Merrow (2)

Out on the water, the merrow tear into the Sea God's writhing limbs while the Seahorse rains fire down from the surface. The monster answers by whipping up a whirlpool meant to drown everyone hounding it, yet Roderick turns the swirling current into a weapon, circling the beast and hammering its bulk with cannon fire as Farnese's protective barrier holds the tentacles back from the deck.

Diving below, Isma slips past sea slugs and lashing appendages to reach the merrow, only to be cornered and nearly killed. A grown merrow pulls her clear at the final instant, and the sound of that voice breaks Isma down in tears once she understands the stranger is her own mother.

Deep within the Sea God, Guts has beaten back another surge of parasites but can barely remain upright. When he asks whether foes still linger, Schierke grasps that the armor has stolen much of his sight and hearing. The echoing pulse of the heart hides its location, and he crumples. Weeping, the young witch calls out fresh directions, though a violent throb sends blood from his mouth and drops him again. Reading the quickened beat as a sign the creature feels cornered, Guts wills himself upright once more before collapsing flat, numb and senseless. Then a chorus reaches them both from beyond the flesh.

Roderick converts the Sea God's maelstrom into an attack run, circling it while firing. Isma is rescued among the merrow and recognizes her savior as her mother. Schierke realizes the armor has left Guts almost sightless and unable to hear. The merrow's collective singing becomes a weapon that wounds the creature from outside.

Numbered as episode 325 of the Fantasia Arc, this twenty-one-page installment first ran in Young Animal issue nineteen on 23 September 2011. It forms part of the extended sea confrontation that closes out the voyage subplot.