This study presents a distributed quantum sensing protocol that achieves quantum-enhanced sensitivity with fewer photons than the number of unknown phases. The researchers demonstrated this by estimating the average of four phases distributed across four nodes, 3 km away from the central node, using a two-photon entangled state. This resulted in a 2.2 dB sensitivity enhancement over the standard quantum limit (SQL). The protocol uses a novel probe state that allows for Heisenberg scaling (HS) without requiring the number of photons to be equal to or greater than the number of unknown phases. The probe state is a superposition of two-photon entangled states between adjacent nodes, enabling the estimation of multiple phases with fewer photons. The experimental results show that the proposed scheme can achieve sensitivity beyond the SQL and approach the HS, even with a limited number of photons. The study highlights the potential of distributed quantum sensing for practical applications, such as local beam tracking and global-scale clock synchronization. The results suggest that the proposed protocol can be extended to estimate multiple phases with N photons, even when N is less than the number of unknown phases. The study also discusses the theoretical foundations of the protocol, including the quantum Fisher information matrix and the sensitivity bound. The researchers emphasize the importance of further improving the visibility of the probe state to achieve the HS. The study is supported by various grants and acknowledges the contributions of multiple authors. The authors declare no competing interests.This study presents a distributed quantum sensing protocol that achieves quantum-enhanced sensitivity with fewer photons than the number of unknown phases. The researchers demonstrated this by estimating the average of four phases distributed across four nodes, 3 km away from the central node, using a two-photon entangled state. This resulted in a 2.2 dB sensitivity enhancement over the standard quantum limit (SQL). The protocol uses a novel probe state that allows for Heisenberg scaling (HS) without requiring the number of photons to be equal to or greater than the number of unknown phases. The probe state is a superposition of two-photon entangled states between adjacent nodes, enabling the estimation of multiple phases with fewer photons. The experimental results show that the proposed scheme can achieve sensitivity beyond the SQL and approach the HS, even with a limited number of photons. The study highlights the potential of distributed quantum sensing for practical applications, such as local beam tracking and global-scale clock synchronization. The results suggest that the proposed protocol can be extended to estimate multiple phases with N photons, even when N is less than the number of unknown phases. The study also discusses the theoretical foundations of the protocol, including the quantum Fisher information matrix and the sensitivity bound. The researchers emphasize the importance of further improving the visibility of the probe state to achieve the HS. The study is supported by various grants and acknowledges the contributions of multiple authors. The authors declare no competing interests.