In the world of Attack on Titan,

where a breed of humanoid giants that feast on humans labeled as the 'Titans' drove humanity to the brink of extinction,

forcing them to cower behind the walls,

and within the walls, there are those who wish to venture outside of the walls, to obtain freedom, and fulfill vengeance:

Birds have fallen to the earth and long for the wind

Prayers won't solve anything, only the will to fight can change the here and now

We hunters slaughter prey beyond the castle walls, consumed with surging bloodlust,

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And that's just what...

Captain Levi does best.

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In the world he lives in, Levi Ackerman, Captain of the special operations squad within the Survey Corps is widely known as 'Humanity's strongest soldier'.

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And he is indeed someone who consistently lives up to that title, as we will see throughout this Respect Thread. (except when he's wounded)

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The Survey Corps

Levi Ackerman is a member and squad leader among the Survey Corps. The Survey Corps are a part of the military that is involved in direct titan combat, titan study, and exploration beyond the walls. Although they are rarely successful, with Hange herself saying that the Survey Corps have never won, they still symbolize and is, the only hope for humanity left.

They are equipped & skilled with ODM(Omni-Directional-Maneuvering) gear, which is a set of waist-mounted grappling hooks and gas-powered propulsion enabling mobility in three dimensions. Ultrahard steel swords are used in conjunction with the gear.

All to

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Among the military, the Survey Corps have the most skilled soldiers and best fighters, with some of them possessing peak human skills.

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But still, outside of Levi himself, no one really comes close to Humanity's Strongest Soldier when it comes to swordsmanship, mastery with the ODM, and slaying the Titans.

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Even in a world with large-scale wars between humans and titans, and humans and humans,

Captain Levi, a single human equipped with blades and grappling hooks, is well-known as a legendary warrior, and a celebrity among the people.

And looked out by the enemy.

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The insignia of the Survey Corps is none other than 'The Wings of Freedom',

with the phrase also representing and symbolizing the underlying themes of Levi as a character perfectly.

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The Wings of Freedom

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Now, let's get further into the details of the capabilities, feats, and legacy of Humanity's Strongest Soldier.

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Every interesting character has an interesting backstory, and in the case for Levi, a very distinctive one.

Before becoming a member and squad leader among the Survey Corps, Humanity's Strongest Soldier was a famous thief in the underground city.

Now, for the backstory of the thief...

He is the son of Kuchel Ackerman, who was a prostitude in the underground city and the sister of Kenny Ackerman. One day, Kenny came to visit his sister, only to find her corpse and a very young and skinny boy who looked like he was on the brink of death. The boy's name was Levi.

(Go to 00:50)

In a rare showing of kindness, Kenny decided to adopt the boy. He taught Levi what he knew and what he considered to be the most important things: knife wielding skills, intimidating people, and violence.

Though one day, Kenny left the kid, believing to have taught him everything that he needed to know, and that the rest was all up to the boy himself.

Time passes by...

And the boy grew up to be a thief, pulling off heists alongside his two close friends Furlan and Isabel, with their gang being well know for their possession of, and more importantly skill with, ODM gear.

One life changing day, while pulling off a heist, Levi and his friends noticed that they were being pursued by more people than the usual military police.

After humiliating the usual police with their vastly superior skill with Omni Directional Maneuvering, Levi quickly realizes that the newcomers were the Survey Corps. Levi and his friends then attempt to outmaneuver the newcomers.

However, the Survey Corps possesing far more skill than the military police, they capture Furlan and Isabel while Mike(the most skilled soldier among the Survey Corps at the time) catches up to Levi and slams into him, forcing the latter to fight back.

Their fight is quickly interrupted by none other than Erwin Smith(who was a squad leader at the time) however, and the squad leader quickly pins Levi against a wall while the latter was distracted fighting Mike & surprised. Erwin tells Levi to look around for him to see both his friends captured by the Survey Corps, and the thief reluctantly surrenders.

And then, this happened...

Erwin offers Levi a very sudden and unexpected deal, that the latter will not be charged for his crimes if he joined the Survey Corps to help humanity fight against the titans. After a moment of consideration, Levi took the offer.

Levi and his friends' first day wasn't that pleasant for them. The trio was assigned to Flagon's squad who didn't treated them very well, but the three managed to keep their temper. The trio also undergoes the required training for the Survey Corps to battle titans.

Levi's first day of training...

From his very first time of training, Levi has already displayed prodigious skill and has invented his own style perfect for slaying the titans. Some time later, Levi and his friends is sent off to an expedition beyond the walls, meeting real titans directly for the first time in his life.

Levi's first titan kill...

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There was a hidden dark purpose to all of this though, as joining the Survey Corps was all a scheme for Levi and his friends to get an opportunity to kill Erwin Smith and to steal a document from the squad leader.

After Levi's first titan kill, he decided to take the chance to kill Erwin, and decided to do it alone and leave his friends behind in order to avoid suspicion. His friends wished him good luck and waved.

Before he gets far however, he founds multiple corpses of those of the Survey Corps that he suspects to have been killed by an abnormal titan. He then realizes in terror of the possibility of him riding right past it, and turns back in fear of his friends.

He arrives too late only to find the corpses of Isabel and Furlan, and the abnormal titan standing over them, with a sadistic expression on the face of the titan.

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In a fit of pure rage, and also sadness, Levi slaughters the titan with unbelievable speed, speed that even he has never displayed before the incident(and Levi was always remarked for his incredible speed).

Soon after the battle, Erwin comes by and finds Levi next to the corpses of his friends and what was left of the titan...

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Before Levi lost his sanity any further, Erwin told him to not regret his choices any further, and told him to devote himself to the Survey Corps. Inspired and moved, Levi decides to do as what Erwin advised, telling himself that this will be indeed a choice with no regrets.

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Omni Directional Maneuvering gear

The most signature thing about the military in Paradis is that the soldiers are equipped with ODM(Omni Directional Maneuvering or Omni Directional Mobility) gear, a type of equipment made in Paradis for soldiers to fight against the titans. Simply put, it's a set of waist-mounted grappling hooks and gas-powered propulsion enabling mobility in three dimensions. Ultrahard steel swords are used in conjunction with the gear. Although the equipment grant the soldiers great mobility, it takes great skill, athletic ability, and strength in order to do the basics of maneuvering, let alone be a master.

There are a lot of aspects and skills where Levi tremendously outclasses everyone else in. And mastery of the ODM is one of them.

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So how does soldiers flying around omni directionally in the world of Attack on Titan looks like?

For anyone who wants to take a look,

Credits to '

jUST A nAme', the creator of this beautiful AMV! Seriously, the transitions are beyond words. This is criminally underrated https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR90Z4cH7q8.

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A detailed description for the principle of how it works

A variation of the device is replacing the sword blades with explosive rods, but having the same standard body and harness of the equipment.

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And as seen as in Liberio post timeskip, Levi is also proficient and extremely skilled with the new advanced ODM gear that was created before the Attack on Liberio. The newly designed gear uses Marleyan technology. Ever since Liberio, most of the warriors of Paradis were shown to use the gear like Kenny Ackerman and the anti personnel control squad, shooting cables out of their weapons. Though Levi and Mikasa still prefer the cables to be placed on their hips.

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From the very beginning, Captain Levi demonstrates superiority of the skill with ODM over everyone else. In the first fight scene of Levi Ackerman that was shown in the show, he comfortably and casually maneuvers away from a titan before striking it.

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In his prequel, it is shown that Levi was always a master, even before he joined the Survey Corps and was a thief in the underground city. Thief Levi was very skilled, comfortably humiliating the military police chasing him and outmaneuvering them. He also demonstrates very respectable skill when trying to outmaneuver the Survey Corps, masterfully moving through alleyways and casually doing flips.

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On his first titan kill, he uses his skills to kill a titan on a plain without much trouble

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Levi's first titan kill in the manga (swiftly traveled from the butt to the nape of the titan before quickly slashing the nape)

Quickly maneuvers to the belly of a titan on a plain and then slashes its stomach open

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Uses the line of titans around him in a plain to maneuver and get close to his opponent

Grapples on parts falling in mid air

Even when severely injured, Levi displays great skill and mobility.

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The best place to look for Levi's insane skill with ODM is his fight against Kenny and the anti personnel control squad. The battle begins with Levi expertly maneuvering through building before being pursued by multiple military policemen with guns.

And when he was being pursued...

Literally Spidermans all over the place and manages to avoid getting hit by countless bullets. Displays all precision, judgement, instinct, speed, skill in a jaw-dropping manner.

Levi doesn't use Omni Directional Mobility gear for just mobility though...

Slams a cable into a policeman and swiftly lands a killing blow after grapplehooking in mid-air

Can also use the trick as a means to ragdoll & move his opponents

Can also use that trick in a lethal way

After all, the grapple hooks were made to be able to pierce or be attached to almost anything. Humans are of course also included.

There is are two compressed gas cylinders, one on each sheath, store compressed gas which is used to both fire and retract the grapples, and also to propel in mid-air.

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Swordsmanship

In Omni Directional Mobility gear, the classic equipment has two swords used as a conjunction with the gear. A very convenient design for the soldiers who have to battle titans. As slicing the nape with swords is one of the few, and the most at-least convenient way to put a titan completely out of its misery.

And it's the same case with ODM gear when it comes to how much Levi's swordsmanship skills is on a different league from all the other Survey Corps.

Levi was always an excellent knifesman, even before joining the Survey Corps and before using blades as weapons to slaughter the titans. He was taught by none other than Kenny the ripper after all, someone who got the title after killing 100 military police with his knife weilding skills.

Levi as a child

Here, Levi quickly disarms Mike from one of his swords with a single knife

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Mike was humanity's second strongest soldier at the beginning of Attack on Titan, and the strongest soldier before Levi joined the Survey Corps

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Now, for swords:

The blades that the Survey Corps carry around to attach to the sword handles are made of 'Ultrahard steel'.

Ultrahard steel is indeed very dense, so whoever thinks the swords of the Survey Corps are fragile couldn't be more wrong. Ultrahard steel is the only substance for the Walldians in Attack on Titan that could be used to damage/kill a Titan. Which makes sense of course because Sasha repeatedly slamming an axe on a 3 meter pure titan's nape didn't damaged or even bothered it. For extra info, inside the walls, the cannonballs, and most likely the thunderspears too looking at how they can pierce, are also made of Ultrahard steel.

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Levi's swordsmanship skill displays are far beyond replicable by anyone in real life, actually, it's far from what any other character in Attack on Titan other than Levi himself can replicate.

Completely obliterates a titan's hand in less than a second with his swings

The movements with his sword here is beyond perceivable

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He could also masterfully use the swords & blades as ranged weapons.

Throws blades into a titans' eyes and completely blinds it

Throws a blade like a boomerang at Kenny

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Deflects a fired bullet with his sword, and does it in an offensive manner and deflects into the eye of one of the military police shooting at him(or it can be simply interprated as Levi throwing a blade into the Policeman's eye, the illustration is rather unclear)

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Other gear

Like the other Survey Corps, Levi is also familiar with thunderspears, an explosive armament used in the Paradis military. Invented by none other than Hange Zoe, it was initially a technology specifically developed to fight against the Armored Titan, as the titan's armor made it invulnerable against their swords. Although it has later been adapted to be used in combat in general for the Devils of Paradis.

Something to note about the weapon

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Levi used thunderspears twice in both the manga and anime, first against the Beast Titan, and then used for blowing up a Colossal Titan Eren's mouth open.

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Levi has also shown to use small AoE bombs.

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Humanity's strongest soldier has a very different, and distinctive fighting style from the others. Shown in his first day of titan slaying training.

Instead of obsessing over and purely going straight towards the nape, he uses his surroundings to take advantage.

And land a hit remarkably faster than those who came before. Erwin and some of the Survey Corps saw this and realized of the importance and that a reform would be required for the Survey Corps to adopt to this style of fighting.

Leaping and dropping from the air or a higher place when landing an attack is something easily noticeable in his fighting style consistently.

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Another thing to note when looking at his fighting style is the unique way he holds the blades.

Levi is shown to wield one of his two swords in a reverse grip, and this method has greatly helped in his ability to slay the Titans. The method is holding his right sword backhanded with the blade facing out and being behind him, not in front.

Like this

By doing this, Levi can utilize spinning and other rotating attacks, and become, basically: a fidget spinner of death.

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And also here, while looking at this kill, another thing noteworthy is that Levi always sticks to the landing.

The signature style also helps him keep his energy up without wasting stamina and strength needlessly, enabling him to fight for longer periods of time

and take multiple targets out simultaneously.

Even when severely injured, he could very respectably still perform the moves

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The Ackermans is part of the Eldians. They used a bloodline of warriors that protected the royal family, but were persecuted to the brink of extinction after refusing to follow Karl Fritz's ideology. The Ackermans are a special breed of humans possesing the blood of titans and having superhuman stats.

Only two Ackermans are currently left in the world, that being Levi and Mikasa Ackerman.

They also possess a bloodline once thought to exist only in legends told by the royal family. The Ackerman clan, byproducts of Titan science

-Zeke Yeager

Zeke's description about the Ackermans

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As an Ackerman, Levi has "awakened" a special power within himself previously in his life that he describes as "knowing exactly what needs to be done."

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The "awakening" power of Mikasa Ackerman (a child broke a wooden floor board)

Levi's awakening happened after the deaths of his friends by the hands of the sadistic abnormal titan. The awakened power gave Levi the strength to completely decimitate the titan.

With the blood of titans running through their veins, the Ackermans can even borrow and utilize the strength of that of a pure titan. Thus the reason they were designed to protect the Eldian King.

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Pure titans(particularly the tall ones) possesses some strength much beyond that of normal Superhumans, creating huge holes in buildings

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Other noteworthy things about Ackermans include...

Possessing inhuman durability (Levi was previously right next to an explosion that would obliterate anyone to smithereens)

Cannot turn into a titan and is immune against King Fritz's ideology & control.

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One thing for sure, the word 'blur' and 'flash' is going to be mentioned a lot here.

Levi's entire fighting style, whether it's against titans or humans, revolves around blitzing and statuing(and that being the reason why I decided to display his speed and combat skill in general in the same part), so you would expect him to be fast. Especially in the case for titans, where Levi is literally the living embodiment of the phrase:

"Our Enemy is Colossal, so we will jump to him!"

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From the very first day of his training, the previous members of the Survey Corps were completely surprised with Levi's speed. And that was way before Levi in his prime.

The speed of Levi's attacks are often conveyed with speed lines and he is often depicted as a literal flash.

Levi Ackerman vs The Aberrant Titan

Here, Levi blitz-stomps the aberrant titan that killed his friends, constantly being shown as a flash.

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With absurd attack speed & rate, he decapitates the same aberrant titan.

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And then, finally puts it out of its misery by slicing its nape after performing his signature swirl on its arm.

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Levi Ackerman's skill

And the Titan Slayer does indeed live up to that hype. As shown in his feats of fighting(and most of the time stomping) some of the members among the Nine Titan Shifters.

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Manga

Anime

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Here, he blitzes the Female Titan with Mikasa commenting on how he is too fast for the Female Titan to the point where it can't even try to harden her skin

He also repeatedly slashed at almost every part of its body at insane rate, leaving countless scars

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The same Female Titan has 1) reaction speed feats like dodging thunderspears, 2) traveling a very notable distance and defending people against thunderspear explosions instantly, and 3) fighting on par with, and even outspeeding the Attack Titan/Eren, who has a feat of reacting and reaching out to grab a cannon ball after it was fired(and that was a feat he showed before fighting the Female Titan)

In this case, the manga is much more clear when showing Eren's feat

Also, more importantly, both Eren and the Female Titan's punches and kicks have displayed breaking the sound barrier (admittedly, for the last two gifs the shockwaves can also be rather argued as simply explosions from impact)

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and Levi moved much faster than the punch from the Female Titan in their battle as aforeshown

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Mikasa have trouble following Levi's movements

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The same Mikasa who reacts to bullets and is able to time the crossbow arrow of the Warhammer Titan after it was fired

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Manga

Anime

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Levi blitzes the Beast Titan in this lengendary/iconic fight scene, even statuing the sliced pieces of the Beast Titan's arm while moving

And also in that fight maneuvered all the way from the 17 meter Beast Titan's head to feet in much less than a second, and displayed insane attack rate and speed with his swords when tearing down its nape

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The Beast Titan is able to defeat the Armored Titan in combat, and throw rocks at least in Supersonic speed (there most likely is a large connection between how fast one can move its arm and the speed of the projectiles that one threw)

Something important to look at in the battle is the first shot where the Beast Titan shifts its arm at impressive speed and cuts Levi's ODM gear wire off

It's confirmed to be that way in the script

And as aforeshown, Levi not only blitzed the Beast Titan, he moved significantly faster than its arm that can throw things at high supersonic speed, without the use of any cables. A jaw dropping display of speed that ODM gear cables wasn't even required for Levi to perform. (solid proof that even without ODM gear, the Titan Slayer is well above most superhumans)

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Manga

Anime

Very quickly swoops in and slices the Beast Titan's nape in Liberio(literally untraceable while swooping in) and was completely unnoticed by the Cart Titan, another member of the Nine Titans till it was too late for Zeke

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Manga

Anime

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Dodges the Beast Titan's throws, and the Beast Titan can actually throw things at twice the speed of the average bullet as shown in this calc, and then proceeds to cut multiple branches in startling rate, and then swoops in hiding behind a falling branch, and the dodges an attack from Zeke again

Then proceeds to put an end to their old rivalry by defeating Zeke once again, this time by quickly reaching the Titan at close range and blowing up its nape with the Thunderspears

(in the manga it is shown that the Beast Titan had hardened its nape with crystal as soon as the fight began, thus why Levi had to blow it up with Thunderspears)

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The battles and rivalry between Levi and Zeke/the Beast Titan is very much something that'll be expected in an epic myth indeed,

with Humanity's Strongest Soldier blitzing the Mighty Titan every time

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Quickly swoops in and intercepts Eren while the latter was in his Titan form

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Swoops in at supersonic speed(notice the sonic boom that was formed) and cuts the muscles of the jaw of the Jaw Titan, and performing that before Mikasa was able to do anything (an astonishing display of both movement and combat speed)

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For feats where he displays great speed and skill while fighting titans outside of the Major Nine,

Negs two tall titans, one shoting each in impressive speed

Here, with astonishing speed, slices off a titan's arm completely, visually shown as a flash, could literally be mistaken as lightning (this is hyperbolic, and a way of simply expressing 'fast', don't try to create a strawman and label me as a wanker using this)

Quickly neg diffs the same titan with graceful movement

Of course, Humanity's Strongest Soldier doesn't live off of feats of blitz-stomping singular titans. For Levi, those fights are easy/neg-diff pickings.

In Attack on Titan, Levi is by far the best (among both humans & titan shifters) when it comes to killing & blitzing multiple titans.

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One shots two titans (and by the looks of the gas, traveled quite a distance before blitzing those two titans)

Also one shots two titans here

Early Levi in the manga slayed four tall titans on a plain after already having killed one seconds before

He's also shown to be depicted as a blur when he one shot two titans among the four

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Here, when Annie called countless pure titans, 1) Levi acts quickly and casually one-shots two titans in a blur and performs a countless-degree spin in mid-air, and is then 2) Shown to be fighting through a crowd of titans

Kills all the pure titans that were near Zeke in a plain, cutting their napes while being shown as a blur

In their third battle, Zeke has turned 30 survey corps into abnormal titans that are remarkably fast and can quickly climb trees and perform impressively quick & long leaps to remove Levi out of his way.

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Acts quickly and performs a 1620-degree spin mid-air in a blur of motion and slices off an abnormal titan's fingers

Though as Zeke's plan, Levi hesitates whether to kill the abnormal titans as they are all his innocent subordinates.

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Yet, manages to slaughter allthe 1)thirty 2)fast abnormal 3)pre-subordinates/friends titans. (The grand fight was cut out in both the manga & anime, really wish it was on-screen)

When it comes to slaughtering titans in numbers and directly, no other individual human or titan shifter in Attack on Titan has a feat close to this by any means.

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Before directly engaging with the Beast Titan for the third time,

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Tears apart the abnormal titans near/protecting Zeke at great speed

For anime, slaughters two abnormal titans near Zeke at fast speed, the first kill in a flash of motion

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Humanity's Strongest Soldier is not only a killing machine designed for Titans, but when he is forced to, the same thing applies to humans as well.

Quickly swoops in and blitzes Reiner, stabbing through both the latter's throat and heart

Skillfully dodges an unexpected attack from a Survey Corps member when he was an underground thief

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Blitzes and one shots three soldiers of the anti-personnel-squad

Swiftly dodges an attack from Kenny Ackerman

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Dodges bullets from Kenny in the same fight(admittedly he did had the support from a pillar in the first feat)

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During the attack on Liberio, the Cart Titan, with an artillery on its back, ambushed the Devils of Paradis(a complete surprise attack, with the Marley soldiers stating that the machine gun gear being perfect against the people equipped with ODM gear(that is more clear on the original Japanese dialogue))

Yet, Levi shows no effort while going through countless gunfire

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Legit times a bullet and deflects it, and towards a military policeman's eye (it could also be interpreted as Levi simply throwing his blade, but the illustration is unclear)

Dodges a dirty back attack/gun shot from Kenny

Saves himself from getting hit by two bullets while running across a roof

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Dodges gunfire

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Dodges the Beast Titan's throws, which as aforementioned, shows enormous mach cones, and as aforementioned, Beast Tittan's attacks can go potentially as fast as twice the speed of the average bullet

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To reinforce the idea, I'll say it directly, Levi's reaction speed is also astonishing and beyond

Here, he reacts to & sees pieces of rocks thrown by the Beast Titan in slow motion, a display of absurd perception, as aforementioned many times, projectiles thrown by the Beast Titan generally move at the very least Supersonic

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Levi, with the help of his ODM gear, can move incredibly fast

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Manga (The chase between Levi Ackerman and Kenny's squad)

Anime (Chase between Levi and Kenny's squad)

Moves at insane speeds and avoids a countless/rain of bullets by Kenny Ackerman & the military police.

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Maneuvers through buildings and alleys with insane skill with ODM and dodges countless gunfire, all at the same time.

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The result of the fight between Levi Ackerman and the anti-personnel-control-squad:

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Moves at a speed untraceable by the military police, very quickly moving to below the roof of a building while using the chair as a decoy

In the manga, he swiftly blitzes & humiliates another guy while going up the roof two policemen with guns was standing on after killing the man distracted by the chair with a cable (that kill wasn't in the anime)

Blitzes & one shots two policemen (not each, it was a single blow)

Does the same thing to another member of the anti-personnel-control-squad in mid-air

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In the beginning of the battle between Levi and the anti personnel control squad, Levi demonstrated an insane feat of movement/travel speed with his ODM gear

He not only dodged the three bullets, but he literally matched pace with the third bullet that was fired,

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And yes, although the aforementioned feats above already shows that Levi can break the sound barrier with ODM gear in both combat and travel, there are clear signs of mach cones forming in the manga

and anime

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In one point of the story, Levi gets a severe nerf, losing an eye and two fingers, and was originally strongly required to stay in bed (but went on fighting anyways). But despite all that, Humanity's Strongest Soldier still remains very competent, outperforming every non-titan shifter there in the fight excluding Mikasa.

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Dodges attacks from both hardened Beast Titan and a hardened Warhammer Titan

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Demonstrates insane speed while rescuing Jean and Connie

Swoops in from an extremely far position and one shots Zeke

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