Wound

Atop the Wall, Dot Pixis hears the cost of his diversion: roughly a fifth of the men drawing Titans toward the corner are dead. He accepts responsibility without flinching, willing to be remembered as a mass murderer if the species survives. Below, the operation's centerpiece is failing. Rather than lifting the boulder, Eren's Titan swings on Mikasa, cutting her cheek, and when she perches in front of his face to reach him he throws another punch that nearly severs his own head before he slumps onto the rock. Rico sends up the red flare admitting the mission has gone wrong, and Pixis, watching the smoke rise, rejects his officers' suggestion to pull everyone out.

On the rooftops the escort fractures. Mitabi and Rico argue for falling back to the Wall and leaving Eren where he lies, which brings Mikasa's blade halfway from its sheath before Ian steps between them. Ian rules that they will hold the position and cut down the Titans wandering in, reasoning that what Eren could mean for mankind justifies dying here; Rico, pressed for a better plan, concedes she has none. Privately, Ian admits to Mikasa that her hand on the sword frightened him, then frames the new orders as her chance to fight for the person she loves. She answers that Eren is family, then studies him with growing worry: his hands have not regrown, and the accumulated damage may be straining whatever lets him return to human form.

Armin arrives as more Titans converge, and Mikasa realizes with alarm that Eren himself is what draws them. Recalling how Eren first emerged from a Titan's weak point, Armin measures the nape, drives his blade in until it bites Eren's arm, and gets an immediate reaction. He sends Mikasa off to hold the perimeter and shouts down into the steaming flesh, reminding Eren of the mission, of his murdered mother, of his vow to destroy every last Titan. None of it lands. Inside his own mind Eren sits at the family table with Grisha, Carla, and a young Mikasa, unwilling to leave the illusion.

The boulder plan stalls when Eren's rampaging Titan attacks Mikasa instead of advancing, and Rico's red flare officially marks the operation a failure.

Ian Dietrich overrules calls for retreat and commits the escort squads to defending the incapacitated Eren against the gathering Titans.

Mikasa observes that Eren's Titan is failing to regenerate, and later realizes the approaching Titans are being drawn to him.

Armin stabs into the nape, wounding Eren's real arm, and begins trying to shout him out of a dream of his lost family.

The chapter closes volume 3 as its fourth installment, running in Japan on September 9, 2010 and in English on December 4, 2012. It belongs to the Wall Sealing arc, between Icon and Primitive Desire, and the anime adapts it as Wound: The Struggle for Trost, Part 8, the near-identical title behind the disambiguation notice.

Japan also received a full-color version of this chapter through the booklet Attack on Titan: Full-Color Special Edition.