Two heads are better than one

The group had traveled long enough, and they couldn't see the walls of Geolia anymore, and they could only see the mountain on the side of the city. In the other directions, Sigma could see tons of those rocks around, and each one of them could be used well for the monsters to hide.

"Let's go on foot for a while," Ed said, and then he got down the horse. "Sabrina and Eclair should stay mounted since the horses will offer some protection and a better view of the surroundings."

Those two nodded. The battle horses didn't fear the monsters, so they won't try to run away scared and risk knocking them to the ground. Sigma and Ed began to pull the horses while looking around. Eventually, they passed fifty meters away from one of those large rocks, and then they suddenly heard the sound of footsteps. The two-headed hyenas finally showed themselves…

The creatures, just like their names, said they had two heads, and they looked insanely vicious as they ran toward the group, with both heads drooling a lot. They were almost two meters tall and three long. For some reason, Sigma thought that their size was a bit weird.

When he nocked an arrow and aimed, Sigma suddenly flinched when he saw a small tornado of sand involving him. He clicked his tongue while looking at the beasts. Sabrina used fireballs to attack them, and Ed waited for them to get close enough… in the end, he just kept aiming and charged his next attack. When the first beast got close enough, Sigma used Power Shot, and his arrow passed through one of the heads of the beast and knocked it down while hitting another monster. Still, the enemy got up…

"That is the advantage of having two heads, I guess," Sigma thought and then focused on speed while firing.

When Sigma uses the effect of his bow, he can immediately summon the arrows in the position of nocking, so he manages to kill two beasts when they get close enough while ignoring the sand tornado. Still, Sabrina had to fire some Fireballs to make the enemies spread instead of immediately surrounding him.

[You got 40 experience points.]

[You got 40 experience points.]

The sand tornado ended, and Sigma had the chance to see Ed splitting the heads of one of the monsters in two with a single sideway swing. Two of the remaining monsters were wounded, while two others were dashing toward Sigma. Meanwhile, Ed was already getting surrounded.

"Help your brother," Sigma said, and then he summoned two arrows at once and then nocked them at the same time.

Sigma did that instinctively. He didn't think about it… and yet, the two arrows landed on two different heads of the same monster…

[You got 40 experience points.]

[You learned the skill Double Shot.]

Sigma took his time attacking the other, and he just hit the head with the next arrow and stunned the beast before going for the skill. After finishing his side of things, Sigma looked to the side and saw two hyenas burning and Ed finishing one of them. It seemed that Sabrina's support had been more than enough… so Sigma attacked the remaining two wounded beasts.

[You got 25 experience points.]

[You got 25 experience points.]

"I guess I'll get less experience since I didn't kill them myself… but what about the magic stones?" Sigma thought while looking at the bodies.

Once the battle was over, Eclair approached Ed since he got a few scratches on his arm, and it was bleeding. Sigma didn't even notice that, so it happened in the blink of an eye. Ed looked like he had high endurance, so those things would have been a lot worse if Sigma had had to get attacked since his endurance was that low.

Sigma kept his guard up during the treatment and even when they went to grab the magic stones from the bodies. After ten minutes of work, they confirmed that the ones who were killed by him didn't have magic stones, and those that he killed with the others had small ones.

"You can keep them since I took my share during the fights," Sigma said, and then he went to check the rock that the enemies came from and found some bodies of giant green birds that had been eaten by the hyenas.

"I guess the smell of death came from them…" Ed said. "Anyway, we should split this evenly since we wouldn't be able to face this many enemies by ourselves."

"Don't make me repeat myself… it belongs to you guys," Sigma declared while showing a serious expression.

"Why do you choose the weirdest of times to show personality?" Ed asked and then sighed.

Ed didn't want to owe them any favors, so he did that… he also did that without thinking, so he assumed that he also had some level of pride. It was weird to learn more about himself like that, but it couldn't be helped, and it was better than learning nothing at all.

In any case, it seemed that they could use some of the feathers of the birds, but not from those bodies since the hyenas made a mess out of them. As for the hyenas, not a single part of their bodies could be used or eaten.

"They only live in groups like this?" Sigma asked once they returned to the horses.

"Yes, food is hard to find in the desert, and they can't find good prey big enough for more than a pack of ten of them," Ed replied while climbing his horse.

Those beasts weren't much of a problem, but Sigma knew that he had to make things more efficient… Double Shot consumed ten points of stamina, and to summon the arrows, he needed six points of mana, after all. Unfortunately, he didn't think of any way to make that more efficient. At least by himself…