Guts manages to save Farnese and Casca from the clutches of the trolls, but an old acquaintance appears: Slan, one of the five 'God Hand'! She is irresistibly drawn to Guts' rage and fury, which she wishes to feast upon, and our hero owes his salvation only to the arrival of the skeleton knight. Severely wounded, Guts is taken back to the village of Schierke, attacked by one of his former comrades-in-arms! He has only one hope: to don the cursed armor of the Berserker...