimes," The man said, his voice calm and persuading, "it is the only way by which to show strength." If the Winchester clan had a motto,
‘What was strength if not a series of scarifications?’ Gaine asked himself for the hundredth time.He looked at his trembling hands and they were dark with the answer. Blood, a rich red like nothing else. Also, there was a dull ringing at the back of his head. To say he was unwell was an understatement."You seem troubled," Eren Trost called to him. It was a sly jest as his own words were being thrown back at him.His eyes met Eren's. His opponent was not in a better place than he was. He too was leaking out his lifeblood.‘I could say the same for you.’ He wanted to yell back at Eren, but he was not sure he had the strength. ‘What was strength if not a series of scarifications?’ The question plagued him again. It is time to finish this, Gaine advised himself. It was way past time in fact.He knew exactly what to do.The night he woke from the Dream state, his father was a presence hovering over him."Do you feel it?" He had asked Gaine after the house servant who had been tend
"I think they are about to call the results, sir." Silas's aide shouted at him, struggling to have his words heard over the people's clamoring. "You think Eren made it to The Ten?" The professor had both his hands folded over his stomach. He eyed the display before him with some concern. Solvane Winchester had risen in his seat and was whispering to the Granville clan head. The professor had hoped earnestly when he recruited Eren to his cause that the boy had his mother's fighting spirit. And his hope was not wasted. In the end, Eren surprised them all, going toe-to-toe with the most talented Awakened in the tournament. When Eren was paired against Gaine, the professor sighed heavily. He had thought the fight was over. He did not even expect Eren to make it past the third stage—the boy had trained in an empty gym, with little or no help, to fight kids who had gotten the best training from the best instructors over the course of their childhoods. But Silas had hoped
The Ten, Eren included, were led to the top floor of the arena, up a spiral of stairs far higher than the view of the arena from the stands. Into a large hallway, they were taken. The space was brimming with art - plaques adorned the wall and in the four corners of the room there were statues of varying sizes, all in marble. A table sat at the center of the room and it held a basket of fruits. Eren shuffled close to Sid and Tiana. In the past few hours that the world had practically shifted beneath his feet their presence had become the only stable thing. They were familiar territory, safe. For all the new power he was privy to, he felt vulnerable around everyone else, especially the Winchesters. Their blue eyes seemed to follow him everywhere. The other members of The Ten were more occupied with examining the room than worrying about Winchesters. The room seemed to be a muster point. A giant map of the countryside was painted on the wall in bright colors. Winchester
Eren stuffed his bloodied battle suit into his duffel. "It is a wonder Gaine's head is still attached to his body." Tiana said over his shoulder. "What?" Eren said. Now that the contests were over, the surge of adrenaline that carried him all day had passed, and he started to feel the pain from all the hits he took more acutely. Silas had warned him. MANNA could heal wounds, but the pain that came with them stayed. Pain always asked to be acknowledged. Awakened or not. The most Eren could think of was getting back to the professor's mansion, finding something warm to pour down his throat before falling face down into his bed. It was no surprise he was not paying any attention. Tiana jabbed her chin in the direction of his hands. "Your knuckles. You scraped the skin right off them." Eren glanced at his hands, and true to her words, he found that the skin there was still patchy, barely healed. "Winchesters are famous for ther hard-headedness. What can I say?" He joked. Ti