After Guts leaves the band of the Hawks, Griffith find himself in turmoil. And this is not exactly a position to be while fighting to survive in ever treacherous politics of Midland. As expected he becomes rash and soon finds himself captured by the Midland king who sentences him to one year of torture (and I mean torture) while Band of Hawks gets chased down by the Midland military and now, instead as a renown military outfit, they find themselves hunted by their former employers.

It wont be until Guts accidentally finds out about the above months later that Band of Hawk will finally move on to save their leader.

Art is constantly good, I especially liked the gladiatorial fights Guts participates in and his combat with Indian-inspired warrior in the duel of skills. Truly great.

Recommended to all fans of gritty and bloody fantasy stories. ( )

This is the ninth volume in the Berserk series. I continue to really enjoy this fantasy horror manga series. This is the book where everything pretty much goes downhill for everyone (except maybe Guts).

Griffith has taken Guts leaving hard and decides to seek comfort in the princesses’s embrace. When Griffith is found out both Griffith and the Band of the Hawk take a hard fall from grace.

Meanwhile Guts has returned from training in the Mountains; it’s been a year since he left the Band of the Hawk. He finds out that the Band of the Hawk is just barely scraping by with Casca struggling to hold everything together. Casca and Guts have a violent and then steamy reunion and plans are started for Griffith’s rescue.

This book has more sex in it than any other Berserk book yet….yes this is for mature readers only. There continues to be the same level of violence and gore as well.

As per the previous books I continue to be impressed with the pace of the story and wonderful illustration. The story is very easy to follow and very engaging.

Overall this was a wonderful continuation of the Berserk series. The story, characters, action, and world are amazing. I love the rapid pace of the story. I would recommend this whole series to mature readers who enjoy fantasy horror manga. ( )