Dark Horse

Guts, the Black Swordsman, and his companions have finally broken free of the monster-infested wilderness and arrived at the port city of Vritannis. But the band finds out all too quickly that humans can be just as monstrous as the nightmarish creatures and apostles they battled in the forest. As Schierke and Isidro face off against pirate slavers, Farnese's power-hungry family tries to force her once again under the yoke of their political ambitions.

The evil Count uses his dark powers to transform a defeated guard captain into an inhuman horror to combat Guts, the Black Swordsman. Puck, Guts' pint-sized fairy sidekick, is captured when he attempts to stop an old doctor's execution, and he is given as a gift to the count's daughter, a sweet girl in a gilded cage, imprisoned by her father in her own room.

Guts, the feared Black Swordsman, finishes his desperate battle with the monstrous Count, but the Count's dying pleas activate the Behelit, summoning the five God Hands, demon lords of immeasurable power. Guts' journey so far has been a long road of pain and death, but it's a walk in the park compared to fighting his way out of Hell itself!

After a hellish battle against ravenous sea monsters, Guts the Black Swordsman and his companions are forced to seek refuge on a small island so their ship can be repaired. But this island is not the safe haven they'd hoped for - it's a sinister place rife with dark energy, watched over by an ancient, vengeful god. And with a full moon on the rise, that god's power is about to be unleashed...

What Guts the Black Swordsman and his companions had seen as an island refuge from monstrous sea creatures and the ghost ship of the demonic Bonebeard is in fact the very lair of the malefic sea god that controls them. With no avenue of escape, Guts must once again don the Berserker armor to give his company any chance of survival. But without the protective influence of the sorceress Schierke, Guts risks being forever lost within the cursed armor and becoming an even greater threat to his comrades!

Guts, the Black Swordsman, hooks up with his former benefactor, the mercenary Gambino. But it's a deadly reunion, one that nearly takes Guts' life. The following years see Guts wandering from battlefield to battlefield, where his awesome skills as a slayer catch the eye of both warring parties, including the legendary Griffith, warrior leader of the Band of the Hawk.

He is Guts, the Black Swordsman, a warrior of legendary prowess: relentless, fearless, merciless. As cold and brutal as the iron of the massive sword he wields. Bent on revenge against the unholy forces that have branded him for sacrifice, but especially on Griffith, one of the demon lords of the Godhand.

While in a king's employ, the attraction between the king's daughter and Griffith and the growing favor of the king towards the Hawk leader raises the hackles of the king's jealous son, who plots to have Griffith summarily assassinated. But if the plot fails, the king's son will likely have to deal with Guts and his titanic broadsword, and the results of such confrontations are rarely pretty... or easy to clean up.

On Venus, Nemisis supercomputer controls government functions, with bioroid "executors" created to carry out the system's utopian edicts. But trouble brews even in paradise as different executors vie for control of Nemesis, forcing the governing system to secretly create Duna Typhon, a super-bioroid "sleeper," raised among the human populace and ready to use her awesome powers should Nemesis be co-opted to turn paradise into paradise lost.

After traveling a long and perilous road together, Rin and her immoral bodyguard Manji have become separated, as Rin risks life and limb in her pursuit of her family's murderer, the ruthless Anotsu Kagehisa, leader of the outlaw Itto-Ryu sword school.

Anotsu Kagehisa, master swordsman and leader of the rogue Itto-ryu dojo, has sheathed his blade for the moment to join in marriage with the daughter of a swordmaster whose dojo is to be brought under Onotsus' dark wing. But for a man of action, the formal traditions of feudal Japan can be just as tense and fraught with hidden agendas as the battlefield. And while Anotsu may indulge in a moment of peace, his enemies are not at rest...