The Hunters

Steam pours off the Colossus Titan as Hannes and the soldiers atop Wall Rose regain their senses. Historia points him to the far side, where the Titans of Eren and Reiner grapple on the ground below. Answering Reiner's roar for help, Bertolt drops from the Wall's summit, and the Colossus Titan's impact swallows the battlefield in a devastating blast. In Trost, Anka wakes a dozing Pixis with a smack and a report: new Titan sightings have stopped, and search parties found only a handful of wanderers. Erwin arrives with news of his own, having finally pried the Military Police out of the interior and into the threatened zones, where Levi and Jean watch the reluctant officers muster. A Garrison soldier then delivers the real bombshell to the commanders: three members of the 104th Training Corps were Titans in disguise, and both fighters vanished once the Corps clashed with the Colossus.

Mikasa comes to hours later. Armin explains that Reiner and Bertolt escaped in the chaos with Eren and Ymir, that five hours have already passed, and that no pursuit has launched: horses cannot cross the Wall until the elevator is ready, and Hange and other officers are too badly hurt to move. Mikasa broods on the contrast with Annie's kidnapping, when she and Levi retrieved Eren almost immediately. Hannes arrives with rations and gentle teasing, observing that nothing has changed since their childhood, with Mikasa forever cleaning up Eren's messes. He offers his own kind of comfort: he has never once seen Eren win a fight, but he has never seen him accept a loss either, and wherever he is, Eren will be raising hell until someone reaches him. Hannes swears to keep searching until the dull, quiet days return.

When the combined Survey Corps and Military Police force assembles on Wall Rose, Armin urges Historia to stay behind; she refuses to abandon Ymir. Connie declares he will not accept Reiner and Bertolt as enemies until he hears it from their own mouths. A battered Hange seizes Erwin's map and identifies the fugitives' likely refuge, a Titan Forest between the Walls where exhaustion and roaming Titans would force them to rest, reachable before nightfall. In that forest, Eren stirs awake beside Ymir, bound, with Reiner and Bertolt standing watch.

Bertolt's Colossus Titan falls from the Wall onto Eren and Reiner, covering the Warriors' escape with Eren and Ymir.

Pixis and Erwin learn that no breach exists in Wall Rose and that three trainees of the 104th were Titans.

Mikasa wakes to find five hours lost and no rescue underway.

Hannes rallies Mikasa and Armin, pledging to recover Eren and the peaceful days they lost.

Hange pinpoints the Titan Forest as the kidnappers' resting place, where Eren regains consciousness as a captive.

The Hunters is the third chapter of volume 11 and the 45th overall, created by Hajime Isayama. The Japanese release came on May 9, 2013, followed by the English edition on January 28, 2014. It belongs to the Clash of the Titans arc, after Strike, Throw, Submit and before Opening.

The anime spreads its content across the episodes Close Combat and The Hunters.