Small skirmishes began and ended quickly as the large and unwieldy Titans entered the chosen spot. Most were taken out by the front line; a few variants made it to the second or third lines. One unusually fast variant caused a hell of a lot more damage than that...

The Titan galloped into Hael's sight. That's right "galloped". The variant was on all fours and was moving with alarming speed. "At least it's neck is lower to the ground." She thought. But Hael had underestimated it's sheer speed as it's grosque head snapped forward on her companion. His horse screamed in agony as the Titan bit it's haunches; the poor creature's rider screeched in terror. For a single moment, Hael was frozen, watching this thing. But that was a moment too long, and the monster's jaws snapped shut, cutting off the unfortunate man's arm and his gut-wrenching scream. Then he was gone. Just gone. And there was nothing Hael could do about it.

Luckily she didn't have to. Captain Levi dove from his horse, pinwheeling up the beast's arm in a flash of green and silver and black, leaving a haze of red mist behind him as he slice deep into the Titan's flesh.

Hael was frozen again, just like that, by the awesome power of Levi's attack. The rest of the squad rode by, but not her. She just sat there, crying like an idiot over the death of Surigu (her teammate) and held in place by the mesmerizing dance of death Levi went through.

The Titan was still moving forward and it suddenly it struck Hael as odd that it didn't seem to get further away. Then she realized why:

As the Titan ran, with Levi riding it, Levi's black steed raced along after him, dutifully following it's master. As Hael was paralyzed, her poor horse had just been running forward, basically exactly what it had been trained to do. The beast had allowed Levi's mount to guide it; hence Levi, Hael, their horses, and the Titan all veered off the ambush path together. (Get it? If not, I'm sorry. Re-read it)

Hael was about to swing back into motion when she noticed just how much trouble her Captain was in. The Titan slammed it's filthy paw down on Levi's 3DMD cord, causing him to go on an uncontrollable ride, spinning around the variant's hand. Then, unexpectedly, the thing's hand reversed direction and snapped poor Levi the other way, unwinding and slamming hard into the dusty ground, where he lay unmoving. Hael knew immediately that she couldn't take this one on alone, so she sliced whatever she could hit to get it's attention off the life-less Levi and back on her.

When she had it back on her, Hael cursed colorfully and kicked her mount forward... The horses powerful legs kicking onwards faster than the Titan itself. "Wind." Hael thought, "I'll call you Wind."

Wind sped like a whole horde of Titan's chased her; a horde of Titans might as well be behind for all the difference it made. Hael came flying between two pillars, realizing with horror that she was completely and hopelessly lost. Then her brains kicked in.

Hael seemlessly led Wind through an unforgiving jump through an unbelievably small gap in the stone. Time froze, and for a second, there wasn't a 30 meter, variant chasing her, and her Captain wasn't potentially dead on the desert floor. "Geez, how'd this go to hell so fast?" She thought. The Wind's hooves hit the ground, just as the idiotic Titan slammed so hard into the stone that it toppled and the skull of the beast crushed it's neck. It fell over dead and Hael wasted no time in getting back on track to find Levi.