In a dark room Guts laid motionless on the ground, his surrounding dark only thing worth mention is a door locked from the other side and window barricade with scraped wood, although with their best effort to block the outside world, he can still tell when it a new day and from what he can tell it's been at least a month sines his capture, his wrist shafted by the chains that restraint him and his body filled with bruise over his stomach. As for where he is he's not sure, he is positive that Griffith did make it out and at best a search party is in effect.
For the past month he endures beating, and occasions torture by being strung up and electrocuted until he past out. He has been given a small ration of food which is not much, but eaten chicken and dirt water. It did not pass Guts that they were treating him like a dog, and all though he hated he was not too proud to eat the bone and the content inside of them.
He began to pick up some clues from his situation, first was that the area he was in he could hear gunfire and shouting almost every day meaning that it was in constant assault by the grim, he believes it because of his "gift" that they always attack.
Second was the number of people that are in the building, from the voices he can tell it a small group no bigger than ten at least, third was that there were not trying to kill him meaning that they wanted something, and lastly, they are just mussel headed thugs, he came to this conclusion when he was able the cut them up to his surprise. In all of Guts life he never killed a human or faunus, he was assigned to grim related missions being told that he will most likely come across grim than human, with all of this he's been thinking up of an escape plan.
His thoughts come to a halt when the leader and two of his goons come into the room, the goon all uses different nicknames for one and the other, but they all call their leader the same name, Donavan. He seems to be the most experienced out of all of them, he personally comes to berate guts, saying that no one's coming or he is forgotten, but he never take them to heart, except one thing he always says in every visit he come and which is that Gambino paid them to kill both Griffith and him, this triggers guts causing him to cursed them and trying to take swing at them, Him lashing out get a laugh by Donovan and who ever with, but in truth he cant help and feel it being true especially when he mentions Gambino by name. He has not been on the field for a long time so people would have not known that.
Donovan walks up to guts wearing a crooked smile "will good day to you dog, did you sleep will" Guts remain silent not acknowledging him, this made him upset and land a kick to the stomach
"When I say I speak you speak got it." He said it in a way where he was speaking to an animal, Guts responded by growling at him.
"heh close enough, any ways I came here to see that you're still alive and I got to say you don't disappoint. Though it only going to be harder for you, I mean if I realized that for the remainder of my life I'll be torture like this ill give up on the struggle and die." they all life at the guts of a guts that begging for death only to be caught off guard be guts wicked smirk,
"then the weak should roll over and die" this ceased their laughter follow by Donovan hunching over to Guts level and squeeze both side of his face and narrow his eyes, "are you sure your not related a bandit because that the same mind set they got, if so might as well finish you off"
Guts knew what he was talking about, thinking back to Martino telling him to avoid the Branwen tribe, a group of salvage bandits that kill and pillage to there hearts consent, although he figured that he was exaggerating he heard the other mercenary give their thoughts on the subject waring him to stay away, he then gives Donovan a hard glare equal to his after a while he chuckles.
"hehehe if that were true they would have found your scrawny butt, can't say the same ab-AAAHHH!'' he screamed as Guts bit into his thumb threatening to rip his thumb off, Donovan went to beat Guts in the face soon the other two came in to help either by pulling his thumb out or punching him as well. Soon Guts release the thumb , not after spitting out some flesh.
Donovan held his hand in pain then looking at guts enrage " YOU FUCKING FUCK, BITCH MOTHER FUCKER ARGH!!" he screamed, venting out his anger by stomping at a pinned down guts, he quickly lift the room
" put that fucker up and teach him a lesson" shutting the door behind him the two goons went to prep Guts for torture, one that Guts dubbed Scaly for being a reptile faunus, went to pull up the chain hoisting guts up. As for the other one named Squints for being the only one that guts know to wear glasses, get a lightning dust crystal with some gloves. He goes in to start electrocuting guts, only to meet the boy scowling at the two gritting his teeth and growling with the blood of Donovan around his mouth to complete the scary look.
"Uhh...do you wanna do it?" passing the crystal to his partner, scaly rolled his eyes and snatched the crystals out of his hands and began to press it on Guts body. Guts withheld the scream to not allow them the pleasure, only to give in to the pain when Squints goes in to electrocute him too. Scaly remained silent and looked at Squints with a raised eyebrow
" what he's not scary any more...anyways you brought this to yourself kid." he said in a confident tone, Scaly saw this and rolled his eyes.
_________________________________SIX HOURS LATER
"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!" The screams of pain continue as guts lashes out violently all the way till nightfall, Scaly still applying the crystal on him with a bored expression
"urgh.. He should have passed out by now "Scaly shrugged, continuing with his task, while Squints leaned against the wall claiming he lost interest, but in truth he did not have the stomach to go on for this long.
He looks at his scroll as he starts to lose patients. "Sigh, it is about to start damnit and this kid hasn't passed out" then he got an idea "Wait stop that for a second '' Scaly comply stopping the torture as guts took this moment to catch his breath.
Guts hoped he held out long enough for hi-THWACK! Squints hit him in the back of his head knocking him out, as he threw a piece of scraped wood to the side, dusting his hand for a job well done. Scaly brought his hands to his hip, while looking at Squints.
"what? The kid is usually out within few hour, so Donovan wouldn't know the difference between passed out or knock out, you know, now come on we'll miss our program" he release guts as his body slump to the floor, he motion to the door as he holds it for his partner, however Scaly unsure goes to guts and kicks him in the stomach, seeing that he gets no reaction he turns around and walks to the door locking it after him.
"You know you can just be mean sometimes" as their voices were out of earshot, Guts let out a breath, holding in the pain for the sake of his plan. His plan relies on his cries of pain and his "gift" and as for right now stewing in his anger. He sit back against the wall thinking back while trying to emit negative emotions, how long states of negative emotions specifically anger amplifies his "gift" to not only draw in more grim but change their behavior to act more blood thirsty, this all happened when he was part of a escort mission and their snotty customer was pissing off guts through the whole trip, this lead them to take cover and fight a wave of grim for three day, while fighting the grim he notice that the grim acted different toward him, they were going out of their way to kill guts and acted savage.
Ever since then he has been putting himself on check not being angry for a long period of time so as not to endanger the camp. And as for holding out while being electrocuted, he noticed that there were heavier attacks on the time he was electrocuted. So, his plan is to have a grim attack and the grim will go for him, busting him out of the room.
He continues to get angry which was easy he was angry about himself not being strong, angry to the people here treating him like a dog, angry to Donovan who insist that Gambino betrayed them, and the torture the nonstop torturing going their way to break him just for kicks the only reason why he struggle this much to survive is to find a dream but not for being on equals ground with Griffith but to have himself a purpose to drive him forward and for the instinctual need to survive, he feels at his best when his back is against the wall, right there he feel alive.
Moments went by until he heard noises outside and rapid gunfire before he could confirm his plan worked. Something lager tries to enter the room cracking the door guts readies himself as the wall and window are being creak and shatter. In his mind he needs to get out of the chain which is two shackles cheaply linked together to one his idea is to snap the chain setting him free. But before he could figure out a piece of the door break as there was a large claw waving around, if guts had to guess it was a ursa, he had fought his fair share of ursa but at his best he could take on two. The door finally gives way as he sees the ursa, he notices the heavy bone armor which makes things easier for his plan. The grim bear scans its site and lock on to guts he bolted to guts who was not moving standing still unit the grim is with distance, as soon as it was about to lunge into a bite, Guts the jumped backed with arms spread apparatus the grim bit on the chain this was follow with Guts pulling on the chain getting the ursa attention. The grim then jerked guts around as the boy pulled so hard that the shackle start to make his wrist bleed due to the force, the grim had enough whipping it head side to side throwing guts to the wall, he recover and sees that the link connecting the shackle broke.
Guts took this chance and made a beeline to the door where he started running, avoiding the grim attack. Since he stopped his anger from growing the grim went to their normal state however they are in close proximity to him they're most likely to be drawn to him.
Guts tries to make his way to the outside he watches as a thug stumble around and fall to reach for his pistol only to be dragged away by beowolf, he snatches the gun off the ground and try to find the exit as. he does passed a door that says boss, guts doesn't know why he does not run away but something inside tell him that it not over yet. He knocks on the door and gets out of sight.
The door creaks open and gut fires a round to the door aimed where he thinks the head might be, all the sudden a body falls over swinging the door open. He looks over the body to see Donovan but before he can confirm the kill, the body upper cuts guts knocking him to the floor. Guts look back up seeing that Donovan is still alive but with a gunshot wound to his cheek, Donovan held his cheek in pain as he trying to concentrate his aura he see gut there eye locking into one and the other immediately guts fire off another shot but the gun jammed, left with no option he charges at Donovan hoping he was to stun to react in time, as he does he throw the gun at him only for Donovan to swipe it to the side into the room but the distraction was enough for guts to tackle and send a barrage of punches to his face.
Donovan just throws Guts off of him and get right back up, Guts scurries to get up, however is grabbed by the scruff of his neck and thrown to the wall, the shabby condition of the building allows guts head to be stuck in the wall.
Donovan still holding his face in pain "you little shit I don't know how you got out but you sure as hell not escaping" he commenced by grabbing Guts leg and pulling him out of the wall with ease and then forcibly stands him up and starts throwing him around the room into furniture and wall this went on seven time all the while Guts try to get his footing, as he was about to go for an eight round Guts snapped his head forward headbutting him on the nose. The hired thug clutched his face whimpering in pain as the blackeye boy tried to get his bearings, he saw that the room was some type of study or it was before he was a human wrecking ball. Guts looked around for the gun he had but his eyes were on a head bust. He got hold of it and started twirling around, building momentum when it was enough Guts strikes him right under Donovan's head they both collapsed, but guts clearly raring for a fight.
He staggers a little bit before finding his senses and looks to see his gun pulling back the chamber, unjamming it as he walks to the motionless man, he spots his sword at the corner near the door he walks over to it and unsheathes it and goes over to the scumbag. He stands over him looking at him in the face as he takes aim and shoots him in the leg without breaking eye contact. Donovan screams in pain allowing Guts to jam his sword into his mouth not killing him just yet. He starts gagging by the sudden sword in his mouth
"Hey when I say speak, you speak up got it" he adopted feral grin that send shivers to Donovan spine
"now then how about you lie to me again about Gambino betraying us huh" this got no respond, guts put his boot to his neck as he slices his side of his mouth this get a gargle scream as he applies pressure to his neck and places the sword back to Donovan's mouth shutting up his screaming. Gut now wanting to finish this as he starts breathing in and out, hyping himself up and having crazed look to his eye
"come on I said lie to me again dammit! come on lie to me!" he put pressure to his neck prevent him to say a word "oh come now you know it rude to not answer back right" guts mockingly said as he continues to press his foot down, he tighten his grip of his sword
" lie about Gambino damnit! "He sunk his sword deeper to his mouth as Donovan began to violently gags as the blood within his mouth pools up, choking on his own blood. Guts then promptly unloads the gun into his chest, finally killing him. He pulls his sword out swiping it to flick off the blood on it and steps back to take in the moment. He just killed a human being, this act was not necessary, it was not for survival or for a job it was for satisfaction.
He feels his head dizzy as he starts making his way outside of the building he feels as if he was in a daze when he made it outside. His ears rang, his eyes sank, he paced himself slowly to one direction, he felt something inside as began to get goosebumps and labor breathing, all that ceased when someone ran into him snapping out of his dreamlike state.
He looks around and sees he's at the settlement he was assigned to, being overrun by grim he looks around to see anyone out there. When sees no one he take off to the forest heading to the camp he looks back to see if any grim is following him. he thinks back at the settlement recounting everything that transpire, there was no one unsure if the thugs were alive or not, but what's getting him is that he did not see the one that ran into him snapping him out of his daze but shake off those thought as he continue his way to camp.
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Guts continue to run in the dark, until the camp came to line of sight from there he started to walk to the to it, while doing so he started to think on why did the search party did not find him on that settlement, if Griffith made it to the camp he would of turn back to see if Guts was still there or at least find clues on where they were, however he only thinks that Griffith made it, that he was probably captured or killed by the thug or grim, but if that the case wouldn't the camp still send a search party.
Doubt began to sink into his mind, when he heard screaming and yelling, he stopped and followed the noise as he came closer to it, he saw three people stand around a hole watching whatever is transpiring in the hole. Guts then recognizes the three as members of the camp he sighed in relief as he was about to reveal himself, until he hears a familiar voice
"you goddamn bastard I swear I'm going to kill you all !" The three snickered at the empty promise
"HA !how are you going to do that while protecting your boy down there" they burst into laughter for the victim's misfortune and kept on mocking him. "Urgh hang on Mule, I'll get us-HEY!!! GET BACK YOU GRIM FUCKER!!!"
Guts finally recognized whose voice is that and rushed into the scene. As he's running, he unsheathed his sword and charges at the three, one of them turns to see Guts and does a double take what he sees
" Wait is tha-GAAH!'' Guts stabbed him in the chest then throws him in to the hole to remove the body off of his blade. The other two shocked at what they witnessed, one panicked waving his hand at the attacker
"WAIT! WAIT! WAIT! -GRUGH!!!" his cries cease when his throat slit open, he falls back clutching to his neck trying to stop the bleeding, as the last culprit stumbles to get his weapon but looks up to see the blade above hurtling toward him as it cleaves into his head. The body slumps over as Guts puts his foot on the corpse's head pulling back his sword as he is out of breath, when he hears the voice again
"Hey what the hell is going on up there...HEY I KNOW YOUR UP THERE, WHAT GOING ON!" Guts looks down at the hole to only meet a ghastly sight, there was the hole ten meters deep all filled with blood and mud, from the side a stack of bodies members of the camp, in the center was a beowolf pacing back and forth snarling at the victims who had their back against the wall one shielding the other, who were Martino tired and not taking his eye off of the grim in front of him and the other one was someone who is injured, Martino looked up to yell again only to see the last person he expected
"- holy- Guts is that you?"
"Yeah, it's me, Martino how do I get you out of there"
"There should be a rope around here look for it" he yells as he turn his attention to the beowulf. "hold on Mule we're getting out of here soon"
Was- was that G-Guts?" mule weakly said "yeah he getting us out of here-HHAAA!" Martino explains while fending off the grim only for it to be pelted by gunfire. Guts found the rope and tied it around a tree, he then grabbed a weapon off of one of the bodies and started to shoot at the grim. He throws the rope down to Martino as he hurries to wrap it around his waist then using the slack that was left, he tied Mule's waist as he began to climb up.
Martino reached the edge of the top and Guts ceased firing to help him. After a brief struggle they pull up Mule and drag him to a tree and sit him against it. They both drop on their backs breathing in and out, Martino looks over at Guts, he sees him with a busted lip, dry blood on his nose, his face covered with cuts and bruises, and his frame smaller than it usually was, "hey boy what the hell happened?" the black eye boy sat as he began to tell Martino the series of events that transpire from the slaying of grim, to the kidnap, to torture and finally to his escape.
Martino sat there silently letting the information seething over as he looks at guts and notice that he has a new look on his face, he looks over the bodies near the pit and back to Guts, ".... Guts during your time kidnapped did you... did you kill anyone over there" the boy averted his eyes away, "yeah but I don't want to talk about it."
"Guts it ok if you did, its w-", "I said I don't want to talk about it" gut snapped with a scowling face only to realize what he did and turn meekish, "I'm sorry it just I really don't want to talk about it..."
"It fine Guts I'm just worry about you"
"Right.... Anyway, what happened here? Why were those guys keeping you two in there? What happened to the camp and ... where's Griffith?"
The old man took a deep sigh before answer "a little after you and Griffith went off, the whole camp went into anarchy when most of the camp raised their weapons to the ones you were going to follow Griffith, Gambino went into a rant saying how we were going to turn on him and said that we think he weak and pathetic was going to show us all 'what a weak and pathetic man will do to traitors.' he had his people throw us into a pit with no weapon then he dropped some grim, he said 'that he can look into himself and forgive us if we pledged our loyalty to him and only him', no one spoke up so we fought the grim with a combination of our aura, semblance and any thing with in our disposal, we survived the first assault but they kept on bringing down grim"
Guts couldn't believe this, the camp turning on itself, almost all the mercenaries he knew were either dead or the enemy and Gambino going mad " what about the rest? The ones loyal to him" he asked wishing to continue "my guess is that he promised them more money if there was less of us in the group, that or out of fear of Gambino"
He continued " a few days later those bastards said something about Griffith returning to the camp, however they got him and were going to give him special treatment. And to show that they weren't lying they showed some locks of his hair. Every day they talk about the things that they did or were going to do to him. In the same week of his capture they dropped his tongue into the pit, after that a whole lot of us died off as you just saw. sigh those sick fuck" he explain as he ran his hand through his hair and to his neck as he dread over the thoughts of what they did to him.
guts kept a strong front however in truth he was livid that the other members would stoop so low as the thugs he faced. After calming himself he turned to the other survivor.
"Hey? you alright ?"
Huh.. oh yeah just catch my breath here... heh your Guts right the mad dog right
"Yes I am" he said ignoring the his nickname
Wow your pretty cool the youngest at the camp and the best fighter too ... anyway sorry if I'm bothering you with this you probably don't know who-".
"your Mule right, the newest recruit to the camp, you came in little over two weeks ago after my last job" this brought a smile to Mule. he was a young man at around his twenties with blonde hair in a bowl cut and a short stature " if you don't mind me asking but is it true you don't have an aura and still fight grim?" Guts wasn't used to being praised
"uh yes I was told when I get my aura it will be strong"
" I'm sure your strong enough" he give out a weak laugh, guts can't help but laugh too, the feeling of a little levity help him solidify his resolve I'm going after Griffith any idea where he might be" Martino was going to interject but mule spoke up "they said he's locked in the basement of the house"
He nodded to the info and was about to make his way but someone grab his wrist, looks to see it Martino with a disapproval face "you're not going anywhere I mean look at yourself you're not at hundred percent."
"And neither are you, and I'm raring to fight where you can't even stand"
"Well, I'm not letting go on the hopes that Griffith might be alive '' Guts narrowed his eyes at Martino, while he's returning an equal stare. All the while he hates to admit but Martino is right, he is not in the best desired states, he's sleep deprived, his body aches and the only reason he is still conscious is out of pure will power, however he at least has to try to save him. The two stared at each other intensely, not letting the other have their way until an outside party interjects,
"hey what if I use the remaining amount of aura that I have and heal him as much as possible" the two look at Mule who was in a poor state of health. "No out of the question you need to rest up"
"Ok but hear me out, even if I use up my aura to heal myself, I'll still be out of commission. And you're using your right to heal yourself." Guts looks back at the gray-haired man and sees his aura on overdrive to heal him.
"Listen I might as well be of some use and heal up guts and he goes to look for Griffith while you're recovering and once you feel good to go you can help him out. After a moment of silence, the old man grunt in frustration, " fine, guts go look for Griffith and once you find him stay with him and wait for me until I get there 'll retrieve my weapons, get some horses and we all leave this damn place." gut nods to this want to help Griffith as soon as possible.
Mule places his hands on Guts and transfers his aura to him. Guts looks at his wrist and sees that they're healing along with his bruises and cuts, right before the transfer stops, " damn... It's less than I thought... I hope it was enough" he staggering said, as gut lookover himself and see the bruise and the smaller cut are gone , while his body aches have lessen and the deep cut are still visible he is much better than he was before,
" no it was just enough thank you," mule give a smile as he slumps down from exhaustion, Martino looks at Guts with uncertainty , "just be careful and take this knife with you" he orders as he gives him a small knife, "but Guts don't be surprised at what you see when you find him" a short pause and Guts nods taking the knife and heads off to the camp,
" good luck Mad Dog" Mule utters seeing guts off .
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Guts sneak his way into the camp due to the lack of order going on. There were no guards on watch, however there were still lanterns lit and the fire. He passes through the area where they hitch the horse trying not to spook them. He started to crawl on his stomach to the back of the tent, his plan was to go around the edge of the camp and go through a window to enter the house. As he made his way to the house he heard some voices and froze in place behind a tent and tried not to make a sound. He slowly got up in a crouching position and peered around the corner of a tent and see two mercs sitting on some log talking as they watch the fire burn
"So what have you heard about Gambino and this gig"
"Tch nothing new, that fucker hasn't come down from his "castle" since he lost his leg on that botched job we did, in fact we haven't made bank for a month now."
"Fucking hell all he does is drink and visit that fucking kid, creep. We should have never listen to him, I mean getting more money if we got rid of the "traitors", which was at least half of the camp, all because of his paranoia"
Guts continue to listen as they kept talking, "I'll tell you one thig Griffith would have taken this whole group places-", "keep your voice down we don't want him to hear us" one interrupted and gives his partner a glare, "no it true ever since the whole flip, things went to shit there's only eleven of us, no ones hiring us and we're even getting raid by bandits damn it" when the ranting was finished the other partner remanded silent and lift the fire, leaving the other one alone.
From that guts continues his way to the house, after a little while he reaches the window on the side of the house, using the knife given to him he pried open the window and crawled into the house. He enter in the common room, guts stayed crouched and quickly made his way to the basement, he turns to the hallway and turned to the kitchen.
The house was always rundown but it was much more worse than before their broken furniture and dishes as well littered with empty alcohol bottles, as he enters the kitchen he sees the door open it which leads him to a flight of stairs head down. a cold chill ran down in Guts spine as he take a deep breath and head down closing the door behind him. Each of the steps he takes creaks under his weight giving a feel of dread within the basement, which was cold, dark and damp with cobwebs blowing with the air ventilation. Reaching to the bottom of the stairs he looks around and sees the room had creates to the side and random items, then at the end of the basement he sees a figure curl up on the floor showing it's back to guts, thinking that its Griffith he run over to him and drops to his knee and shakes him noticing that he was cold.
"Griffith! Griffith! it me Guts, I'm here to take you away from here" after getting no response he turns him over and sees the horrors that they did to him, his clothes reduces to rags as his body was litter with scar that has been placed strategically along his body, also having numerous burn marks and skin miss in certain areas still fresh. Guts looks on and sees his rib cage more pronounced as his frame is smaller, he then sees slits on his wrist and examines them, his eyes shot wide as he realizes that they cut his tendon, removing the ability to move.
He looks upon his face see it was an iron mask only adorned with a breathing holes and eye holes, Gut quickly pulls out his knife and jams it to the seams of the mask trying to pry it open, during this time Guts was thinking on how could these animals do this to him and how he could of help him sooner. The mask finally gives way and guts slowly remove it only to see a revolting mess, he quickly covers it back as his stomach turn over at the sight he steels himself and removes the mask once more, cringing at the site he can't recognize what they did to him, upon further observation he see that they remove his tongue.
Guts couldn't conceive of the hell that Griffith faced, he then finds himself tearing up as he brings Griffith in for a hug. These tears fell upon Griffith and opened his eyes to see Guts crying, upon seeing him sobbing for him, he then mustered his strength to move his hand to Guts shoulder lifting it and dropping it trying to pat his shoulder getting his attention. He feels this and looks to Griffith, wide eye to see him even conscious
"Griffith I'm so sorry that they did this to you," gritting his teeth he continues "I'm sorry that I didn't c-" he hears inaudible noises coming from Griffith mouth, he leans in closer to make something out of it but he couldn't. When the noises stopped he pulled back to look at him only to meet an unexpected sight, from what Guts could tell Griffith was smiling a toothy grin. After the sudden surprise his body went limp, Gut immediately give him a little shake calling out his name, then pressed his ear against Griffith chest to hear a heartbeat, a minute went by and there was no heartbeat, he then slowly laid Griffith down putting his hands on the floor then curled them up to fists, violently shaking in anger.
his breathing become staggering and his body trembling, Guts thinks back when first met Griffith how he wanted to kill him, but after that they fought along with each other and came to respect him. they became close in the battlefield when fighting grim, as they always had there back watching over one and the other.
His thoughts come to a halt when he hears slur voices on the other side of the door, he recollected his thoughts and went to Griffith crossing his arms on his chest, as he gets up he sees the door open letting the light come through. He readies himself and pulls out his sword.
Three mercenaries standing in the doorway laughing as one of them spoke "H-hey- hic- Grif-hic-th are you still alive-burp- down there-hic"
they burst into laughter as they descend to the basement, Guts steps into the light from the doorway. The leader of the trio squinted at the figure in the light "wha-what is that-hic". Guts scowls letting out a war cry and runs up to the three, the leader panic and turns around pushing the others up the stairs, but it was too late Guts slashes at his back resulting him to fall off the stairs, the other two turn to see there comrade fall off this allowed gut to run up to them and skewer them both and continuing his charge along with them. He kept charging until he was outside of the basement and hitting the door. Gut looked up to the mercenary in front of him.
"G-Gu-Guts??"he succumbs to his wounds and Guts pulls his sword out of them as he makes his way outside he walks by a door that opened, without batting an eye Guts swipes his sword at him slitting his throat.
Once outside he looks around and sees the next one to fall. He takes off with blinding speed as he brings his sword overhead ready to strike down his enemy, the mercenary head went flying off however this was not left unseen as a mercenary step out of his tent and calls out for the others " we are under attack we are under attack" he looks at their attacker, his eye widen on who it was
"GUTS! We thought you were dead " he cried in surprise, the other that came in earshot heard this went to his direction "not as dead as your going to be" Guts declare as he takes off towards him, the mercenary pull out a hunting rifle and shoots out ice dust as guts take cover he looks around his surrounding and throw some fire wood at the assailant, who shoots it in the air turning it to ice as it fall. This gives Guts a perfect chance to attack by striking the falling ice and the resulting hit shatters it creating debry heading to the mercenary.
He's forced to turn his rifle to a single edged sword deflecting away the incoming attack only to go into defense as guts come in and start wailing strikes on him , as he on the defense he's being pushed back. he dumbfounded that a child is this strong and terrified that Guts is going out of his way for blood as he looks into the boys eyes.
After being pushed far enough he trips back, before he can recover he's stabbed in the eye as Guts sinks his sword further. This fight was long enough for the others to see this act as they surrounded Guts as he pulled the sword out of the corpse's head.
"Holy shit it Guts, h-he's alive?"
"No way that this brat is that tough"
"What should we do"
"Isn't it obvious, we kill the little shit"
RRRRAAAAHHHH!!!!
One of them came from behind guts with a spear, he reacted by side stepping and slashes down as the attacker passed by. The mercenary dropped his weapon and fell to his knee and screamed in pain as it relieved that Guts loft off his hands as he's retracting his back in pain and screaming as he raises his arms in the air, Gut stabs him in the back of his head through mouth to silence him one and for all. The remaining four were shocked at the display of violence, they never suspected that Guts would kill them without a hint of hesitation. They realize that they need to kill him quickly. They all turned their weapons into guns and took aim at him.
"Time to put down this bitch"
"I think Gambino was on to something when call him cursed child"
Guts gritted his teeth and looked around he knew that he could not dodged this attack he raised his sword ready for what come next
"burn in-SHUNK" o a machete landed on one of the mercenaries head as he drop to his knees the sound of a gun cocking is heard and the machete fire launch it self and blows off his head, everyone follows the weapon until someone catches it in the air "I told you to stay put boy" it was Martino who was dual wielding two machete as he took a stance the trio of mercenaries look in shock at Martino. Guts took this chance to attack one of the assailants and started a fierce battle, the other two focus returns as they turns their attention to Guts only for Martino to clashing in taking both attackers, "he not the only one who need to vent out some anger."
with Guts engaged in battle the mercenary's whose weapon was an assault rifle, he stated to spray bullets at guts who was running across the camp avoiding the gunfire the, as he mowed down the tent they fell into the flame and catches on fire an idea sprung into Guts head as he ran into a tent and cut through the back escaping. The mercenary then fires upon the tent catching in flame as he stops and comes close to admiring his accomplishment, but just then something jumps out of the flame as it was Guts pierced through his stomach, twisting the blade and dragging it upwards. This results in his intestine being spilled out and he falls into the flames, Guts looks to find Martino and hel-BANG!
Guts drops to the floor and recoils in pain, screaming out loud holding the wound on his shoulder, before he could react he gets kicked in the face. His eyes snapped at the attacker who upon realized was Gambino,
"Damnit always making thing difficult, all they have to do is shoot you and that's it, but if you want something done right, kill it you self"
Gambino stood above Guts with shotgun at hand, Guts takes a good look at him and sees that he let himself go with an unshaved face, long messy hair, bloodshot eye and a false wooden leg and on top of that he's drunk. Guts tries to subside the pain and get up only for him to be slammed on the ground by Gambino placing his foot on him, hovering the shotgun on his face. Guts grunted in pain trying to say something,
"W-why"
he raised his eyebrow,
"why did you do this... with the camp and Griffith?" Gambino only stares at Guts with a face of disgust and disbelief, "why ?"
he then steps on Guts shoulder make him cry out in pain, "because of you, you fuck." Guts eyes widen in shock upon hearing this, he was confused on why he was the cause of this, "your the reason that everything is shit your cursed." he continues becoming more unhinged.
"we found you in a scorched town from the result of a grim attack, a burnt corpse wrapped around you, with you unscathed, Shizu dies from illness when all she did was care for you, you not dying in every grim attack you faced even without AN AURA! And finally all the grim are drawn to you." guts was shocked that he knew he tried his hardest so that no one will know.
"and look at what you did to MY mercenary group." he gesture around the surrounding area which have caught in flames, "and you and that pasty fuck decide to turn everyone against me.... but I know better" his face distorted to an evil grin as he stepped harder on Guts who was coming up with a plan,
"I got rid of you and all of those traitors who thought i was weak and a show of strength i got them executed, torture that white freak and decided to return to do missions to show who the best....but YOU. You cursed the whole camp making us lose jobs and my leg" he was breathing in and out heavily as he pointed to his false leg,
"but now I could End. It. All." he said as he aimed at Guts head, but before he could pull the trigger Guts pulled out Martinos knife and stabbed him in his real leg making him miss fire. Guts then digs the knife deeper making Gambino pull his leg off of Guts as he falls, Guts turns on his stomach and starts crawling away as Gambino starts clutching his leg in pain he looks over and sees guts he tries to get him but his leg is in too much pain and starts healing it. Guts crawls away only to see his sword, and reaches for it, just as Gambino has enough strength , he lunges at guts only to see him whip around fast and pull up his sword. It was too late for him to activate his aura as the sword pierces his neck all the way through.
Guts looks at Gambino slumped over on his sword before he could do anything, Gambino's body moves as he comes closer to Guts trying to strangle him as the sword goes deeper through his neck. His blood pools over from his mouth as he reached to Guts throat and weakly squeeze it to no avail after a while Gambino finally dies leaving Guts shocked. he dropped his sword and laid on the ground taking deep breaths recounting the following events, all that stops when the pain of his shoulder returns he slowly gets up trying not to cause more pain to his shoulder as he take his sword out of Gambino and goes looking for Martino.
after walking through the burning camps he see the old man you was too looking for him, they approach to each other both seem deeply trouble. When they come face to face no words were exchanged, Guts can't help but have tears swelling up and started crying as he falls to his knees, Martino comes down and hugs him as they are finally done with this long nightmare.
A/N: alright one more chapter and that will be the end of the "mercenary arc"