Sword Beast

Spent from her spell, Schierke can no longer walk, so she rides on Guts's back. Finding every harbor ship burned, Roderick suggests they seek an intact one to reach his own vessel. Then both Guts and Schierke sense an attack coming, and he warns everyone away from the water. In that instant several makara erupt at once and ring the group, sealing off every route but the storehouse passage they entered by.

Panic grips Schierke, who lacks the strength to drive the beasts off. As Guts lowers her down, she sees the wolf helmet forming on his back; he is deliberately giving the Beast of Darkness control. She grabs the helmet to keep it from closing over his head but is thrown off easily. In a final gambit she splits her astral body from her physical one, sending the former to cling to Guts while the latter slumps into Farnese's arms.

The massacre follows. The wolf's head clamps shut over Guts and the Beast takes hold. In one bound he springs into the mouth of the nearest makara, Dragon Slayer thrust out, and carves through its head and out its eye to kill it. The group marvels at his strength, but Isidro warns that Guts can no longer tell ally from foe. They turn to the motionless Schierke; Farnese fears she is unconscious, but Ivalera understands she has gone into the astral world.

Guts keeps slaughtering the makara, leaping between them to spear their eyes, split their skulls and shear off their trunks, while Schierke's astral form watches everything from inside the Berserker Armor's helmet.

Too weak to cast, Schierke rides on Guts's back as makara surround the party and cut off escape. Guts deliberately lets the Beast of Darkness take over through the Berserker Armor. Schierke separates her astral body and sends it into the armor's helmet, leaving her physical form in Farnese's arms. Under the Beast, Guts butchers the makara one after another, and Isidro warns the group he can no longer distinguish friend from enemy.

This is chapter 269 of the manga, part of the Millennium Falcon Arc, running nineteen pages. It first appeared in Young Animal issue 4 on February 10, 2006.