Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The characters and plot are the property of the author of Berserk Kentaro Miura and Claymore Norihiro Yagi. I'm in no way associated with the creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. Most of the characters belong to the creators all except the ones form my original seires Soul Flux.

Mutiverse Berserk

Bon-Fire of Dreams

The day had just began, the suns rays surfaced over the neighboring mountain peaks, the flush mist settled at the base of the forest line coating the trees in a blue tint. As the light creped through the leaves a small ray of light blanketed the traveling group's camp site.

"Guts you awake?" A small scurfy looking kid with spiky blond hair, wearing lose fighting attire whispered to a giant man. Guts stood above 6 feet, his hair is slicked back and a deep jet black color, except for a single white stripe running through the left bit of his forelock, he's shrouded in a large black cloak that hides his largely built figure and black full plate armor. He peered out with his only working eye and answered the boy. "Yeah I'm up, what do you want Isidro?"

"Lets get in a few hours of sparring before every one else wakes up."

Guts popped his creaking bones and flexed his body into shape. It had been a while since he'd seen combat, since he had skirted death by a hairs breadth with only sword in hand; since coming to this island, all the supernatural phenomenon that had once plagued this awkward group with violence and strife had ceased. Guts smiled at Isidro and nudged his head; gesturing they should head deeper into the forest so the don't wake there resting allies. The boy smiled and grabbed his gear nimbly with out making any noise; his years of thieving and roughish ways had made this exceptional in the ways of stealth, "Today I'm gonna hit em good." With that said he took off deeper into the woods.

Guts and Isidro emerged from the forest shrubbery and stopped at a near by lake, the water was crystal clear and looked about fifteen feet deep in the center of this circular pool of water. "This will do for now. Plenty of water to dink incase we get tired." Guts stated. "You say that as if you'll break a sweat." Isidro sneered.

Guts started of by having him do a series of exercises and sword drills, teaching him the basics of sword play, "Listen well Isidro when fighting there are three aspects to real combat, the first is the skill, personal worth; how good of a fighter you are; do you rely on instinct in combat or method, or both."

"I take it you're the both kind." Isidro stammered as he blocked guts swings with two sticks.

"The second is Drive; with out the will to move forward you'll never accomplice any thing, you need to be diligent in your training and must never falter from it. When it comes down to it in a life or death battle the ones' who survive wanted to live more than the others.

"Okay I get the whole drive bit, but the whole wanting to live more helps the victor survive doesn't make sense. You could train every day but then meet some one like Nosferatu Zodd and get ripped to shreds."

"Stupid little boy. Who do you thinks spends more time training and honing his skills to survive, isn't obviously the ones who want to live train harder, and back when I was mercenary before all of this craziness happened I fought against Zodd and survived. If you cant understand this you'll never be a good swordsmen. If you were a mercenary I wouldn't even let you carry my weapons for me. You'd be nothing but a second rate swordsman."

Isidro lost his temper; his dream of being the worlds' best swordsmen was being mocked. He clasped his hands together and swung diagonally with both sticks. In a poor attempt to over power Guts Isidro had left his face completely exposed. "You have to stop trying to perform attacks beyond your physical strength. If your opponent is stronger than you don't take them head on, instead redirect their attack by shifting your weight with the swing. Like so." Guts twisted his hand and feet to push Isidro in the direction of his attack. "If you can't adjust to the changing flow of combat and make snap judgments; you'll lose your head."

Whap!

Isidro took a direct hit to the face with the sparring branches Puck had prepared.

The third is psychological war fare, if you can throw off your enemies' state of mind in any way that can give you an edge in combat. For example you could mock your foe, or take out the leader of the group to lower their subordinates' morale. Sometimes even playing dead can come in handy. No matter the cause you must never loose your focus."

Isidro picked up the stick and jumped at Guts wildly striking at his head and heart. Guts parried and dodged the young boy's flurry of attacks with ease; as Guts raised the stick ready to strike, Isidro disappeared from guts vision. At the last second the boy had rolled between Guts legs and launched an attack at the back of Guts's head, Guts stepped aside and raised his right hand in an attempt to block the boy's assault. The thick iron prosthetic glinted as a small rock bounced off the metal frame.

Guts smiled as he threw his cloak backwards, the thick cloak wrapped itself into a faint out line of the boy's body in an attacking formation; Guts stabbed backwards through his cloak into Isidro's stomach. The boy rolled back taking the brunt of the blow, he quickly recoiled with an impossible roll and immediately lurched forward swing for Guts's legs, only to be stopped by the sole of Guts's boot. "Looks like he'll be eating dirt for breakfast, because this is your four hundred and fiftieth loss; you are here by demoted to the name of earth worm Isidro. Pun intended." The floating green elf stated as he stepped on top of head.

"AURRG! I thought I had you that time. Am I ever going to be able to hit you? I'll take a scratch a dink; anything!" Guts reached out his hand to Isidro. Isidro had been requesting to spare more and more frequently with Guts since arriving on the island "Elf-helm". Guts guessed that the peace and quiet had put his little comrade on edge as well.

The hours flew by as Guts and Isidro sparred, when they had worked up a good sweat they decided to quench their parched throats in the lakes' clean waters. Isidro took a whiff of the results of his training "Maybe we should clean off the sweat you know, for the ladies."

Guts put his hand to his chin and grinned at the boy "Trying to get on Isma's good side huh?" "It's not like that at all!" Isidro denied. "It's is so like that." Puck interrupted. "Why did she say something?" Guts smile quickly faded as the cursed brand on the back of his neck began to bleed heavily, "An Apostle. No. Feels like a bunch of lesser servants bunched together." The lake suddenly exploded. The water from the lake rushed over Guts and Isidro in a massive wave. Guts grabbed Isidro and stabbed his blade into the earth. His grip tightened as the wave passed over the two. By the time the water had passed Guts looked up in terror.

Hundreds of flying demons circled the skies, blotting out the sun light. They began hurling them self toward the center of the lake as if they were in pursuit. The lakes water had all but returned when suddenly it began to boil. Flames spewed out of the water incinerating a wave of demonic foes leaving only ash. After the wave of demons had dissipated a humanoid figure could be seen gasping for air in the center of the lake. It was a male in his early twenties, with radiant crimson red hair. He swam over to a shallow patch of the lake enough so he could stand. When another volley of demons' slammed head first into the stranger crushing him against the lakes rim. The earth collapsed in a puff of dust and mysterious youth was no where to be seen. "He's dead. Isn't he?" Isidro question" Another pillar of fire burst through the air, taking out a series of foes. "What is that, Magic?." Guts questioned, "No It's not Magic." Puck spoke out. "You know something Puck?" Guts asked

"Its' like the persons sprit is burning, I don't know how to explain it. It's like thousands of emotions and memories passing through the essence of the fire."

"Psychedelic, Man." Isidro jested.

"Yeah Its' not all that impressive." A calm unknown voice announced from behind the three. "When did he get behind us?" Guts thought as he grabbed the hilt of his reading to swing it. "Easy now I don't want to fight a fellow human, I'm a good guy. Honest." Isidro looked at Guts "Is he one of them."

"My brand isn't reacting towards him, maybe he's telling the truth."

"He's a good guy Guts I can feel it. Don't kill him" Puck blurted

"Sorry to interrupt you two but during your little conversation we've gone and got our selves surrounded."

"This is bad Guts we can't let demons know of this island. They could go back for reinforcements and it will happen again. Just like at the old witch's house." Puck said franticly.

"Then I'll just have to kill them all." Guts boasted. "Ooh I like that plan." The fiery red haired youth added.

"Isidro get back to the others I might need the little lady's help on this one." "Guts you can't use that You'll…"

"I know, which is why I'm gonna hold off as long as I can. I'm counting on you; Puck go with him and you should leave as well stranger."

"Sorry pal. Their after me, I'm the one who led them here. Gotta take responsibility for my actions."

"Listen I don't want some newbie's blood on my hands take a hike."

"I can handle myself just fine."

"I don't have time for this." Guts lifted his sword into the air, if you could call it a sword; it was too big to be called a sword, too massive and too heavy, it was more like a large slab of iron; and guts lifted it effortlessly with a single arm. He swung his sword at the stranger with enough intent to kill to send chills down a rabid wolfs spine. Sparks flew as the youth intercepted his attack, he had drawn his sword from it's sheath in a matter of Nano-seconds; now stopping the dragon slayer dead in its tracks was a eight foot crimson red katana but its' unusual thickness was at least four times thicker than your regular katana. "What's your name stranger?" Guts asked.

"Kyo Uhraia. Your's?"

"Just Guts."

Chapter one end.