Berserk is taking itself seriously so there is no chance for characters to be lousy fighter on purpose,,,,, why didn't the plauge-mask character pop Gatts's eye right there?
There was no plot armor there, as you can see he threw 4 feathers at Gut's eyes and missed and that left him wide open cause it was an all or nothing attack.
@Wantagom Maybe he was talking about when bird dude was holding him by the head early on? That's pretty similar to how Guts lost his other eye with the way he was being held. Final part of the fight was pretty cool though.
@Krusader_Kris Oh yes I can see what he meant now from page 3 to 6 I think, but I wouldn't be so quick to call it plot armor anyway.
As far as we have seen almost all of the apostles have been pretty cocky and tend to play with their food which Guts then turns it on them and uses it to kill them when they drop their guard.
This guy here is playing around by telling him that he can take the last eye Guts has got and at the end of the chapter, I think he regrets having played around and goes for the eye for real.