Nevigne's muffled screams rivaled Fidelis's panic. She was kicking her legs which were the only part of her that was outside of the bird's mouth.
"I thought this bird was a herbivore?!" Fidelis yelled before sprinting towards the bird's feet. Before the animal could fly with the elf in its mouth, he used the sharp pole to pin it to the steel floor.
Fidelis launched the pole and kicked it from the blunt end, driving it down like a hammer and a nail. The bird was successfully bound from flying away.
The pain caused the bird to spit Nevigne out. She was sent flying over the barricades of the rooftop but managed to grab hold of the roof fence before she could fall thirty meters straight to the ground.
"Fidelis!" she yelled, hanging for dear life. "My staff!"
The dark-haired man barely dodged a spear-like beak before he could scan his surroundings. Beyond the giant bird near the huge nest of three large eggs, a wooden staff with a crimson orb lay.
"Hurry up!" she stated, watching her saliva-covered hand slipping off the metal fence.
Fidelis clicked his tongue. When the next stab of the beak came, instead of stepping to the side, he stepped in and under the bird's neck. The animal turned and tried snatching him with its free talons but he was fast enough to outrun it. He then grabbed the staff from the ground.
"I got it!" he said, looking in Nevigne's direction. But her hand on the fence was nowhere to be found. "Oh no."
He had to act fast. As soon as the bird struck its beak, he leaped and stepped on its head. He ran on top of its body and saw Nevigne already falling down.
He launched the staff down in her direction, hoping that she would catch it mid-air...
...and she did.
But he had no time to celebrate. The bird shook him off of its body causing him to fall. As he hit the steel floor, the sight in front of him was a bird ready to strike him down. Fidelis was lying on his back and unable to dodge the incoming attack.
Then the ground trembled. The tower danced in the earthquake, causing the bird to flap its wings in panic.
A giant shadow was cast over the rooftop, accompanied by an ominous, guttural growl. Fidelis sat up and turned to see Nevigne standing on top of the eyeless giant worm.
"Yes! That's what I'm talking about!" Fidelis said proudly before turning to face the Darian Bird. "Now you're screwed, you hear me? You a—"
The whole tower leaned on its side when the Eyeless Sand Dragon struck with its weight. Nevigne was desperately holding on to the loose skin of her summon.
As everything was beginning to slide off of the edge of the leaning tower, Fidelis shouted angrily. "Watch it, Nevigne!"
"I'm trying!!!" she shouted back. "Without enough mana I can't control her!"
The giant worm, or the Eyeless Sand Dragon, rammed its head against the tower, further damaging the infrastructure. Nevigne was begging it to stop while Fidelis was desperately trying to find something to hold on to.
Because of the damage that dented the steel floor, the pole serving as a nail that pinned down the bird had been removed. The wounded bird flew in fear as far away from the giant worm as possible.
More of the worm emerged from the ground and began coiling around the leaning tower. Eager to survive, the other animals around the area scurried away and hid themselves.
The tower eventually collapsed under the worm's and its own weight. The ground shook, dust exploded in the air and the silence that the abandoned scavenger base maintained was disturbed after many years.
***
In the silence, high pitched coughing resounded. The dust was settling down, letting Nevigne see her surroundings.
She coughed out the dust twice more.
Pure destruction greeted her eyes, rubble and steel lay all around her. Not far from where she sat, she saw Fidelis brushing the dust off of his dark hair.
'Thank goodness we're alive,' she thought to herself.
She got up and began walking towards him. As she walked, she saw the ruined nest and a bunch of broken eggs lying on the ground.
Nevigne let out a sigh. "No food for us, I guess," she said, disheartened. "We killed her babies for nothing."
She heard Fidelis's groan as he pushed himself up.
"Not really," he said.
She turned to him when he stopped in front of her.
His hand was behind his back the entire time. With a proud smile, he revealed a large egg the size of a human head. He managed to catch a single darian egg before everything crumbled down.
"Tada! We'll have a feast tonight, Nevigne."
She stared at the egg before her gaze trailed to Fidelis's arm. They were full of wounds and shrapnel sticking out. It was evident that he prioritized securing one egg over his own safety.
She then looked up in his eyes and smiled. "You're that hungry, huh?"
"I am," he responded before walking ahead of her. "First let's take a bath and then we'll boil this thing to perfection."
He kept rambling about how hard this single hunt was while walking away, but it began turning into background noise in Nevigne's head. She watched the figure of a man with a large egg in his arms walk away from her.
Shaking her head, a small laugh escaped her lips.
"This might just work," she whispered to herself before starting to walk forward.
They found a nice pond nearby and washed themselves clean before feasting on the single egg they managed to secure. With the place being relatively safe, the high elf mage and the fallen archangel of punishment spent the night in peace. Their bellies were full and there was a campfire that brought warmth.
For once, it didn't feel as pointless. For once, Nevigne was able to sleep without the past haunting her dreams.