Mortal Combat (2)

As the apostle creeps forward, Guts tallies the damage: quaking legs, fractured ribs, heavy blood loss, barely any movement left, and no route to victory in sight. Casca lunges to reach him but Judeau holds her back, certain the swordsman has not surrendered, and she sags against a tree to steady herself while Griffith looks on from afar. Wyald's kick sends Guts skidding across the ground, his sword taking the brunt so his body stays largely whole, yet the massive blade splits and chips from the force. Aware that another such blow would finish both him and his weapon, Guts spots the corpse of a slain Black Dog Knight nearby and works out a plan.

Hunting for his prey, Wyald catches sight of a shape behind a tree, but a drifting leaf draws his attention up into the canopy. He splits the trunk in one stroke, dropping both the propped body and the tree, then spins and hammers the figure above, which turns out to be a log dressed in Guts' armor. The decoy bursts apart, and only too late does the giant notice the real Guts falling right behind it. The blade drives clean through Wyald's neck; when the beast thrashes to throw him off, Guts hauls himself onto its human back for leverage, draws his dagger, and sinks it into the creature's heart and right eye.

Spending the last of his strength, Wyald rams backward into a tree, jarring Guts loose to the earth below, then fixes a final look on the band's raid captain before he topples. After a still, silent moment, Casca sprints to Guts' motionless form and is overcome when he lifts his eyes to her and manages a faint thumbs up. She pulls him into an embrace as the rest of the mercenaries close in around the giant's lifeless body. The installment falls in the Golden Age Arc and first appeared in Young Animal issue 19.