Fighter

The mercenary's arrival lifts the survivors' spirits at once, and Guts asks to take Silat by himself while Casca withdraws. Recognizing his opponent as the famed hundred-man slayer, Silat finally understands why he proved so hard to beat during their earlier tournament bout. He hurls a pair of chakram to close on Guts from two angles, but Guts snags both in midair using a single extended finger and the raised hilt of his blade.

Switching to his deadliest arms, Silat unfurls the urumi, whip-like swords whose thin, pliant blades lash out like ribbons across several feet. Guts weaves clear of the opening strikes, taking only a shallow cut across the cheek, and halts when one of Silat's own men is shredded by the flailing steel. Settling into the same two-handed guard he once used against Zodd, Guts waits. Silat spins the blades into a storm and casts the whole tangle forward.

Guts cuts upward an instant before impact, and the wave of pressure off his swing knocks the ribbons wide. He drives straight through them; Silat barely swaps weapons in time to parry, but the block shatters his armament and strips the turban from his head. With his men already fleeing, the unmasked Silat retreats alongside them, committing Guts' name to memory and vowing their paths will cross again. Guts eases his stance and turns his gaze back to Casca.