Ready to Die (1)

Casca recalls how the Band of the Falcon first crossed paths with Guts. In those days her one ambition was to become indispensable to Griffith's dream, so it shook her deeply when Griffith went out of his way to recruit Guts, an effort he had never made for anyone. She confides that Griffith, ordinarily poised and calculating, turns rash whenever Guts is concerned, and that this reliance, paired with Guts' habit of shouldering everything alone, has nearly gotten Griffith killed more than once. She resents that the man Griffith leans on most is the one who seems least invested in his ambition.

As she weeps against his chest, Guts hears soldiers outside the cave, mercenaries chasing the bounty Adon placed on both their heads. The hunters work their way downstream toward the hideout, so Guts gives Casca a temporary draught for her fever to ready her for a nightfall escape.

Attempting to scale the cliff, Casca buckles under her fever and the pain in her lower body, and Guts spurs her onward by reminding her that the enemy will show no mercy for a woman's hardships. Moments later he catches sight of an incoming arrow and shoves her clear, only to reveal that they have blundered into an ambush, ringed by dozens of Adon's men.

His face still bandaged from the wounds Guts once dealt him, Adon announces his intent to take the pair alive, Guts for torture and Casca for worse. Guts fires back a crude warning that any part Adon's men force into Casca's mouth will be bitten off, a jab that earns him an elbow from Casca and enrages Adon into ordering the attack. The gap in skill is immediate: the two cut down several soldiers with ease and stand back to back against the rest.