Bursting Flames

As the Kundalini blasts jets of high-pressure water, Guts hops across the broken pieces of the galleass to dodge and draw near, then slashes the beast and falls back. The blow does nothing, since the creature is made of water. Schierke explains that the serpent, though obedient to Daiba, wields might on the scale of a god, and she guides Guts and Serpico by thought to a small snake-like shape drifting inside its bulbous head, the monster's core.

Ignoring the near-impossible odds, Guts leaps from boat to boat and hurls himself at the head, but the Dragon Slayer stops short of the core. He drops into the water beneath the serpent, which spins up a whirlpool to trap him under the surface. From above, Daiba watches Guts sink and barely registers Serpico climbing a wrecked mast within reach. Serpico strikes, yet the mage shields himself by melting into the Kundalini's head, and the swordsman retreats before any counter comes.

From the harbor floor Guts thrusts himself upward with such force that he bursts clear of the water and onto a ruined boat, while the submerged Daiba telepathically urges the whole party to give up and accept death. Refusing, Guts and Schierke improvise a desperate plan neither trusts. He charges the serpent as she pours the Wheel of Flame into the Dragon Slayer, and he drives the burning blade deep into its head, stopping just short of Daiba. The searing power detonates the watery body outward, and Serpico springs through the collapsing spray to sever the exposed core snake, killing the creature at last.

Running twenty-two pages in the Millennium Falcon Arc, the chapter first appeared in Young Animal issue 09 on April 28, 2006. Schierke's enchanted Wheel of Flame proves the decisive tool, since physical steel alone cannot harm a foe built of water. The victory takes all three fighters working in concert: Guts to breach the head, the flame to blow it apart, and Serpico to strike the core.