Ready to Die (3)

Guts orders Casca to run, and though she agrees to go she vows to come back with Griffith and the Band of the Falcon. He plants himself in the path of Adon's soldiers, cutting down any who try to slip past him toward her. Wary of his strength, the men pull back until Adon goads them into a single mass charge, which Guts eagerly meets.

Fleeing through the forest, Casca trips on a root and spots pursuers on her trail. She lifts her sword, but fever and pain quickly sap her, forcing her to keep running. Guts, meanwhile, carves through Adon's numbers, until a crossbow bolt aimed at his face is caught bare-handed. With one hand occupied he can no longer wield his massive blade two-handed as its use demands.

Casca's pursuers catch her again, beat her down, and take her weapon. Deciding to violate her before killing her, they begin stripping her armor and tearing her tunic. Cursing her own helplessness, she recalls Guts telling her to return to Griffith. The memory rouses her; she gropes for a broken branch and drives it into the eye of the soldier pinning her. Freed, she lunges for her sword, only for Judeau and a band of comrades to arrive, coming to rescue both her and Guts.

Guts covers Casca's escape and takes on Adon's massed soldiers, catching a crossbow bolt that costs him the two-handed use of his sword. Casca, weakened by fever, is caught and nearly assaulted before stabbing a soldier's eye with a branch to break free. Judeau and the Band of the Falcon arrive to rescue them.

Concluding the third part of the Ready to Die sequence in the Golden Age arc, this twenty-four-page chapter ran in Young Animal issue sixteen on August 13, 1993. It marks a turning point for Casca, who reclaims her resolve at her lowest moment, and ends with the Band's timely rescue.