Eastern Magic

Daiba dares the swordsman to open the exchange, and Guts obliges by springing from the bowsprit toward the mage hovering before the foresail. A brief chant raises a column of harbor water that catches Guts and hurls him to a lethal altitude, leaving Schierke shaken by both the enemy's command of the elements and the danger of the drop.

Her luminous form having been drawn into the Berserker Armor, the young witch reaches into Guts' thoughts and is pulled inside the Beast of Darkness itself, only her upper body surfacing from the creature. She wipes its snarling face aside to reveal the true self hidden beneath, then speaks to the swordsman whose perception has been twisted by fury, calling him back to consciousness.

When Daiba surrenders his hold on the spout, Guts plunges toward the water below, rights himself midair, and plants the Dragon Slayer beneath his body to steer the fall. He drops through a crow's nest to soften the impact and lands roughly on the deck. Serpico realizes the blade harnessed wind pressure to guide the descent and quietly wonders whether raw instinct or deliberate skill was behind it.

Pleased by his opponent's grit, Daiba raises a fresh set of spinning water columns, and Guts vaults across the floating carcasses of slain makara to cross the harbor back toward his allies, dodging every spout aimed at him. The group notices too late that a blazing ship's mast is toppling onto them, only for Guts to catch its entire weight and shove it harmlessly aside, sparing everyone. He caps the rescue with a flat remark about the aching he expects the next day.

This installment runs twenty-one pages and belongs to the Millennium Falcon Arc, first printed in Young Animal issue 07 on March 24, 2006. Magnifico and Roderick underline the feat by noting that a main mast normally takes dozens of hands to lift. A visible sign of Guts reclaiming control is the wolf helmet, which loosens and no longer fully encloses his head. Farnese and Ivalera look after the drained Schierke through the fight.