Sigma's entire right arm began to throb like it had been smashed, and he could see the veins bulging, almost begging him to stop, but he kept going until all of his stamina had been drained. He did well in saving some mana, and he had imagined that the attack would wound him a little, but not like that… when he unleashed his arrow, Sigma's fingers broke, and his nails began to bleed like a waterfall.
As if that wasn't enough, the blast of the arrow pushed him backward, and he fell from the rock. Sigma somehow stopped rolling down the rock and managed to land on his feet, only to feel the ground trembling and then the sound of a massive explosion in the distance.
[You got 80 experience points.]
[You got 80 experience points.]
…
[Level Up.]
[Level Up.]
…
The result had been even better than Sigma had expected. Not only he leveled up four times, but he also managed to destroy half of one of those rocks and killed a bunch of the monsters there. When he moved to check things, he saw a massive dust cloud dissipating and then several earth spears clustered together at the top of the destroyed rock.
"I guess the mana of the attack dissipated and did that…" Sigma thought and then turned around. "This should be enough for now…"
Sigma's entire arm was purple, and the fingers of his right hand looked like they belonged to a monster that had been smashed by a road roller. He healed himself, but that only helped a bit… and then he returned to the shelter only to see the shocked expressions of those three siblings.
"... What happened?" Ed asked while looking at Sigma's arm, that he had healed, but it was far from completely recovered.
"I was just relieving some of my frustration on the enemies," Sigma replied and then shrugged. "I want to see them trying to fool me again."
Sigma returned to the shelter and then began to meditate. He was planning to use that combo again since he already knew how useful it was and since it was the best option to get rid of large concentrations of enemies in a single place.
Ed looked at Eclair, and then she went to heal Sigma's arm. She didn't want him looking at her, but she felt a bit bothered since he just ignored her completely. In the meantime, Ed and Sabrina watched the Verdiris flying around aimlessly since they didn't want to risk being attacked again. Their options were limited now that Sigma could launch attacks like that, and unless they were stupid, the monsters would only run away.
"What do you think he did?" Ed asked.
"... I guess it was a combination of his arrows with magic," Sabrina replied while looking at the earth spears that looked like a porcupine. "That is what happens when you use a large amount of mana in a concentrated elemental attack and then fire it. Few people can do that, though, since it taxes the mind quite a bit."
Ed could only nod. Considering the noise and the tremor they felt, it seemed that Sabrina's guess was fairly accurate. Still, that was just another thing that Sigma showed them for the first time that surprised them. They wondered if they recalled that or if he did it by instinct. Either way, the answer would make him look like a beast.
As time passed, it seemed that Sigma was only keeping surprising them since Eclair told them that he was getting stronger at an astonishing pace. That was hard to believe since he was that much resourceful, but she assured them that he was weaker than them… for now.
Regardless, the monsters didn't change their behavior, and that puzzled the group even more… it was clear that they had one last card that they wanted to use, and that was why they weren't moving. With that in mind, Sabrina and Eclair went to meditate and recover all of their mana.
When they finished that, it was already dinner time, and since Sigma's arm was still aching a bit, they decided to wait until morning to attack again. His eyesight was one of his best weapons, and that weapon was a bit dulled at night, after all…
"Tomorrow, I will end this bullshit," Sigma told himself.
After a good night's sleep, the group began to move together toward the enemy's territory. This time, Sigma saw the enemies flying… they didn't want to become easy targets like before.
Once they entered their territory, the enemies began moving away slowly, which puzzled the whole group… that was a bit weird. In the end, they advanced while moving to the left side a little since they didn't want to be surprised by their boss. They did the right thing because all of a sudden, a massive bird emerged from that same rock that they assumed the enemy was in… the creature was like all the other Verdiris. Still, it was ten meters tall and twenty meters wide… it had three tails as well for a reason, and the beast emanated a dark green aura.
Sigma felt weird while looking at that as if something was crawling on his back, but soon he recognized the feeling.
"Someone is watching us…" Sigma declared. "Don't drop your guard, or they will attack us."
"Seriously… right now?" Ed grabbed his sword tightly.
Not only they had to worry about a beast of that size and its minions, but now they had to worry about attacks coming from behind as well… that sure would be a nasty battle.