Harry Potter and the Berserker

Chapter 27

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by J.K. Rowling and Berserk is owned by Kentaro Miura. I own nothing.

It has been two years since the horrifying events of the Eclipse. Two years since he and Harry had begun their own separate quests – a quest that he was currently busy with at the moment. The object of his hunt had been another figure of authority within Midland, another count to be precise. Like many apostles before, this one relished in feasting on the flesh of humans, and with the wealth and authority held by them, they took to indulging.

This count – Count Tepes, Guts believed had taken to taking young children from his village and feasting on them. Their remains were impaled by spears and left to fester in a portion of his dwelling. His apostle form, which resembled a giant leathery, black bat proved to be fast in nature, but weaker physically. That didn't mean that the fight was an easy task. Because of the enhanced speed, it made the need to keep his defense up all the greater. This need was solidified when the apostle grabbed a hold of one of the spears he used for impaling his victims and managed to land a hit on Gut's side.

Like many apostles that Guts had encountered, Count Tepes suffered from overconfidence. They assumed that if they got a good hit in it was over, that just because they had superhuman abilities that they would always be victorious. Confidence was a human trait, but apostles were supposed to be above humanity. As such, they failed to understand the full concept of the will of man.

While the bat apostle was mid-flight, Guts reverted to using his crossbow to shot holes in the leathery wings. Tepes hissed as he was brought down to the ground, trying in vain to flap his wings hard enough to lift his form up off the ground and to take flight once more.

"Would you look at that," Guts snarled, pulling the spear free from his side. "Your wings have been clipped. I don't want you flying away on me."

Panicking, Tepes used the talon on his wing to try and pull himself to freedom. Guts was not amused. He stalked over to where the apostle crawled – all but defeated. He made it an effort to drag the tip of Dragonslayer across the tiled floor, scratching the once pristine tile with his massive blade making sure that Tepes could see it from the corner of his eyes. Guts stepped onto the back of Tepes, digging the soles of his heavy boots into his spine. "Where are you going?" Guts mockingly asked. "This is your mansion, isn't it? Why leave? I'm sure your subjects would be devastated if you were to go."

The apostle had to crane his neck to stare up at Guts. His large ears, short nose, and long, sharp fangs truly did give him the appearance of a bat out of hell. "Don't pretend you are doing this for the betterment of my people. I know about you... Black Swordsman." He spat the name with venom. "You hunt our kind, you do so without mercy."

"Mercy?" Guts parroted. "You caught me off guard; I didn't know a creature like you knew what that was." He raised Dragonslayer. "Not that it matters much anyways."

"You are just as much a monster as I!"

Guts showed a minimal reaction. "Of course." He stabbed Dragonslayer down through one of the wings of the apostle, tearing off nearly all the webbing. "It takes one to kill one."

"Yeeeeeggghhhh!" the apostle hissed in pain. "Damn you! Damn you to hell!"

Dragonslayer was a twirling metal arc as the sword was driven down through the back of the apostle's neck. Guts looked down at the now corpse in disgust; he kicked the head away causing it to tumble down a few short steps. "You could consider that mercy; I barely made you suffer before you died." Moving his hand up to his side, Guts noted that his getting impaled by a spear was much deeper than he initially thought. He opened his satchel where Puck had taken to riding around in like a carriage of some sorts. "Hey, bug! Get out here."