Episode 57: Bakiraka (2)

While the band tends to the wounded Charlotte, Guts splits the smallest Bakiraka in two. The lanky assassin resurfaces with a bargain: surrender Charlotte and her life will be guaranteed. Casca agrees, and Anna leads the princess across. Before parting, Charlotte reaches for Griffith, who silently mouths words meant only for her, and she takes comfort from them.

With the girl out of danger, the assassins commit fully to the kill. Pippin catches the stout Bakiraka rising from the water and blocks a strike aimed at Griffith, and the group closes into a ring around him, fending off the long-limbed attacker. From a distance the giant Bakiraka hurls a javelin that Guts deflects, though the throw carries such force that the weapon caroms down the tunnel walls, and a second is turned aside the same way. Judeau notices that each impact throws off sparks.

Seizing on this, Judeau has the torch put out and tells Pippin to await his cue. He flings knives toward the wall where the javelins originated, and the brief sparks light the giant just enough for Judeau to bury two blades in his throat, killing him. On the signal, Pippin drives his hammer into the wall with all his strength, and the burst of light from the impact exposes the last of the Bakiraka long enough for the group to cut them down.

Charlotte is handed over to the Bakiraka in exchange for her safety, after a wordless farewell from Griffith. Freed to defend only themselves and Griffith, the party holds off the assassins, and Judeau devises a plan using the sparks from the enemy's weapons and Pippin's hammer to reveal the killers in the dark and finish them.

The fifty-seventh chapter of the Golden Age Arc is twenty-three pages long and ran in Young Animal issue nine on April 28, 1995. The chapter showcases Judeau's tactical mind and Pippin's raw strength as decisive assets, closing out the Bakiraka pursuit before the Black Dog Knights take up the hunt.