"Guardian (1)" is episode 105 of the Berserk manga series.
Synopsis[]
When Jill shows some uncertainty at the prospect of becoming an elf, Rosine accuses her of having a crush on Guts. She then wonders aloud whether Guts will follow them, as he was already walking toward the Misty Valley before he turned back to attack her. When Jill shows she is listening to Rosine's words, the latter reassures her that the Misty Valley has adult guards who protect its inhabitants from those who would hurt them.
Guts discovers a ball of corpses in the Misty Valley.
Guts has found his way into the entrance of the Misty Valley, a wood full of dead trees cloaked in fog. Despite there being no discernable apostle presence, his Brand is bleeding. As he walks through the thick fog, he comes across a large ball of what appear to be human corpses. From the center of this large mass, several figures emerge.
The figures are those of the bandit men who kidnapped Jill and escaped from the possessed tree. Aside from the odd piece of armor, they are all naked and blood-soaked. They tell Guts they will not let him progress through the Misty Valley by virtue of the fact that he is an adult. Guts makes no move to back down, so they pounce, rushing at him on all fours.
Guts throws a couple throwing knives and draws his repeater crossbow. Wielding it on his left prosthetic hand, he spins its crank with his right, and with pinpoint accuracy lands hits on the bandits' eyes and mouths. They appear dead, but upon closer inspection, Guts finds that they are still alive. They begin to stir and transform into insect-like creatures. Guts swings the Dragon Slayer down on one, but the creature, which looks like a cross between an earwig and a scorpion, catches it in its pincers and holds it still.
With Guts now apparently defenseless, another bug-man, a centipede, flanks him and moves to attack. Guts has noticed this new creature, and thanks to his titanic strength manages to swing the Dragon Slayer horizontally and cut the centipede-man in half, all with the scorpion-man clinging onto its blade. He then raises it high above his head and swings downward, slicing the scorpion-man in two vertically.
After making sure that both bandits are dead, Guts turns to face the other men who have not yet attacked. The next one to attack is the bandit leader, who transforms into a large beetle-like creature. It rushes forward, pincers wide open to cut Guts clean in half, but the latter has backed into a tree, preventing the beetle's pincers from closing quickly. It attempts to crush its prey before it dies; Guts had strategically raised the Dragon Slayer during its charge and it ran right into it, impaling itself.
Despite its quickly losing strength, the beetle-man is slowly managing to close its pincers, gradually impaling the horns on its pincers into Guts' neck. The latter, in desperation, raises his repeater crossbow, aims it at the unseen face of the creature and fires it. Through its back, Guts can see the heads of the bolts appear and feel the pincers releasing. It is dead.
The maneuver Guts utilizes to escape his dire predicament.
Yet another bug-man, a tick, has crawled into the tree and is descending above Guts, who is still trapped by the pincers of the beetle-man. He desperately uses his dagger to try and cut the pincers off and free himself, but they are too strong, and his dagger chips. Coming up with a plan, Guts raises his legs and puts them against the tree, with nothing but the pincers supporting his weight. He pushes himself forward, away from the tree. Though the pincers dig deeper into his neck as he moves, they are also slowly becoming dislodged from the tree. As the tick-man gets close enough to touch Guts, the latter puts on one final burst of strength and frees himself. In one motion, the force of his pushing against the tree sends him into a front flip, and he extends the Dragon Slayer to cut the tick clean in half before he even lands on the ground.
Now having trouble standing and with deep cuts around his neck, Guts looks up into the branches of the nearby fog-covered trees. He sees dozens of similar bug-men waiting to attack.