Author: Maddison Foust | Banner: Dao Zang Moua

Down from the heavens, a cybernetic being made its eerie descent. How long had it been since he was last on this planet? Decades? A century? It mattered not to Gigan, he would enact his wrath against this familiar planet. The cyborg assassin looked over his surroundings. He saw little but grass, trees, and distant mountains. But he heard faint footsteps. He spotted something. A small pale bipedal creature, concealed in a forest. Then, he noticed another. And another. One by one, the alien menace noticed the horde of these odd little things. He quickly recognized them as humans, but oddly enough, their structures were nowhere in sight. They were much bigger than Gigan remembered, and a lot uglier too.

Gigan hadn’t quite gone unnoticed either, his arrival grabbing the attention of nearby Titans. The deformed humanoids began mindlessly marching toward the loud noise. Gigan, ever the sadist, did the thing he knew how to do best. Commit violence. The Titans around him immediately stopped caring upon seeing the source of the disturbance, but this didn’t stop Gigan from firing his beam at them. The beam broke apart mid-air to split into several, hitting numerous Titans at once. Seeing them all explode into pieces at once pleased the cyborg, and he shot out another.

Some of the remaining Titans turned and walked away, but wouldn’t escape the blasts falling upon them. Meanwhile, some just stood there mindlessly. Despite the Titans’ lack of reaction, Gigan enjoyed wiping them out. The space monster let out a series of laughter-like chirps and fired yet another shot. Yet, in the back of his mind, a question gnawed at him. Could these be humans? The grotesque creatures resembled the past rulers of Earth, but hardly acted like them. Little did the cyborg know, there was another group of creatures watching him from the foliage. A type that did care about the violent monster’s arrival. The actual humans.

Once no more Titans could be seen, Gigan shifted his priorities and went off to find something else. There were bound to be more creatures to find, and more fun to be had. Suddenly, the metal-plated menace spotted something. Something he would recognize instantly. Real humans. No question about it. Whatever those other things were didn’t matter right now. The cybernetic sadist had humans to kill.

Suddenly, a yellow bolt of lightning stretched between the sky and the ground obscured by the treetops. Gigan was entirely caught off guard by the ever-so familiar looking blast, but didn’t have time to think too hard before a giant humanoid figure came out from the steam and landed a punch to the cyborg’s face. The menace staggered back to the sound of a primal roar.

Upon looking back up, something resembling the humanoid critters he had gleefully dispatched stared into him. It stood at a height similar to the cyborg’s own, had black hair, pale skin, fiery red eyes, and a lipless mouth. But there was something different about this one. Not just the towering size, something deeper. Something more intelligent. Something more… human.

The alien destroyer was too deep in thought to properly respond to the second fist crashing into his cranium. Gigan cried out in shock from the blow. The Attack Titan readied for a third blow, but his alien opponent wouldn’t be caught off guard again. As a fist flew toward Gigan, he raised up his arm and allowed the Titan to skewer his own hand on an elbow spike. The giant humanoid cried out in pain, steam billowing from the wound.

Without missing a beat, the arm rotated to position the hand to the side, and a massive scythe was placed right above the giant’s unguarded right shoulder. Before the Attack Titan could dodge, the gargantuan blade swung down with tremendous force. A pained howl could be heard for miles as Gigan laughed at his foe’s pain. The Titan moved in to retaliate, but the cybernetic invader was a second faster, leading to a blade right through the humanoid’s left shoulder.

Both arms gone, Gigan could have finished the Attack Titan right then and there with a scythe to the neck. But he enjoyed seeing his opponent’s pain too much. Unfortunately for the alien sadist, the Titan wasn’t finished yet. A heavy foot shot against Gigan’s side, nearly making the cyborg fall over. While the menace stumbled for a second, the supersized humanoid took advantage of the opportunity and kicked Gigan again. This time, the Titan’s foot hit Gigan’s leg and forced the invader onto one knee.

The Attack Titan’s right arm had regrown, and he went in for a punch to the head. Seeing a scythe rise in his peripheral vision, he raised up one foot and kicked it away. Another scythe rose from the other side, but the titan pushed it away with his right hand before going in for a strike with his freshly recovered left. It was then that the giant realized.

The cybernetic invader’s visor was glowing intensely.

The Attack Titan had no time to react before the same beam that had decimated the lesser Titans launched point blank into his face. Dozens of explosions ravaged the giant’s skin, blowing off chunks of flesh and taking out an eye. Suddenly, a spike drove itself into the Titan’s abdomen. Gigan pushed his knee ever deeper into the humanoid.

Howls of agony were replaced by furious screams as the Titan realized how much enjoyment the cyborg got from his suffering. Inside the nape, the Titan’s human controller swore that he would make this… thing, whatever it was, pay. Steam came off of his healing wounds, and he went in to strike Gigan right in the visor. The Titan’s hopes to break it were in vain, however, as the cyborg tilted his head for the massive spike on his cranium to be right in front of the fist. Once again, the Attack Titan had a hand skewered by this sadist. Gigan raised his head back up and fired another Gigarium Cluster at the newly regenerated Titan’s face.

The injuries were even worse this time. Both eyes were taken out, and some of the worst affected places were stripped to the bone. The Attack Titan leaped backward, unsure of what action to take next. This thing was impossible, nearly every point of its body covered in spikes. As if that wasn’t bad enough, it had a lethal laser. And yet, he was still determined to take it down. The giant regained its vision and leaped forward.

He landed a short leap away from Gigan, but instead of going straight, he leaped to the right, before going in for a hit. The cyborg was surprised, but kept focused and turned around. Unfortunately, the Titan was quicker and landed a powerful punch to Gigan’s head. Restraining Gigan’s blade with his left arm, the beast continued to pummel Gigan’s cranium. Suddenly, the fight was in the Titan’s favor.

Then the giant felt something cold and sharp snatch his ankle in its grasp.

Before he could try to comprehend what it was that touched him, the humanoid started to fly away from his target. Stunned by shock, he didn’t notice the hold yielding, and he wasn’t able to land on his feet. Instead, the Titan slammed into the ground. He once again howled in pain to the sound of an enormous crack.

The Attack Titan tried to get up, but first had to wait for his spinal cord to heal itself. Precious time he didn’t have as he watched the enormous cyborg flying low to the ground towards him. Both blades perfectly positioned into the dirt, they sliced off both of the Titan’s arms at once upon Gigan flying over. The cyborg spun 180 and went back in, this time with both blades pulled back like a crane’s neck before spearing a fish.

By the time the beast was able to get up, it was too late.

Twin scythes plunged into the giant’s skull, eliciting indescribable pain from the victim. As quickly as they came down, the blades were retracted from the poor Titan’s head. But the pain wasn’t over yet, as the tip of Gigan’s horrible tail stabbed directly into the Attack Titan’s face. The center spike going all the way through to the other side, the blades on the side closed in around the Titan’s skull. Before he knew it, the tail was dragging his body across the ground at incredible speed.

The Attack Titan had almost gone numb from the amount of time Gigan pulled him across the dirt like this. Skin, muscles, ligaments, were all being slowly but surely grinded through. Although his body tried to heal, the constant pressure ensured that he couldn’t. The only thing stopping his defeat was the nape being slightly above the ground, caused by the head being held up by the tail. But it was only a matter of time until the body would be reduced to near nothing. Once the cyborg would notice this, Eren, held inside the Attack Titan’s nape, would surely be killed.

The Titan Shifter weighed his options. Trying to get out from the nape now would result in being crushed. He could try to get up or grab the cyborg’s tail, but what good would that do him if the tail was still latched on? Shrieking laughter from the alien convinced Eren to do it anyway, rage getting the best of him. If he waited much longer, his limbs would be too damaged to move.

Through clouds of steam, two ravaged arms shot out and grabbed Gigan’s tail. The Titan attempted to pull the sadist backwards as he rose. But it was futile. Just as the beast got onto his feet he was immediately slammed back down to a nasty crack. The massive arms did nothing to stop Gigan’s flight. The cyborg sped up, causing the limp body to be grinded down even faster. The humanoid was now too damaged to even move.

Clouds of steam were everywhere. Gigan enjoyed watching the giant’s body fruitlessly try to mend its wounds. He hadn’t had this much fun in a long time. The cyborg could tell how much pain his enemy was in, and he couldn’t help but laugh at the pathetic display.

It was then that Gigan realized how incredibly light the body had become.

He whipped his head around and saw that the entire thing had almost been torn through by the brutal ground. It was practically just a layer of skin. He fired the Gigarium Cluster to destroy what was left of the body, and quickly went in to make his next move.

Gigan flew upwards and clamped his tail down even harder. Ever wary of the humanoid’s healing ability, he quickly went in for the finishing blow. The sadistic cyborg considered doing something slow and painful to the head and neck as well, but even Gigan had his limits. He was ready to finish this.

The powerful tail shot out in front of Gigan and released the head, sending it flying far away into a mountain. The amount of pressure put on the head was so great that it was able to split apart the nape…

Or so the invader thought.

Unbeknownst to him, the Titan’s controller had escaped at the last possible second. Eren wanted nothing more than to rip that thing apart, but it would have to wait. The Titan Shifter moved off in the direction the others had gone while Gigan was distracted with blasting a mountain.

—

Night fell, and all was now calm and still in place of the previous day’s carnage. Gigan had left the area a while ago, confident that the Titan was dead for good. After all, what could possibly survive those kinds of injuries? And as if that wasn’t enough assurance, there was no trace of any surviving flesh hidden beneath the mountain’s debris.

Things inside the wall were not so calm, however. The humans scrambled to mount proper defenses for the event that he would find them. Luckily for them, the Attack Titan had steered Gigan off course, and Eren could give them valuable information about the invader. But the looming threat of the cybernetic menace eventually finding and destroying them remained.

—

Gigan had been wandering around for an entire day. He found nothing but those mindless humanoid drones. Where were all the cities, all the liveliness of the past? Everywhere he went, he only found those ugly creatures crawling out of every crevice. The cyborg had his fun stepping on them, but he grew tired of it. He took out his frustration by blowing chunks out of mountains with his Gigarium Cluster, but that was wearing thin too.

Yet, the drive to find something, anything compelled him to keep going. Humans were here. He knew it. Even if only for a couple seconds, the alien had seen them. Those primates had to be hiding somewhere. And when he found them, he would enjoy every second of their destruction. Gigan regretted not having more fun with that humanoid’s severed head. But alas, it was gone, seemingly blown to bits by the Gigarium Cluster and crushed by several tons of rock. At least the cybernetic monster could take satisfaction in reliving how badly he crushed his foe.

As the sun began to rise once more, the invader saw something in the distance. A thing much different from the same old terrain he had been traversing for so long.

It was a man-made structure.

If the cyborg had eyes, they would’ve fully widened as he quickly leaped into the air and flew towards the object. Excitement coursed through the alien, his flight speed ever increasing. Faster, faster, faster until…

Everything felt like it was going in slow motion to the people who saw it. A horrifying cybernetic monster stared down at the city below him with murderous intent. The glowing red visor lit up the early morning sky. In an instant, the thing had gone straight over Wall Maria. And just as fast as he flew over Wall Maria, the monster was nearly to Wall Rose.

Intense panic swept over the numerous soldiers positioned on Wall Maria, if the winds kicked up by Gigan’s great speed hadn’t sent them flying. Everything they had set up was made useless by the sadist’s unforeseen mobility and bloodlust. They scrambled trying to figure out what to do next. But it was too late, the invader was already inside.

Gigan landed right next to Wall Rose, tired from flying so fast and wanting to check the place out. He reared his head down at the buildings and terrified citizens. His suspicions were confirmed, this is where all the humans were. The thought of what those other things were if not humans never crossed the alien’s mind, too excited to even think about anything else.

It was horrifying to citizens on the ground watching a huge laser beam, larger than buildings, fall down from the sky. But it was even scarier when it split into a dozen. They all scattered across a huge area, indiscriminately wiping out everything they touched with fiery explosions. The explosions rose high into the air and engulfed anything unlucky enough to be in their massive radiuses.

Gigan erupted with a laughter-like chirp as screaming was overpowered with sounds of destruction below. The sadistic cyborg clanged his scythes together to celebrate the chaos, below firing another shot. A new cluster of giant beams rained down, just as destructive as the first. Homes were reduced to nothing, people were incinerated in fire, rubble flew everywhere. Suddenly, a towering figure appeared.

The Armored Titan.

The white Titan’s controller wanted the destruction of the ruling class, which the cyborg would surely bring, but with it would come the fall of the entire human race. The Titan Shifter made his choice, taking down the ruling class would have to come later.

On the other hand, Gigan was much more enthusiastic about this fight. The plated humanoid in front of him looked much stronger than the pale one he had fought before, yet the cyborg didn’t feel any more threatened by it than by the civilians below. Gigan was confident, perhaps detrimentally so.

The metal-plated menace made the first move, attempting to slash apart the white Titan’s torso. A squawk of surprise left the cyborg’s metal beak upon seeing how little damage his attack did, only succeeding in making sparks fly. Gigan decided to try something stronger, and launched his left arm like a spear into the thick plates. But to the alien’s shock, it did little more than the last blow.

The Armored Titan landed a powerful right hook to Gigan’s jaw, sending the cyborg back. Keeping his balance, the invader recovered from the blow and pointed his left arm straight at the Titan’s face. For a second, the Titan Shifter inside was confused at this. Was it trying to point at him? Why? Gigan fired the twin hooking anchors right on cue, as if to answer his thoughts.

The plated giant didn’t react in time to stop the anchors from hitting their target. The Titan’s eyes. He roared out in pain as everything went dark, his eyes having been smashed. But that wasn’t the main goal. As quickly as they went in, Gigan violently retracted the hooks, causing huge chunks of flesh to be ripped off. Most importantly, the cyborg spotted facial armor fall to the ground with the flesh.

Not waiting a single second for the steam-enveloped face to regenerate, the Gigarium Cluster erupted from the glowing visor and struck the Armored Titan in the face. Nearly every explosion hit the target. A pained wail erupted from beneath the wall of steam and fire. However, this wouldn’t be the worst of it. The Titan felt a massive blade go right through his entire head, and then felt it cleave upwards to split his skull in half.

One last Gigarium Cluster was the finishing blow for the ravaged head.

Pieces of the head fell to the ground around the Armored Titan’s feet, but Gigan had a hunch his foe was far from dead. Given some time as the decapitated giant stumbled around, the invader thought about how this was possible. Of how something could survive and recover from an injury like that. Gigan recounted how some of the larger little ones survived a blast if it was low enough down, how the first giant one he fought could have regenerated from his entire body being grinded to near nothing, and the way that last Gigarium Cluster hit.

That’s when the realization struck the cybernetic terror.

It was the back of the neck.

Gigan figured it out in time to see the white Titan running towards him. A right hook, then a left, and another right sent Gigan toppling over. The Armored Titan leaped into the air and readied to land his fist into the alien’s visor, but Gigan flew out of the way at the last second. The Titan got right back up and landed a kick to Gigan’s side before the alien could react, nearly bringing him down a second time.

The invader had stopped enjoying himself, especially after taking yet another kick, this time to the immediate right of his buzzsaw. Gigan was determined to step up his game.

The Armored Titan threw another punch, right at the visor, but a raised elbow right in front of the fist stopped it. Unlike the Attack Titan, this Titan was able to withstand Gigan’s elbow spike. The cyborg tried to cut off the hand at the wrist with his left blade but, once again, the attack only succeeded in making sparks fly.

Thinking fast, Gigan shot his left arm towards one of the few fleshy spots on the white Titan. Both arms of the plated giant reached down to stop it, but the cyborg was quicker. Blood squirted out from the Titan’s back, before the scythe’s tip burst out. The plated giant cried out in pain, before pulling the blade out.

Gigan moved his right arm parallel to his left, then swiped them in sync to hit exposed flesh on the arms. Both of the Titan’s arms were severed at the elbow. The cyborg tried to go for another blow, but was knocked back by a powerful kick. Intense red light emanated from Gigan’s visor, releasing the Gigarium Cluster yet again.

Under the cover of his beam, the sadistic cyborg went in for the kill. Explosions ravaged the Armored Titan’ eyes while blades went into the soft spot on the shoulders. The healing arms fell out of their sockets and into the rubble below. Gigan’s prehensile tail curled around to strike a weak spot in the left leg, bringing the white Titan down to one knee. Gigan kicked a newly exposed spot of flesh in the right knee, nearly taking half the leg. The cruel invader leaped backward and fired another shot of the Gigarium Cluster at the legs as the Titan crumbled, blowing off the lower halves of each, and sending the Armored Titan face first into the ground.

Gigan stared down at the fallen foe, right at his feet. The right scythe raised high into the air, reflecting the gleaming sun for a brief moment. A laughter-like vocalization came from the metallic beak, the malevolent being proud of his coming violent act. The blade plunged down towards the nape of the Armored Titan.

All Gigan felt after that was a brief impact to his cranium, before wires in his head short circuited.

Despite a loss of vision and hearing, the invader could still feel himself falling. He slammed into the buildings below, creating a crater. Gigan was still in shock from what had just happened. In an instant, he couldn’t see or hear and was covered in rubble. Just as his visor flickered back to life, a powerful foot came down on the cyborg’s head.

Just as quickly as it returned, Gigan’s vision cut out again. Even though he couldn’t see, the alien could sense what was going to happen next. The free left arm of the cyborg rose up in front of his face. Gigan couldn’t tell if this had worked or not. All sense of hearing, feeling, or sight was gone. All he could do was hope the move succeeded. For the first time during his raid on this planet, the invader was scared.

With determination, Gigan pushed himself away from the crater and got up. He felt himself starting to fall again, but managed to keep his balance. Or maybe he didn’t, it was near impossible for Gigan to tell. The malfunctioning cyborg began to doubt if had actually done anything or was currently doing anything. That’s when the visor sparked back to life.

Luckily, the twin scythes were in front of the visor, guaranteeing that Gigan’s sight wouldn’t be immediately taken away like the last time. But when the newly recovered invader peeked out, he realized he was on the ground and getting pummeled by the white plated one and….

It was the humanoid from when Gigan had first arrived.

Gigan attempted to scream out in fury at it, but found that the devices in his neck responsible for such had been damaged. Getting even angrier at this, the monster pulled his blades back and attempted to fire the Gigarium Cluster. Upon realizing his head was too damaged to do even that, the alien became more infuriated than ever. The pair of Titans noticed that their enemy’s sight was back, and went for the head. Gigan shielded his face once more before trying in vain to activate his anti-gravity flight.

Once the flight failed, the invader knew how he had to go about this. Gigan went to push himself up, but was tackled by the Attack Titan. Exactly to plan. The buzzsaw stretched down his metal torso sprung to life, slicing apart the giant humanoid. A howl of pain rang out from the Titan’s mouth. Unfortunately for the malicious invader, the saw began to struggle, before cutting out completely.

The already boiling cyborg got even more upset at this. This was the first time he had used his buzzsaw, and it was already broken? At the very least, it had gotten his foe off of him. Gigan sprung up and slammed into the healing humanoid, sending the Titan flying. A metal blade swung around to meet the rapidly approaching Armored Titan, but it was batted away. Gigan hopped backwards just in time to avoid a potentially fatal blow to his visor. This would be harder than he thought.

Gigan jumped back a second time to avoid a hit from the white Titan’s other arm, and noticed that the other one was already up and running right for him. The cyborg went for the exposed flesh on the Armored Titan’s neck, hoping to cut into the nape. It got blocked. Gigan felt heavier than before, and as a consequence he was slower.

Both Titans kicked either side of the cyborg’s abdomen at once, sending Gigan skidding backwards. A couple more hits and the invader feared he would be down for good. This was no longer about having fun for Gigan as it was before, it was about survival. Unable to fly away, the invader was forced to fight his way out. First on the agenda was taking out that white one.

One of the last systems that still worked, the launchers located on Gigan’s chest, opened up and fired a pair of razor blades. The Armored Titan ducked under them, but the alien expected as much. The real threat came when they looped back around. Reaching out in one final leap, the white Titan expected to crush the cyborg’s head in a final blow. Unfortunately for the Titan, the discs came back around and planted themselves into the nape.

Gigan kicked the carcass onto the ground where it promptly disintegrated, and put his full attention to the smaller, yet still dangerous, Attack Titan. The alien moved his head slightly upwards so the giant humanoid’s fist would land on his beak. Not a great option, but better than a blow to his visor. The two both stumbled back a bit from the hit, before they both leaped back into action.

Held down by the weight of his artificial armor and weapons, Gigan wasn’t as fast as his opponent, causing him to be hit first with a strong uppercut. The cybernetic menace tried to get his balance, but was interrupted by a punch to the side of the head. On the surface, Gigan didn’t seem to have taken much damage through the entirety of the fight, but the two combatants both knew the internal damage was great.

A powerful kick struck the metal neck of the cyborg, sending him crashing down. Worry swept over the grounded alien as his visor flickered on and off. If it completely went off, he was done for. A spike from the center of Gigan’s deadly tail tip stabbed into the Attack Titan’ crotch, causing him to cry out in pain. It was unable to close and grab the giant properly, but what it did was enough.

The single claw on Gigan’s left foot pierced the Titan’s knee, threatening to sever it. Inside the cyborg’ mind, he raced to find a trick to pull out of his sleeve. But everything he had was either broken or depleted. A massive fist came down straight at Gigan’s visor, but he dodged it just in time, resulting in his left mandible being broken off.

An idea came into the invader’s mind.

The Attack Titan howled open equal parts pain and surprise in response to his enemy suddenly biting down on his wrist and swinging him to the ground. A horrible cracking sound washed over the land, not that Gigan could hear it. The Titan watched his alien adversary lift himself up and swing a scythe right at him.

He kicked the blade away and leaped backwards to evade a second coming blade. This new silent, focused demeanor was more intimidating to the Titan than the laughing sadist of before. But he had an advantage over Gigan in this form. Systems that helped move the cyborg’s limbs had failed, significantly slowing the artificially powered alien.

Unbeknownst to the Titan, Gigan was slowly feeling one of his systems return. It was the anti-gravity flight. Although it wasn’t completely functional yet, it might be able to support a short boost. The alien made his plan, and readied himself upon seeing his foe prepare to jump.

The Attack Titan leapt at Gigan, but the latter jumped to the side with the help of his limited flight and spun around as the giant humanoid passed, slicing his shoulder so hard that the entire arm fell off in the process. Both combatants went in for another blow at the same time. The Titan swung around and threw his fist out, while Gigan swung his other arm towards the neck of the giant guardian.

For the deadly invader, everything went black.

Gigan could feel that he was still alive; albeit barely, but his sight was once again gone. He wasn’t sure if it would come back. With all his other senses gone as well, he couldn’t tell if his strike had landed. Despite not being able to feel objects, he still instinctively could tell if his body was moving. The cyborg raised a leg and pushed his foot forward.

The blinded alien felt something forcibly stop his foot from going any further.

Anxiously he pushed it harder, but it still would barely move. Until slowly whatever was holding the foot relented, and eventually it appeared to be gone. Was this the body disintegrating? Gigan hoped it was so, and moved on to figuring out his next move. Devoid of all senses that would help him navigate, the cyborg hoped that his sight would return.

Gigan tried to remember which way the outer wall was from the direction he had been facing. The weak cyborg adjusted himself to a spot that might have been the right way, and he marched forward. Once he reached the wall, he figured he could probably break through it. After that, if his sight returned, he could momentarily leave this planet. But he would return. And when that would happen, the invader would destroy all that stood in his way.

Winner: Gigan (Universal)