Battle to Capture Doldrey (4)

Casca's assault on Doldrey is halted by Adon, armored in a shark motif and left in charge of the fortress after being stripped of field command, his men now garrisoned inside. Burning to avenge his slain brother Samson, he squares off against her. Out on the battlefield, Gennon learns that his soldiers cannot break through to Griffith because one man stands in their way: Guts. Boscogn moves to confront him directly, and their weapons meet so swiftly that the watching troops cannot follow the exchange.

No longer weakened by her period, Casca easily gains the upper hand over Adon and sends him tumbling down a flight of stairs. Near the river, Pippin's timely rescue saves Rickert from death, though he, Rickert, and Corkus have started to feel the battle is lost, the Band of the Falcon badly outnumbered.

Griffith halts his own fighting to watch Guts trade blows with Boscogn. Guts admits the strain feels heavier than his stand against Adon's hundred soldiers and recalls his brush with Zodd, yet he judges this fight far less hopeless than either of those.

Back inside Doldrey, Casca batters Adon so relentlessly that he cannot even raise a guard. Seizing a pause, he drops to his knees and grovels for mercy, and while Casca stares in disbelief at the absurd display, he exploits her confusion to fire a crossbow bolt into her shoulder.

This twenty three page chapter closes out a stretch of the Golden Age Arc and was first printed in Young Animal issue 23 on 26 November 1993. Zodd appears only in flashback.