It Is the Beautiful Bird That Gets Caged [Marschal Leigh]

Job Description:

“We’ve recently uncovered an ancient artifact resting deep under the water’s surface. According to legends and our data so far, it should be capable of enchanting one’s body with magical properties, making anyone capable of breathing underwater. Recovery of this artifact is absolutely essential for our research! Unfortunately, it also seems to make any non-human creature aggressive, which is why we need a mage to dive in that crystal-clear water and beat up some fish! Oh, and don’t worry about the air. We’ve prepared several air-lacrimas that will allow you to do your job... for a while. The artifact looks like a crystal ball, shining with a brilliant, red light. Now, chop chop, get to it already!“ Geoss exclaimed.

Marschal frowned at the researcher standing before him, but shrugged his shoulders and took the air lacrimas from the man. He glanced over the lacrima quickly, unsure as to what he was meant to do to it in order to get the air out of the lacrima. How had they even stored air into the lacrima in the first place? Surely, it had not been an easy task for the people who had done so. Without really thinking what he was doing, Marschal was capable of accessing the contents of the air lacrima and a bubble formed around his head. The magus was entirely shocked as to what had happened, slightly dumbfounded by the air enveloping his head in a matter of seconds. It was only when it dawned on him did the man realize what had happened and he started making his way toward the shoreline. With as any lacrimas as he had, Marschal was certain he had a few good hours before he would run out of air entirely and need to resurface.

When he reached the shoreline, the man entirely discarded his clothing, from the torn jeans and combat boots to the fur-lined jacket he wore over a bare chest. After removing his clothing, Marschal did not hesitate in leaping into the waters of the ocean in which the orb was supposedly located. He dove beneath the waters and to his surprise, the lacrima that had bubbled around his head was doing as it was meant to. Effectively, the magus was able to breathe in the little bubble of air as he worked his way down to the reefs in the ocean. Fish swam around him, schools of anchovies and various other types of small aquatic creatures that wouldn’t attack him on sight as he expected. They were magnificent creations, an array of colors as they swam past him, and quite frankly, the man enjoyed being in the water. However, his long and lion-mane-like hair was quickly weighed down by the water of the sea, dragging him back a little.

As he swam along the bottom of the ocean, enjoying the feel of the stirred up sand and the beautiful colors of the reefs and fish, Marschal scanned the area. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any sign of the supposed orb anywhere, not even a partial hint of red glowing through the clear waters. It was a tad saddening, but it meant that he was able to search the underwater reefs a tad longer without having to go into battle yet. Fingers skimmed along roughly indented and carved anemone and coral, scaring away the tiny fish that lived in the reef. A smirk played across his lips and he chuckled the sound muted by the bubble as well as the lack of water’s ability to transfer sound underneath it. Glancing around, the man began to notice as he moved in deeper through the waters that it began to grow darker and more menacing. He wasn’t all too certain as to why, but the clear waters would soon turn into murky areas, like the sun had hid behind clouds.

A frown appeared on his lips, his eyes squinting slightly, trying to make out what was hiding in the now darkened waters of the ocean. Sadly, he was not capable of seeing through it, even with his feline senses, but that did not deter the magus from continuing forth. He would make sure that he returned to the surface with the orb that the researchers wanted, helping them along with their research. Yet, as he swam along, an unexpected appearance of a flock of fish would overwhelm the drunkard and swim around him in a fish tornado. Angered by the abrupt interruption, the man would flail his arms, swatting at the school of fish to keep them away from him. However, they were persistent little buggers, moving in on him whenever they could to get a few nips at his skin, but he would swat them away. One of his hands managed to connect with one of the fish, which caused it to swim away, frightened by his amount of strength.

The rest of the fish? Well, the managed to stick around for a bit longer and terrorize the magus until he swatted enough to make them leave. When they were all gone, Marschal sucked in a deep breath of air and huffed it out, only to realize that the air bubble was beginning to fade away. Patting his sides, Marschal searched for another of the air lacrima until his fingers brushed along the pouch of them he had been given. He pulled one of them out and fumbled with it for a little while longer, holding his breath when the bubble had finally faded. At long last, the lacrima activated and formed a bubble around his head again, blocking out the water so that he was able to breathe. Marschal instinctively breathed in the air and sighed in relief, glad that he was able to breathe naturally once again, but now he was down to five lacrima. Discarding the used lacrima, the man returned to his journey, pushing through the waters like a frog and scanning his surroundings.

Before long, Marschal was nearing to the orb, as it was quite clear the aggressive aquatic creatures were beginning to appear more and more. Shortly after he had managed to dodge the large school of fish, he had run into two stingrays that didn’t look all too happy to see him. They would not let him pass through either, resulting in the magus having to stop his journey and battle them to let him through. Unfortunately, he didn’t have his gourd with him, which meant that he would have to use his drunkenness as much as he could. Breathing in deeply, Marschal would exhale, letting a mist of intoxicating fumes emit from his mouth and spill through the bubble to surround the stingrays. Likewise, they weren’t all too happy when he had exhaled and they were forced to breathe in the toxic fumes through the oxygen bubbles in the ocean. One even attempted to ram its head into his side, but Marschal had managed to move away and escape from being hurt too badly.

A swift roundhouse kick or two and the stingrays were sent swimming off, having lost interest in trying to tackle Marschal down. Pleased with the result, he would continue on his way, discovering that the closer he came to the orb, the clearer the waters became. It resulted in the magus blinking his eyes and looking around, taking notice of the changed scenery and enjoying the beauty of it. In fact, it even brought a smile to his face, laughing some more as a few schools of fish swam by, ones that weren’t intent on killing him. Glancing up from the fish, Marschal pushed forward, his eyes catching sight of a red, glowing object just beyond his reach, quite a few meters away. However, it looked to be in a tight spot, one that he would have to struggle and work with in order to get it out of the hole it was in. Not to mention, but the hole it was in looked to be rather strange to the magus, and he wasn’t all too trustworthy of going near it.

Fortunately enough, another group of stingrays had decided to make an appearance, causing Marschal stop in his tracks once more. The first of the stingrays launched itself at him, gliding through the waters to ram its head into the chest of the drunk magus. It worked! Marschal was pushed back and grunted, being dealt C-rank in damage by the creature and retaliating with a kick. His movements were rather slow and not because he was drunk, but due to the fact that his magic was 75% less effective in the water. On top of that, when alcohol was combined with water, it often became watered down, his magic was basically near ineffective. Luckily, the kick hit the stingray and it was shoved backward like he had been, toppling around in the water, while its partner rushed him. Marschal, on the other hand, was quick to respond and struck a fist outward, slamming it into the face of the flimsy stingray.

Once the stingray that had been dazed regained its consciousness, Marschal found it swimming ever closer to him, aiming to ram him again. Swiftly, Marschal shoved the aquatic creature away, slamming his foot into its underbelly and sending quite a way away from him. Disinterested due to him fighting back, the stingray decided that it no longer wanted to battle Marschal and swam off to do something else. Now, he was left with one more, who was swimming straight at him, intent on ramming its head into Marschal and hurting him. Dunking below the stingray’s attack, the magus swam upward and used his fist to ram it into the stomach of the creature. Pummeled into the distance, it, too, was disinterested by Marschal fighting back and swam off to torment and terrorize other fish. With the battle now over, Marschal dug into the pouch of air lacrima and activated his third one, letting a new air bubble surround him.

Persisting in his journey, the young magus continued forth, heading straight for the orb in which he had seen; however, as he neared it, it came more into view. What he had thought to be the orb glowing brilliant in the ocean’s water happened to be a discarded ruby from a pirate’s ship likely. Huffing, Marschal turned away from the ruby and swam off in a different direction, hoping that he would come across it eventually. Plus, luckily for him, no aggressive aquatic animals happened to be in the vicinity, so he was safe to admire his surroundings once more. A small part of him missed being in the ocean, riding ships and enjoying the sea breeze that would brush through his hair. However, it had a been a very long time since he had last been a ship and a ship being the one that had been owned by his father. That ship had long since sunk and he was the only survivor of the ship as far as he happened to know and it made him sad.

As he trudged along the reefs and through another direction to, hopefully, the place in which the orb was, Marschal diligently searched. He glanced through every hole in the reefs, underneath every sand fish and stingray, given that they weren’t trying to kill him, et cetera. Unfortunately, he never once ran across the orb, fearing that now that he was nearing the end of his journey, the orb did not exist. However, the researchers had been persistent, saying that they had located the ancient artifact, only for him to find nothing. Had they been telling the truth or had they been telling a complete hoax in a sick attempt to see how long it would take him to find something? Perhaps he should go back for that ruby, bring it to the researchers, and claim that the ruby was indeed the orb they had been looking for. Marschy only shrugged it off though, heading deeper into the ocean and farther away from the shoreline than what was expected.

Marschy managed to run into yet another set of stingrays bent on destroying him for some unknown reason other than the orb was affecting them. If they were being aggressive as the researchers had stated, then perhaps the orb actually did exist and he was only getting closer. This perked Marschal up and he punched the first of the stingrays that had attempted to ram him in the leg and deal him damage. Oh no, that was not going to fly with this magus and he would flail his arms around, punching in every direction that he could. One struck the other stingray, sending it tumbling backward, while a kick with his foot resulted in the original stingray being flung into the distance. Now, the second of the two had become dazed, but shaking itself, the stingray managed to come after Marschal again, only to be stopped. A violent foot to the face sent that stingray skittering away like his comrade, searching out another more docile creature to torment.

When he glanced away, it was then that he had seen what he had been looking for, the orb glowing in all of its red brilliance. It rested on a strange outcropping in the reefs, suction-cupped to the odd jutting, which made Marschal slightly curious about it. Swimming toward it, he tilted his head some, flicking his ears forward and looking around at the strange piece of reef. Reaching out, the magus gently poked it, but when he had poked it, he darted backward as it moved and writhed from his touch. His ears flattened against his head as dust stirred up and something from the depths of the ocean rose after his disturbance of it. Marschal gaped his mouth a little, fear running through his veins as he realized it was not a part of the reef at all, but a giant octopus. Swimming backward a little more, the octopus that held the orb was grumpier than ever and raised one of its tentacles and smack Marschal.

Marschal darted away from the attack of the octopus, narrowly being missed by the floundering limb it had chucked his way. Swimming closer to the creature, he launched his first set of attacks, one fist to the side, pushing it back despite its massive side. Another fist to the head after he had swam up and around, trying to avoid the now flailing limbs of the kraken like creature. A third would be a foot to the area in which a mouth would have been if it had a mouth in the correct place a creature should. The fourth would be a blow to a limb, sending that limb far away from him and landing against the ocean floor with a thud. Lastly, another kick would be landed to an eyeball, causing the creature to squint and cry out, not liking it had been struck. Angrily, its limbs would flail around again, catching Marschal in the side and sending quite the way away from the beast.

Quickly swimming back, Marschal became relentless in his attacks, one fist after another, with a few kicks in between them. He was not one to enjoy having something fight back when he was running out of oxygen and needed to get to the surface. Speaking of which, his fourth lacrima had died out on him, leaving him momentarily holding his breath while he fought the octopus. Given the chance, he would dig his fifth lacrima out and activate it, letting the bubble form around his head again while he fought. Shortly after having begun the fight, Marschal was starting to tell that the creature was getting slow and tired in its movements. A fifth blow to its face would send the creature tumbling backward and letting the orb go, the orb clinking to the ground. However, the creature was not down yet and would regain its consciousness and swing its arms in the direction Marschal was floating.

Getting smacked off to the side, Marschal tumbled backward and shook his head, feeling quite dazed from the limb’s impacted with him. However, that did not stop the magus from pursuing his target and letting another volley of attacks flow down upon the creature. Another fist in the side, followed by a chomp of the teeth on the limb, and a kick to finish off the attack, sending the beast back. When it returned to where it had been, Marschal flicked his wrist and let his claws rake down the side of the beast and hurt it. A final strike to the face would send the octopus tumbling backward and landing face first into the sandy ocean floor below him. With the creature down and out for the count, Marschal swam toward the orb and snatched it up into his hands, making a break for the surface. Nothing would stop him from getting to that surface, not even the aggressive creatures that wanted the orb just as much as he did.

He could almost feel it, the fresh air on his face and the ability to breathe the air of the surface rather than the artificial amount he had with him. Each breath he took led up to the last little bit that he had in stock, two lacrima remaining to be used in case he needed them. However, he had hope that he would reach the surface far before his fifth lacrima ran out and he would be forced to use his sixth. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be so and Marschal had to stop in his tracks and activate another lacrima that enveloped his head in yet another bubble. Sucking in the remotely fresh air, the magus pursued his path to the surface, using one hand and his two legs to make it back. Before long, his head popped above the surface and the bubble that had surrounded his head disappeared after he made it. Marschal closed his eyes and enjoyed the sea breeze that crossed over him, only to notice that he was quite far out from the shore.

Breathing in deeply, the magus began his trek back to the shore, safe from the aggressive creatures that had been looking to hurt him. The audible splashing as he swam back was music to his ears, enjoying the sound of being able to hear things again and not feeling like he was going insane. Down below, in the ocean, all of the sounds of the world were muted to the point that he felt as if he had gone deaf or was never able to hear to begin with. So much so that when he had resurfaced, the sounds of Earthland were quite annoying, despite being music to sore ears. Eventually, the magus reached the shoreline and he pulled himself up onto the beach, getting coated in the sand due to his wetness. Marschal shook his head, shaking the water from his hair and flicking his ears forward, grateful for being out of the ocean’s depths. He did not like water and why he had taken up this job knowing it involved water was beyond what the magus was thinking.

In fact, he should have been called crazy for ever wanting to do the job, but it was done and over with that was all that mattered. Standing to his feet, Marschal dusted himself off, picked up the clothing he had discarded earlier and handed the orb to the researchers. They gawked at him, not because of his ability at being able to retrieve such an important artifact, but rather because of something else. Ignoring their ogling eyes, the magus slung his clothing over his shoulders and sauntered off, not saying another word to the idiots.

Yes, he was quite proud of himself.