Beast Swordsman vs Black Swordsman

With a horrified Rickert and an unmoved Griffith looking on, Guts and Zodd trade sword blows. Delighted that Guts came through the Eclipse largely whole, Zodd frees a hand from his hilt and drives a punch that sends the Black Swordsman skidding across the ground. Guts rides the momentum, flips upright, and squares off again. Their blades move so fast they nearly vanish, and in a brief lull Zodd praises how far Guts' skill has climbed since that night. Guts has no patience for talk and demands he step aside, but Zodd answers that he will only move once he is cut down.

The apostle's raw strength keeps Guts pinned on defense, and Guts marvels that he can now hold his ground against a foe he stood no chance against three years earlier. A glance toward Griffith sharpens his resolve, and he throws himself in harder. When his Dragon Slayer chips Zodd's blade, the apostle snatches up one of Rickert's tribute swords and comes at him with two weapons at once, forcing Guts back beneath a storm of strikes. Spotting an opening, Zodd thrusts to impale him.

Guts, aware of the same gap in his own guard, hooks his foot beneath a fallen tribute sword and kicks its blade up through Zodd's midsection, buying just enough time to turn the thrust aside before he is knocked sprawling again. Rickert is stunned by the cunning both men fight with. Griffith, silent and nearly motionless throughout, feels a stirring he believed long erased. He gazes at Guts with something like longing and suspects it rises from his new body, formed from the Demon Child that was once Guts' own kin.