Even if there really were more battles to come, with Alex's current abilities, he would be able to handle them.
Not to mention that, after consuming the tricolor flower and drinking from the divine spring of life, he would be even stronger.
Louis was still unable to suppress his joy at what he had witnessed, but just as he was about to say more, he noticed Alex had grown alert and was tilting his head.
"What's wrong?" he asked. Then he heard it. A series of exclamations and sounds of fighting could be heard from outside the valley.
"Who else is planning to barge in here?" he asked, puzzled. Then he saw that Alex had already stood up and was looking solemnly into the distance. He seemed far more serious than when he had spotted Asher and the others, and Louis' heart sank.
What kind of enemy could make the invincible Alex so worried? he thought.
While he was trying to work out what was going on, a group of people could be seen entering the valley. Moments later, he realized that it was the group of fighters who had only recently left.
In the brief time they had been gone, they had all been wounded, and deep scratches covered their shoulders and chests. There appeared to be sets of four claw marks on them, and they couldn't possibly have been made by humans. What kind of creatures could have inflicted such terrible wounds on a group of powerful warriors?
"An ill wind is blowing," Alex said with a sigh.
Louis' heart began to beat faster as he recalled the legends about the Valley of the Buried Heart.
"Could it be... Do you think that there are monsters here?" he stammered in disbelief.
Although the fighters hadn't been able to withstand Alex, they were all powerful people, so they should not have been so easily defeated. Even if a regiment of the modern army were here, the warriors would be able to defeat all of them with ease. And yet, clearly, someone—or something—had beaten them.
"They're not ordinary monsters," Alex said quietly. "You'll understand when you see them. Who would have thought they still existed?" There was also a trace of surprise in his voice, but Louis didn't notice, as he was too busy watching the warriors.
The group of fighters retreated back to Alex, all of them in a sorry state.
"What are those monsters?" a young fighter asked in exasperation. "They have immense strength, can walk upright, and can move as fast as the wind. I punched one, but I barely made it stagger back. But then, with a single grab, it tore through my armor and left claw marks on my shoulder."
"I'm not sure," another said. He was holding two strange-looking pistols in his hands. "But these custom-made guns are equipped with special armor-piercing bullets. It's enough to kill an elephant with one shot, but it can only hurt these monsters, and it won't kill them."
The Fool, who was being supported by Asher, seemed to have thought of something, and he frowned as he whispered something in his friend's ear.
"It might be them," Asher said thoughtfully. "But I thought they had been destroyed long ago. How could they still be alive?"
In the past, warriors had attacked the area, determined to wipe the creatures out once and for all. They had heavily bombed the place, and nothing there should have been able to survive. No one had heard of these monsters since then, and it had been believed that they were now extinct.
"Maybe they're from a different race," the Fool said as he coughed violently.
The sandstorm had already rushed into the mouth of the valley, and along with the endless yellow sand, numerous black figures had appeared. They were hidden by the storm, and all anyone could make out was that they were enormous. They were about seven feet tall, and their eyes glowed red.
Louis started to count them as they appeared, and there were a lot.
As the number of black shadows increased, everyone grew more serious. By the end, the warriors were drowning in despair.
"One hundred and thirty-seven!" Louis said.
"One hundred and thirty-seven monsters?" the Fool said. "How is that possible? We can't possibly escape from that many!"
Asher's face turned white, as if he had seen a ghost, and even Louis was beginning to lose hope. He knew he wouldn't be able to defeat this enemy.
Ordinary bullets wouldn't hurt them. Only by using cannons to bombard them could the monsters be seriously injured or killed.
One hundred and thirty-seven monsters. If each of them was even half as powerful as Alex, then they would be in trouble. With over a hundred of them working together, what chance would they have?
Until mere moments before, there had been only twenty enemies gathered in the valley for Alex to face. Now, it seemed that he would have to deal with a lot more of them.
They were gradually getting closer, and everyone could finally see them properly.
Their heads were like wolves, but their bodies were upright. They had claws and legs, and they looked like humans, but they were not. They were neither fully human nor fully wolf.
"Could these be the werewolves from the legends?" someone asked, his jaw dropping as he stared at them.
Everyone else looked equally shocked.
"Impossible. Absolutely impossible!" The Fool shook his head repeatedly.
"Indeed not," Alex said calmly. "But they do share a bloodline."
Everyone turned around to see Alex standing beside them with his hands behind his back, looking at the suspected werewolves with interest.
"What do you mean?" the Fool asked respectfully.
Everyone was now acting deferentially toward Alex, even Asher. They had already experienced what he could do, and they had no wish to anger him.
Alex didn't answer directly. Instead, he said, "I never thought that the bloodline of the Dark Wolf would survive."
He shook his head. "These people look like humans, but they're not," he explained. "They look like wolves, but they're not that, either. They're all descendants of the Dark Wolf tribe, but their bloodlines are not pure, so they're nowhere near as powerful as the Dark Wolf King."
The warriors had previously exchanged blows with these suspected werewolves, so they knew how terrifying they were. Now they were stunned to hear Alex say that they were weaker than real dark wolves.
"How strong is a pure dark wolf?" someone forced himself to ask.
"They can probably tear apart an aircraft carrier with their bare hands and resist nuclear weapons without dying," Alex said, shrugging. "The Dark Wolf King is an ancient, and each of his descendants is incredibly powerful. They can do a tremendous amount of damage and are capable of astounding feats."
Everyone listened intently, unable to believe what they were hearing. These wolves sounded terrifying.
"Don't worry," Alex said casually. "There won't be any of them left on Earth. They would have died of old age long ago."
The spiritual energy on Earth had been depleted to such an extent that there was no way the Dark Wolf tribe could have survived. If a dark wolf still existed, then no one knew where it was hiding. There had been no sign of them for a long time.
"These werewolves in front of us might be the descendants of the Dark Wolf King," he said. "Perhaps hybrid werewolves."
He looked at the wolves, his interest waning. The bloodline of this group of werewolves was too diluted. Compared to the pure-blooded Dark Wolf tribe, their physical strength was drastically weaker.
Over the years, they had been forced to mix with humans, causing their bloodlines to deteriorate.
Alex had hoped he might be able to capture a dark wolf and use his blood to create a group of powerful warriors. But now that he had seen how weak their bloodline was, he decided it wasn't worth the effort.