"This one was way faster than before… they definitely are being controlled," Sabrina said once the battle was over.
"It also seems that they are closer than before… this can't be a coincidence," Ed rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
At that point in time, Sigma wasn't that worried anymore. If the monsters had to run away, they were no longer much of a problem. The enemy controlling them was, but if they also had to rely on monsters, they shouldn't be anything worth noting. In any case, Sigma focused on making more arrows since his mana was full again.
Once the group began to collect the magic stones, Sigma noticed that they had a bunch of them already, and that was impressive, considering that he was basically absorbing most of them. With one week of fighting experience, he was already getting close to Eclair and Sabrina in terms of levels, so it shouldn't take that long to catch up with Ed. Still, even that level of strength wasn't that impressive for Sigma since Ed told him that most people had to run away from demons. He had a feeling that he would find Saria if he had to run away from anything.
Once they finished getting the magic stones, Ed started to cook the breakfast. Eclair helped while Sigma and Sabrina recovered their mana and made more arrows.
"I guess it would be too much to find an easier way to carry all of these while taking less space," Sigma thought while looking at the quivers that his battle horse was carrying.
After breakfast, the group began to move again while keeping their guard up since they saw some hyenas in the distance… It looked like they wanted the corpses that they left behind. It was annoying that they were no longer a problem, but they could become if they attacked the group from behind.
"They are recovering a bit of territory thanks to us…" Ed said while looking around. "I guess the smell of blood attracted them. The desert is pretty large, but they don't like to live in the sandy areas."
"It must be because it is hard to find shelter while surrounded by dunes," Sigma said while looking around for any signs of the Verdiris.
"That is probably the case," Ed nodded. "Nevertheless, we need to be more careful since they will keep their distance from us, but they will come if we show any weaknesses."
The group only had to walk for two hours to reach the area where they saw a massive concentration of Verdiris. Now they were certain that they could see more than one thousand of them flying in circles around their base or something… Ed also confirmed that their base had moved.
"I thought that those things would keep their distance from us and just want to reproduce, but I guess we were wrong," Sabrina said while showing a creeped-out expression. "They need food to live as well, in the end… and they can only get so much from the cowardly double-headed hyenas."
"Hmm… attacking those numbers might be a problem, and I am not even considering their boss yet," Ed stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Using the same strategy might be possible, but they will have more than enough monsters to sacrifice a few to surround us… the shield will slow us down, so that won't take long."
The enemy base was one kilometer away, and so were the enemies… they would fly toward them once their distance was less than five hundred meters, and they could cross that distance in ten seconds. At the same time, the horses could only cover one hundred meters in ten seconds while carrying everything and everyone. So, they had twelve or so seconds for the enemies to reach them and only two of three to attack freely. The conditions weren't good for them…
The sun was a bit too high above them for them to have the chance to think clearly of a plan. They noticed that the heat had increased a bit since they moved….so Sabrina created another shelter using her magic. They rested for a short bit while they waited for the temperature to decrease a bit, and thanks to it, Sigma had an idea.
"We can use this," Sigma said after getting up.
"This?" Ed frowned. "What are you talking about exactly?"
"We can use the shelter," Sigma replied. "Sabrina can dig deeper with her magic, and we will be able to fight them while standing and in the same spot. Also, we won't have to worry about attacks from other directions, so your shield will only have to block attacks from one direction. In the meantime, we will attack from the sides and decrease their numbers steadily without worrying about being wounded."
The siblings looked at each other, and they had a hard time imagining things. It took a while, but they eventually did it… the plan was always, since Sigma was the one who thought of it, seemed crazy. They will essentially hide in a single place and keep attacking the enemies, after all. Still, it was better than risking being surrounded. However, if they had to, Sabrina could just seal the entrance with magic and just leave some holes for air to enter… it could work, but there was a problem.
"Your plan might work, but things will be different if their boss joins the battle," Ed said. "The primordial beasts, the beasts that ascended, or the evolved beasts as we call them, are at least ten times stronger than the ordinary monsters that they produce so that that thing might destroy this whole rock given enough time."
"I will deal with that. No need to worry," Sigma declared as if it was a matter of fact.