Hope you brought your swimsuit. We’re going swimming today.
Last time on Berserk: Guts and Schierke have a heart-to-heart that ends with a misunderstanding between them, and Serpico has an existential crisis. Before either could come to a peaceful resolution, the trolls attacked the village in force. Guts and Serpico killed some trolls, Isidro had his confidence rocked, Farnese confronted her past with Casca’s help, and Schierke cast a powerful protective shroud over the church and the townsfolk. Just as it seemed all is finally going well for the party, a massive ogre appeared to keep the fight going.
Today, we’re covering the following chapters:
- Evil Horde Parts 1 – 2
- Raging Torrent
- Shaman
A storm falls upon the town. In the dark and the rain, a new creature emerges to join the battle: an odd fish-horse creature makes for the church. Kind of a jarring way to start the chapter; the ogre hasn’t even done anything and we’ve already got another new monster?
It’s design is incredible, though. A frog-horse thing? 10/10.
But ignore that for now. The ogre is attacking the church, and Schierke needs more time to cast another spell. Guts, being completely accustomed to giant monster fighting, steps forward to give her just that.
The following fight is brief but awesome! Guts moves like a spinning top of death, and the panels curve to accommodate the arc of his sword’s movements. He even uses the Dragon Slayer as a shield to deflect a projectile! It’s so cool even the townsfolk are left with their jaws on the floor!
Just as Guts takes the upper-hand in the battle, the frog-horse from before cuts in with a surprise water attack. A shocked Schierke reveals it to be a kelpie, a spiritual beast made extremely powerful and dangerous by the rain. It attacks indiscriminately, fighting both the trolls and our heroes. To even the odds, Serpico drops from the church rooftop to face the creature and leave Guts to fight the ogre undisturbed.
Before he drops, Serpico has a simple request for Farnese: protect Casca. Even if Farnese doesn’t realize it, he understands that their budding sisterhood is doing better for her than he ever could. Serpico laments to himself that he had never been able to help her as Casca does. He never even tried; he had only latched onto Farnese, taking some small comfort in sharing their loneliness and trauma. But now a storm has come that promises to change both of them forever, and he aims shelter his half-sister as he’s never done before. It’s a fantastic moment of growth for his character, complete with some fun banter between him and Guts.
What follows is several pages of absolutely incredible manga fight scenes. Serpico faces the Kelpie’s water with his wind, and Guts resumes his duel with the ogre. Whereas Serpico and the Kelpie’s attacks are quick and precise, each blow from Guts and the ogre are massive and devastating in their destruction.
Meanwhile, on the sidelines, a frustrated Isidro watches the display, feeling useless and humiliated. Poor kid’s ego and confidence are taking some serious hits, and it’s only going to get worse. Suddenly, his dream of being ‘the world’s best swordsman’ is starting to seem remarkably childish and stupid even to him.
Up above, Schierke dives deeper into the Astral Realm for another spell. Here, she finds the shrine upon which the church had been built, still gathering power despite being smothered by the Holy See. Water elementals are gathering here, as well as something else. Something far, far more powerful.
Back to the fight: Serpico’s duel turns in the kelpie’s favor as it envelops Serpico in water and tries to drown him on land. Unfortunately for the monster, all that accomplishes is giving Serpico a stronger understanding of how to put the wind spirits to work, allowing him to blow past the kelpie’s defenses and deal a deadly blow. Victory seems assured.
Then the kelpie slaps an Uno-reverse card on the table and deals a devastating blow. Guts turns to help, but the ogre isn’t letting him go anywhere. A terrified Farnese makes to leap off the roof and rush to his side, but the priest and Casca hold her back. It seems that Serpico’s goose is cooked.
Until…
Up on the roof of the church, Schierke explodes with power. A water spirit takes form behind the little witch, possessing her body and channeling a near godly amount of magic. In accordance to an ancient oath, the spirit summons a tsunami to wash the evil monsters away, flooding the town in a devastating torrent. Even the stoic Guts is blow away by this awesome display of magical might.
But not so much as to miss his chance to kill the ogre once and for all. At the same time, Serpico seizes his opportunity and cleaves the kelpie’s head from its neck. With this, the battle is finally, truly won.
Meanwhile, poor Isidro can only look on and cry in defeat and frustration. For all his relentless mockery against her, the little witch just soundly knocked him down a few pegs. It’s painfully clear to him now which of them is the useless child.
All the townsfolk celebrate, cheering for their mistress witch. There’s just one problem: said witch is so caught up in the spirit’s power that she can’t end the spell. Now it’s up to Farnese, with some instruction from Ivalera, to break her out of the trance. One wrong move, and Schierke’s body and mind could be left shattered.
In the Astral World, we see Schierke being swept away by the water spirit’s overwhelming power. The torrent of thoughts and emotions overwhelm her, threatening to drown the little witch. Her form fades, drowned by the torrent of power.
Until she hears a distant echo. Tok. Tok. Tok. As her spirit regains form, she recalls Flora’s lessons on the way of magic. With her master’s guidance, Schierke regains control over her mind and safely returns to her body.
Too late.
The raging river below violently shakes the church, and Casca trips and falls. Farnese clasps her hand, and the two girls plummet into the roiling waters. Schierke tries to help them, but it’s all she can manage just to give them something to hold onto to keep from drowning. Guts and Serpico desperately cry out for the two, but their voices are drowned beneath the roaring tide. No one can do anything as Casca and Farnese disappear, carried away to places unknown.
As soon as the storm breaks, the party heads out in search of their lost companions. A wounded Serpico attempts to help, but he’s losing too much blood to be of use. Schierke desperately searches for them, beating herself up for getting caught up in the spell.
But then Guts squeezes her shoulder. He doesn’t scream at her, he doesn’t threaten her, he doesn’t go berserk. Instead, he calmly tells her to relax. He encourages her, praising her for a job well done in saving the village. It’s a small but sweet moment that shows how much Guts has grown; just a few arcs ago, he would have ripped the kid limb from limb for losing Casca.
With Guts’ encouragement, Schierke manages to locate the missing Farnese and Casca. Alas, the good news ends there. The two lay slumped and unconscious on the log, helpless as the trolls cart them off to their den.
On that note, we’ll call it a day. Considering where we’re about to go, we’re gonna need some time to collect ourselves.
This section is Berserk goodness through and through. It perfectly balances badass fight scenes and fantastic character moments. Particularly with Serpico. He was the real star of the show in these chapters, and I couldn’t be happier for that! Dude is one of my favorite characters, and he so rarely gets to take the spotlight.
Hope you enjoyed this bit of classic fantasy. Because it’s time for Berserk to go back to its horror roots. Quite literally, in this case.
You’ll get that joke next week.
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