A man with a metal left arm and no right eye is having sex with a beautiful woman when all of a sudden she turns into a beast. The man then pulls a string on his metal arm which turns into a cannon and blows the woman into pieces. The man then gets up puts on his clothes and walks off into a town bearing a humungous sword. He steps into a bar and sees an elf being harassed by castle guards and he places a repeating crossbow on his metal arm and blows them all away except for one man whom he shoots through the nose and pins him to the table. He tells the guard to tell his master that the Black Swordsman has come. Then the guard runs off to tell his boss. The Black Swordsman leaves the bar and the elf follows him around since he saved his life and the Swordsman is only annoyed by his presence. The Swordsman tells the elf, whos name is Puck, that his name is Guts. Guts turns his head from Puck only to see soldiers surronding him. The next shot shows Guts being tortured by the a high ranking official and then thrown into a cell. The messenger Guts sent at the bar then arrives at the ministers house and the minister tells the local leader, a man that resembles a snake, that he'll take care of the black swordsman. But the Snake Baron says he'll get him himself and kills the minister and catches the town on fire, looking for the swordsman. Meanwhile, Guts escapes the prison with the help of Puck, who also saves his life with fairy dust. Guts confronts the Snake Baron and begins a fight. The Snake Baron tells Guts, "It's useless, I can't be beaten by a mere human." Guts is beaten horribly when he uses his trump card and shoots the Baron with his cannon and then lops off his head. He asks the baron where he can find the five God Hands and starts shooting arrows through his head torturing him, but the baron claims he don't know. The Snake Baron dies and Guts leaves town. A priest and his daughter Collette then pick Guts up in their wagon along with Puck even though Guts is resisting them because he don't get along well with priests and demons haunt him. The priest says it's okay because...He's a priest! The evil spirits then attack the wagon. Guts kills them off only to discover Collette is possesed and she killed her father, the priest. Guts kills the little girl and Puck is shocked. They then wander off to another town where an execution against a heretic is taking place. Guts ends up in a fight with some soldiers including one name Zondark. He fights them for a long time and horribly and Zondark and kills his crew. An old man tells Guts to follow him and they hide at his house. The old mans name is Vargas and he is horribly disfigured. He tells Guts that he's been waiting for someone like him for a long time. He tells Guts that their ruler, the count, used to be a good man but he turned evil one day after acquiring a certain amulet. He then shows Guts the amulet. That is the end of volume one.
