The Beast Titan

The Beast Titan is the first chapter of the ninth volume and the 35th chapter overall.

Summary
Sasha gets agitated after hearing multiple heavy footsteps as Nanaba appears and informs them (the group of rookies) of a vast number of Titans that were approaching from the South from a distance of five hundred metres. He orders them to get onto horses on the double, go around the neighbouring villagers and get the villagers to evacuate immediately. Reiner fears that Wall Rose got destroyed and Nanaba states that they would have to postpone their midafternoon snacks until they get their jobs done. On the rooftop, Mike senses nine Titans in the immediate vicinity. Fearing the breach of Wall Rose as the worst imaginable scenario, Nanaba gets tense and already assumes the defeat of the human race. Mike refuses to accept his statement believing that the human race will have lost the moment they give up and stop fighting.

As all of them ride atop horses, Mike asks the group to split into four squads going in each of the four directions. All of them were to prioritize spreading the word over combat. Furthermore, the south squad would have an additional task of locating destoyed settlements and places and hence would require more people. Sasha joins the North Squad, while Connie, Reiner, Bertholdt, Ymir and Christa join the South squad. A group of Titans reached them and broke into a fast run towards them. Mike departs from the group galloping towards the Titans to act as a decoy. Gerger stops some soldiers who wished to go and help him, asking them to believe in Mike.

A little while later, Mike brings down five of the nine titans. Concluding that he had bought enough time for the squads to get afar, he waits for his horse to come back. He gets worried about a deviant ape-like titan that was strolling about nearby without noticing him. His horse comes running back, and to Mike's surprise it was picked up by the ape-titan, which threw it at him with one powerful swing of his arm. Mike dodged the attack and landed straight into the arms of a Titan, which immediately started eating him. The ape-titan instructs the Titan to stop, but it does not listen. Seeing this, the ape-titan squishes the Titan's head, making it's eyeball drop out, which surprised Mike. Further, the Ape-Titan speaks in clear human language and asks Mike what weapon he was weilding. Mike is too dumbfounded to answer, and the Ape-Titan continues to surmise that they used swords and hence had an idea about the nape of "their" necks. The Ape-Titan strips Mike of his 3-D gear to bring it back with him, while Mike remembers his own words about not giving up fighting. The ape-titan gives the other Titans consent to do whatever they want with him. Mike picks up his sword, but the Titans behind him immediately attack and eat him up, while the Ape-Titan marvels at the human invention in his hand.