"Get ready!" The bald man shouted at us as we faced each other on the fields. The morning wasn't any cooler than midday. There were beads of sweat dripping down our backs.

Every roommate group among men had four members, except ours. Coincidentally, there were nine women. That meant there was a female group with 3 members as well.

Due to the odd number in our group, the commandant had Annie join in ours'.

"You will fight until your opponent admits defeat, or until I stop the match myself! For today, you will show me the arts you learnt, we will pick it up from there! Show only your best and treat this as a fight for survival!"

The first skill we were told to learn was hand to hand combat. Most of the soldiers were stationed inside the walls where human fighting was more necessary than fighting titans. The military often replaced the police.

They trained people to have the ability to suppress others in case of a revolt. These were dire times after all.

Of course, this was under the guise of titan extermination training.

Nevertheless, Bertholdt got paired with Annie and Reiner with me.

He stood in front of me in his stance. His hand pulled to his chest and legs firm on the ground.

"Fight!" The commandant shouted.

Reiner lifted his arm, probably to distract me and then dropped down for a kick.

He was slow. Unnaturally slow.

I jumped a little and extended my leg, kicking him right in his chest. Naturally, he fell. Quite a bit actually. Enough to make me think he would stop moving. But he didn't. He kicked back up on his feet.

'Looks like he's serious now.' I thought to myself. His previous attack was incredibly dull.

"You're pretty good huh, Eren?"

"I'd say that I'm average." Just an average ghoul.

"Let's do this again."

Suddenly, a punch was aimed right at my face. I dodged to the left and grabbed his hand. I kicked his foot back and his centre of mass drops forward. Using this chance, I blasted his chest with my knee. He fell back into his stance despite my barrage. But before he could get back on offence I punched his gut.

It was supposed to be a solid hit but my hand felt like it hit a rock.

"You're pretty sturdy, huh?"

"You went too hard!" He said while grabbing his torso.

"Another round?" I flicked my wrist.

I was never this strong. This unnatural strength, it was definitely because my body changed from being a human's.

"Let's go!"

"STOP!" The bald man yelled from his pedestal.

"Eren you go against Annie, Reiner you're with Bertholdt!"

"Well, we'll get other chances." I told Reiner as he looked dejected. He left.

"Best of luck, Eren." He said as Annie readied herself in front of me.

"Eh?"

"Fight!" The commandant shouted again.

The next thing I knew I was on the ground.

Eh???

I could see everything, but I couldn't respond at all. It was definitely because of her weird technique.

I kickflipped back onto my feet.

"Annie, again."

"Sure."

I went in for a straight punch, she slid her hand under my arm and intertwined her leg with mine. Then she used her weight to push me onto her back and then the ground.

I couldn't react again!

When she was throwing me down, I buried my feet into the ground.

I use my abdomen to get up and pull her over, but she hit the back of my knee and I was on the ground again.

Damn it!

"Once more!"

Annie immediately extended her hand to my collar. But I ducked and her hand passed by my shoulders. I charge straight into her and we fell on the ground together right after. I mounted on her before she had a chance to retaliate.

'What a brute way of fighting.' I taunted myself.

Mounting people and battering them... is that the best I can do?

"Again!" I got back up. I needed to learn how to fight technically. I couldn't mount titans and batter them.

"Rule one of battle, never give up the advantage." A hand wrapped around my neck and choked me.

"Damn it!"

I grabbed her hand and threw her over my back and onto the ground. A move I never thought I'd be able to do. I'd seen Mikasa do it to those crappy boys in the town several times. But she was Mikasa.

What the hell?!

When did I get so strong?!

"Eren, huh? Not bad." Annie looked at me with flaming eyes. Why does Annie look so intrigued?

She wiped the mud off her face. "Again!"

"STOP STOP!" Damn it! This bald man wouldn't let us fight. "Eren you aren't fighting properly!" What did he say?

"Annie, Reiner, and Bertholdt go against him!"

"EH?" I exclaimed.

"DO YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT?" Three against one? Isn't that overkill?

"No sir!"

The three of them lined up in front of me. My back was drenched in sweat and the summer wind tickled my dry throat.

I suddenly felt a pinch of danger and my senses became sharper than ever. I could hear their muscles move.

I blinked and took in as much air as I could.

"FIGHT!"

Bertholdt was the first to move into a tackle, he was probably a distraction. Annie came from my left and aimed for my footing. Reiner came from the left and aimed right below my lung.

I jumped straight at Bertholdt and kneed his face.

Reiner grabbed the back of my shirt and pulled me around. His strength overpowered my momentum and I fell back. I immediately got back up and threw Annie away by her wrist as she tried to mount me.

"ARRRGHH!" Reiner shouted and charged straight at me. His push hit me right in the abdomen and I got pushed back all the way to the Mikasa group.

Next was Bertholdt. He went in for a punch but Mikasa grabbed his arm.

"I'm fine, I can do this." I told her.

Turned out, I couldn't.

I ended up getting battered by the three of them for ten minutes straight. It probably wouldn't have lasted that long had I given in.

::XXX::

"What do you fight for?" Bertholdt asked me. Reiner was applying ointment to my back wounds.

"Huh? That came out of nowhere."

"It's just that you seemed very desperate while throwing punches around."

"I made a deal."

"A deal?"

"The survey corps said that they would take care of my mother if I can join them." I answered honestly. It wasn't like my cause was a secret.

"Did something happen to your mother?"

"Uhh... her legs got bitten off during the titan invasion."

Their faces turned bitter. But that was the natural reaction to this sort of confession.

"I... am sorry to hear that..."

"It's fine... I wanted to know too. Why do you two fight?"

"Us? We want to become strong so that we can protect the people in our town."

"That.. sounds like a noble cause." I didn't really have something I could reply to his statement with. "By the way, Annie's a real beast huh?"

"She's the strongest in our village."

"What does your village breed warriors or something? You guys are too strong!"

"A-hahaha. Maybe it does."

"Do you know what tomorrow's schedule is like?" Reiner leaned over.

"I think we have horse riding tomorrow."

.

.

.

Another night of pointless banter.