Disclaimer: I do NOT own Gatts or any other characters in this fanfiction. They are property of someone else. Please do not sue me, because I do not have any money, and I already have two mortgages out on my soul, so you'll be wasting your time. Please PLEASE give me feedback, I'd really like to know some Berserk fans' opinions. (It takes place before he joins the hawks). Okay, here you go.

Swish.

Swish.

Swish.

That's all I hear anymore.

I don't hear the cries of pain.

I don't hear the pleas for mercy.

I don't hear the threats of damnation.

Just my sword as it cuts through the air, then my opponents flesh.

Sometimes their armor makes a crunching sound as my sword crushes it.

Sometimes, their weapon makes a clanging noise as they try in vain to block mine.

But I've stopped listening to all that.

My vision has equally narrowed.

All I see is a gush of red as my enemy's life drains from him.

That's all I look for.

That red spurt that tells me I can move on to the next challenger.

And the smell.

Have you ever smelled blood?

How the thickness of the odor surrounds you?

Choking you?

Until it blocks the smell of the air and the grass and the trees and everything else?

Have you ever tasted blood?

It has a salty, metalic taste.

At first I thought only my own blood tasted like metal.

That my sword was so much a part of me that even my flesh was made of iron.

But that was before I tasted the blood of others.

And discovered that all our blood is the same.

Then the *swish* sound is gone.

And so is the red, and the smell and the taste.

And I am surround by my commrades

Yet I am alone.

And I look into their eyes

Emptiness

Emptiness

I look into my own eyes

In my reflection in their armor

And I see the same emptiness

Swish.

Swish.

Swish.

I love that sound.