Stark 「シュタルク,Shutaruku?」 is a human Warrior. After his village was attacked by Demons, he fled and became Eisen's apprentice. At Eisen's instruction, he joined Frieren's party as their vanguard.
Stark has a charismatic and kind personality, resulting in him being well-liked among the communities he frequents. He is often doted on by older villagers and is popular with kids, sometimes serving as a mentor or role model for them. Stark, in turn, holds a lot of compassion for them and is willing to risk his life to protect them from threats. Frieren trusts him, as she has willingly puts her life into his hands ever since she recruited him as a vanguard.[1] He has been described by individuals, such as Sein, to be a good kid with a good heart.
Stark's cowardly nature.
Despite being incredibly hard-working and training as a warrior for years under Eisen, Stark is also a coward who is terrified of monsters and tends to have thoughts about fleeing from difficult battles, a quality he himself despises. His hands tend to tremble with fear before a battle, similar to his own master. However, when faced with perilous situations, he is capable of mustering up the courage to fight, even at the cost of his own life. When he was a child, his older brother Stoltz noted that he showed great concentration when he trained, a trait that holds true to the present.
Compared to the much more mature Fern, Stark can be somewhat childish and irresponsible. He occasionally makes crude references, and he also has a tendency to stay up late and drink juice at night when Fern is not around to monitor him, which leads to him apologizing profusely and feebly once Fern begins to scold him for doing so.
Appearance[]
Stark has spiky, red hair with black roots alongside orange eyes. He typically wears a black, sleeveless collared shirt with white fastenings, baggy black pants, black boots, a white sash around his waist, and bandages wrapped around his arms. In colder climates, he wears a black turtleneck sweater. While outside, he wears a red coat with cream-colored lapels and cuffs and black fingerless gloves, and he straps his weapon—a large, double-headed gray-and-silver axe—to his back with a crossbody strap. On his wrist, he wears a silver bracelet that he received as an eighteenth-birthday gift from Fern.
He has a large scar on his forehead that he got from Eisen striking him out of fear. Wirbel comments that Stark has a solid figure when he borrows him to be a vanguard.
Stark was trained by Eisen, the great warrior of the Hero Party. Thus, his body has been fortified well beyond that of an ordinary human. Eisen's training and Stark's travels with Frieren and Fern have helped him hone a keen battle instinct and a great capacity to withstand attacks that would kill most humans, even among already skilled warriors. Eisen's rough approach to Stark's training taught him that his greatest strength as a warrior is his tremendous resilience and capacity to recover quickly after physical attacks. He fights with the outlook that as long as he gets back up, he has not truly lost the fight. This mentality, coupled with his already powerful physical abilities, make him a strong opponent. Many times, his adversaries are forced to deal with him first by any means necessary in order to obtain any chance at getting close to the mages of the party.
Superhuman strength: Stark has a sturdy physical prowess, instilled through Eisen's training.
Superhuman speed
Superhuman agility
Quick reflexes: Stark has quick reflexes, and in a multitude of occasions, his reflexes have been able to save him, such as when he displaces injuries that could have been fatal had he been attacked at a different part of his body.
High pain tolerance: Stark's extreme durability allows him to withstand direct attacks and get back up a multitude of times. His pain tolerance also appears to extend to his tolerance of toxins, as he managed to take a direct hit from a poisoned arrow and survive long enough to receive treatment. According to Sein, if any other member of Frieren's Party was even grazed by the arrow, it would have caused instant death.[2]
Axe proficiency: Stark is proficient at axemanship, having been taught by the legendary warrior Eisen.
Lightning Strike 「閃天撃,Sentengeki?」: Stark forgoes defense and raises his axe above his head. He brings the axe down extremely quickly, creating a beam of light that stretches into the sky and cleaves whatever it touches. The strike has a large range of destruction and can even cut into a cliffside. Like the name suggests, the strike is so fast that it is quicker than the sound of the destruction it leaves in its wake.[note 1]
Lightning Strike 「光天斬,Kōtenzan?」: In his battle against Revolte, Stark severs the Demon General's arm with a swift and precise strike. He then follows up with a devastating Lightning Strike, delivering an upward swing of his axe that slashes Revolte's body.[note 1]
7th in the second popularity contest with 587,392 votes, where multiple votes per character were counted.
In this same contest, Stark ranked 5th when counting only unique votes (one vote per character per person).
Notes[]
↑ 1.01.1The technique Lightning Strike 「閃天撃,Sentengeki?」 was first introduced in Chapter 20 as a downward strike. In contrast, in Chapter 76, Lightning Strike 「光天斬,Kōtenzan?」 is performed as an upward strike. Although their execution and Japanese names differ, both are localized under the same name.