The Beast Titan

 is the 1st chapter of the 9th volume and the 35th chapter overall of the Attack on Titan manga, written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama.

Overview
As the 104th Trainees Squad hear heavy oncoming footsteps, they are alerted by Nanaba that Titans are coming. They then begin to gear up to head out in search of a breach in Wall Rose. Mike Zacharius smells nine soon to come Titans and warns Nanaba. When everyone sets out, the Titans begin to chase them and Mike volunteers to distract them while the other soldiers escape. Later, Mike is seen on a roof top. He has taken out five of the nine Titans and he decides it is time to retreat as he has bought enough time. He worries about a strange 17m Deviant Type Titan that appears to be beast-like with fur. Mike is happy to see his horse return but is shocked when the deviant Titan picks it up and throws it at him. Mike falls off the roof and is caught in a small Titan's mouth until the ape-like Titan crushes it's head and frees him. It then beings to speak to him, asking about his Three Dimensional Maneuver Gear. When Mike is to terrified to respond, the beast-like Titan takes it off his hips and leaves, telling the other Titans that they may do what they want with Mike. Unable to maneuver away, Mike is devoured by several Titans at once and dies.

Summary
Sasha gets agitated after hearing multiple heavy footsteps as Nanaba appears and informs the soldiers of a vast number of Titans that were approaching from the South from a distance of five hundred metres. She 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 breached and Nanaba states that they would have to postpone their midafternoon meals 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 this statement, believing that the human race will have lost the moment when 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 destroyed settlements and places and hence would require more people. Sasha joins the North Squad, while Connie, Reiner, Bertolt, Ymir and Krista 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. Gelgar stops some soldiers who wished to go and help him, asking them to believe in Mike and saying that he is the Survey Corps second best soldier next to Levi.

A little while later, Mike, having brought down five of the nine Titans, Concludes that he has bought enough time for the squads to get afar. As he waits for his horse to come back, he gets worried about a Deviant Type Titan, that appears to be ape-like Titan, strolling about nearby without noticing him. His horse comes running back, and to Mike's surprise it is 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 surprises Mike. Further, the Ape-Titan speaks in clear human language and asks Mike what weapon he was wielding. 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 devour him, while the Ape-Titan marvels at the human invention in his hand.

Navigation
Chapitre 35