542 Victor

His skin stung, hails of ice hammered away at him as he braced for impact, doing his utmost in retaining his vision whilst fighting the urge to close his eyes.

"There!" Shouted the prince, who was helplessly dangling upon the shackles that held him within the air.

Without clarifying the direction of the dungeon boss, as Victor Del Lagos's assistance wasn't exactly clear, Asai threw himself towards the side. Banking on the predator's natural instinct to hunt from behind. Whilst the human was correct in predicting the shark's desire to assault from a clear blind-spot, the much larger beast was faster than his reaction speed and was able to slap the man with its tail during its extremely short passing.

As if he had been hit by heavy-cavalry, his body spun in ways inhumanly possible before crashing into the bone-piles, being hit with so much force, he punctured through the bones and carcasses before finding himself bumping into the walls of water. To his dismay, he was no longer capable of passing through it, a thin layer of frost made it extremely clear that flight was no longer an option, leaving him with only fight.

"There!"

"WHERE!?" Asai spun around to catch sight of the human prince exaggerate the direction by using both his head and tongue to point. 

Just as he did, the aquatic beast tore through a pile of crap and almost transformed the human into mince-meat. Having used [Yomi & Yami] as if they were ice-axes, he managed to launch himself up just high enough to evade the chow-down. However, rather than landing back upon the bits of shit and bone fragments, [Yami] had caught itself inside one of its gills. As such, the grand duke now found himself thrown upon a roller-coaster that failed all health and safety regulations as he was immediately submerged within a world of water.

Constantly being thrown around, dragged through, and catching only momentary glimpses of the prince's face cycle through worry, relief, fright and repeat, as the rodeo constantly dipped in and out of the water system like a wild-rodeo. 

Having only miniscule moments of vision, and moments to think throughout his encounter with the aquatic boss, the human was constantly pressured onto the back-foot, as time wasn't in his favour at all. With the speed of an arrow, the force of a torpedo and a bite that could severe giants in two, the man was forced into acting upon instincts and natural-reactions only. However, now that he was given time to think, to analyse his foe without the threat of his jaws lingering dangerously close to his neck, Asai fought against the dense-waters to begin carving the beast into shark sashimi.

With his vision stolen from him, from the repeated water torrents breaking into his face and forcing his eyes either into a blurry-cluster fuck of colours, or pain that burnt his eyes like unhealthy amounts of chlorine did, Asai repeatedly dug his beloved karambit into its flanks, sporadically missing due to the sudden emergence and disappearance of water-pressure, resulting him in literally punching and upper-cutting it.

With the ever increasing amounts of near-freezing cold water entering his lungs, sapping his body-temperature, and slowly enticing the human into the gentle-embrace of eternal-slumber, Asai's raging heart, alongside the subsiding effects of adrenaline were beginning to lose as his eyelids became heavier by the second.

..

"Duke! Stay awake! Don't falter!"

Whilst watching the duke who had appeared alone in his endeavours to rescue him, Victor Del Lagos felt both gratefulness and regret overcome him in a clash of emotions that overwhelmed him, noticing the duke's weakening and increasingly-sluggish attempts to slow the titanic shark to be futile, he couldn't help but grit his teeth in great frustration. 

Having no ability to move his arms, as they were literally paralyzed due to the venom the shackles were coated with, in conjunction with the dormant mana within him that refused to heed his call. The once proud and arrogant prince couldn't only wag his feet around like a puppet.

With no good ideas coming to his mind, and the desperation that rose by the seconds, as Asai de Trichia failure to rescue him and failure to escape Armenes would result in a loss to humanity much too great to bear. To clearly understand that such a blow to Del Lagos would be due to his inadequacy, Victor Del Lagos bit his lip and tore through the skin before entering a state of high focus. 

Calming his beating heart, calming the nerves and desire to fight, offering the very blood from his body as offerings whilst he spoke in tranquillity, silent whispers. His prayers for Goddess Loha's ears only, as surely such a divine-being, with her infinite warmth and attentiveness would be willing to spare a fraction of her time, especially for two champions who fought and defended on her behalf and glory.

Accepting a fraction of his remaining lifespan as agreed upon through prayer, Del Lago's weapon manifested before the prince's face in pristine-glory. [Song of Einhoren] A heavenly blade that shouldn't exist within the mortal realms lit up the arena with its majestic-golden radiance. The rumoured blade was once considered to be a legend, a myth fabricated by the royal family as a means to frighten those who dare plot against them, as it supposedly granted its wielded the ability to sever through steel like paper. Having been utilized by Godfrey Del Lagos, and his fore-fathers before him during critical moments that could've left the kingdom of humanity in dire straits without, the heavenly blade hovered before his face, answering his pleas and prayers.

Prince Victor tried to wield the blessed weapon, but was quickly reminded by the shackles and arms that received his desires upon deaf-ears.

"F-FUCKING SHIT!"

Missing his chance to grab the golden great sword, it simply fell and imbedded itself into the ground below. All the while, Asai's forearms faltered, giving up on him as they released their weapons, losing them in the process as he fell and crash into yet another pile of bone fragments.

"NO! NOT LIKE THIS! GODDESS LOHA PLEASE!" "Fuck! [Song of Einhoren] only answers to the Del Lagos bloodline, the duke can't use it!"

"Duke! Get me out of these chains! I don't care how, just do it!"

Sporadically poking its nose through the aqua-arena, sniffing and popping back out somewhere else like whack-a-mole. It failed to locate the human as the water torrents had bathed him and cleared him of any lingering scents, coating him in the very same smell that coated both itself and the prince. Not wanting to fail in its orders to guard the royal-prisoner, it decided to play it safe by sniffing around a dozen times more. 

Prince Victor continued to alternate his gaze from the dungeon-boss and the duke, internally praying for further divine-intervention or assistance. The helplessness tearing through his values and heart as he no longer wished for glory or honour, but only for the chance to repay his debt to the duke who had saved him once already, and was now crazy enough to attempt a rescue mission so deep into enemy territory that even his own life was close to forfeit.

If his life were to ever end, at the very least he desired to settle the ever increasing debt to a man of such high calibre.

"Duke! Do not falter! Arise! Prove thyself worthy of your title! As the sword of humanity! ARISE! ARISE AND FIGHT AGAIN!"

..

"Your Highness, Goddess Loha sends her greetings..."