As the battle raged on, the toll on the team became increasingly evident.

  More and more members succumbed to their injuries, their combat abilities slipping away as they collapsed to the ground, exhausted and wounded.

  These fallen comrades were quickly but carefully dragged to the rear by those still standing, creating a makeshift triage area where the injured could receive what little aid was available.

  The sight of their friends and teammates being hauled away, their faces etched with pain and fatigue, served as a stark reminder of the brutal reality they were facing.

  Despite the growing number of casualties, the remaining fighters pressed on, their determination fueled by a mix of desperation and a deep-seated resolve to protect their own.

  But everyone was still covering for Alex.

  Marcus's spiritual energy was depleted, and he could no longer maintain his previous state.

  He started getting hurt, and moreover, he was determined to leave the final blow to the monsters to Alex, which also resulted in him sustaining more injuries.

  Kobe's knife had been snatched away by a monster with its mouth, and there was a terrible gash on the hand that had held the knife, with blood slowly flowing out from the wound.

  But he still held his shield with one hand, stubbornly keeping Alex protected behind him.

  Emily had already exhausted her quiver, her arrows spent in the relentless fight against the monsters.

  Now, the only objective that remained for everyone was to cover Alex, who held the key to their survival.

  With this new focus, Emily no longer needed to stand on high ground to command and coordinate their efforts.

  She leaped down from her elevated position, landing with a determined thud on the ground below.

  At the rear, where the injured were being tended to, Emily spotted a severely wounded teammate.

  Despite his condition, he still clutched a long sword, a weapon that had seen better days but was still serviceable.

  Emily approached him, and with a nod of gratitude, she took the sword from his grasp.

  He managed a weak smile, understanding the necessity of her action, before sinking back into the care of their makeshift medical team.

  Emily wasn't particularly strong in terms of raw physical power.

  She couldn't rely on brute force to wield the sword effectively.

  Instead, she had to use both hands to grip the hilt, her arms straining with the effort to lift and swing the heavy blade.

  But what she lacked in strength, she made up for in skill and precision.

  With a clear understanding of their new strategy, Emily focused her efforts on the monsters' legs.

  She knew that if she could incapacitate them by targeting their lower limbs, she would create opportunities for Alex to deliver the final, decisive blows with his dagger.

  She moved with a practiced grace, her sword slicing through the air with calculated accuracy.

  Each thrust aimed to hamstring the monsters, slowing them down and rendering them vulnerable.

  As the monsters' legs were injured, their movement speed decreased significantly.

  They stumbled and fell, their once frenzied attacks now reduced to feeble, crawling attempts to reach their foes.

  In this weakened state, they were easy prey for Alex's dagger, which found its mark with deadly efficiency.

  Emily's strategy proved effective, and soon the battlefield was littered with incapacitated monsters, their threats neutralized.

  The remaining team members, inspired by Emily's initiative, quickly adopted her method.

  They too began targeting the monsters' legs, creating a coordinated effort that turned the tide of the battle.

  And since the monsters were just losing their mobility instead of dying on the spot, the endless tide of monsters rushing in from the cave entrance also eased up a bit.

  Gradually, the number of crawling monsters began to decrease, while the number of monsters that had lost the ability to move increased.

  Before long, only a few monsters that had been killed by Alex and then re-entered the battlefield were seen at the cave entrance.

  Everyone realized that they had weathered this crisis.

  Emily let out a long breath of relief in her heart.

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  Although she had been counting on Alex to turn the tide with the dagger before, the ominous feeling brought by that dagger had always been lingering in Emily's mind.

  Now that the problem was solved, they had achieved victory in the battle by themselves.

  With no more defensive pressure on Kobe's side, he fell heavily backward.

  The long duration and high intensity of the battle, coupled with blood loss, made him feel his vision go black as he relaxed, and he fell down heavily.

  The team members in charge of medical treatment immediately stopped his bleeding and carried him to the rear.

  Marcus, on the other hand, still seemed energetic.

  Although he was panting, he didn't seem to have suffered any serious injuries.

  "Alex can stop now. Haven't you seen it yet? We're saved," he said.

  Except for Lena, everyone laughed.

  However, Alex seemed not to hear at all and continued to repeat his killing actions.

  A few more monsters continued to rush in from the cave entrance.

  Marcus knocked them down before his teammates and then quickly returned to Alex.

  "Alex? Can you hear me?" When Marcus stared at Alex, he found that Alex's face was pale, a sickly hue that seemed to drain all warmth from his features.

  His skin had taken on an almost translucent quality, as if the very life force within him was being slowly siphoned away.

  Dark circles rimmed his eyes, which stared out with a glassy, unfocused gaze, as though they were windows to a soul that had been hollowed out.

  His lips were bloodless, and a faint, almost imperceptible tremor ran through his body, like the shudder of a leaf caught in the grip of a cold, relentless wind.

  It was as if some unseen, malevolent force had taken hold of him, leaving him a pale, trembling shell of his former self.

  Emily realized something was wrong and told Marcus to quickly suppress Alex, while the others were responsible for dealing with the new monsters rushing in from the cave entrance.

  Marcus couldn't hurt Alex, and the abnormal Alex wouldn't care about Marcus.

  Marcus either had to take the damage for the monster or had to anticipate the angle of Alex's knife.

  Because there were monsters that had lost their mobility all around, Alex could kill a monster from any angle.

  Marcus also tried to use force to suppress, but this dagger seemed to be able to enhance its owner.

  Alex's strength had far surpassed Marcus's.

  Marcus tried to find more people to suppress Alex, but most people were injured, and a small part of those who still had the ability to move had to go to the cave entrance to deal with the new monsters.

  For a while, everyone could only watch as Alex continued to kill the monsters.

  Lena felt the vibration of the magic book in her arms, as if something bad was about to happen.

  She could feel that the dagger seemed to have received some kind of charge, and the charge was becoming more and more full.

  It seemed that she could vaguely see blue energy beginning to circle around the dagger.

  Just as Alex stopped his action after killing a monster again, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

  However, the vibration of the magic book in Lena's arms also reached its limit, which didn't seem to be a good sign.

  Just as Lena was about to step forward to communicate with Emily, a burst of energy from Alex knocked Marcus away.

  Marcus got up, shook his head, and was about to rush over again when he found that Alex began to float up slowly.

  His mouth and eyes started to emit white light.

  Gradually, the whole cave was filled with white light.

  Except for Lena, everyone, including the monsters, began to lose their vision, hearing, and smell, as if they had entered a state of time suspension.

  Then the monsters began to annihilate one by one. It was not a dissipation, but an annihilation as if they had never existed before.

  The magic book in Lena's arms no longer vibrated.

  When the energy burst from Alex knocked Marcus away, she found that the dagger seemed to have resonated with something from outer space, or rather, the dagger had summoned something from outer space.

  And her magic book seemed to have seen her indecision.

  Even though Lena hadn't agreed to any conditions, a completely different power emerged from the magic book.

  This power enveloped everyone, and everyone, including Alex, lost the ability to receive any external information under the envelopment of this power, except for Lena who was holding the magic book.

  Although Lena could move freely, her surroundings were nothingness. It was neither pure white nor pure black, but nothingness.

  She felt that something seemed to be happening in a place that was neither near nor far.

  She closed her eyes and began to meditate.

  Then she started to hear some voices.

  Although she didn't open her eyes, she still made the action of looking up.

  In a place farther than the stars, she saw the entity that the magic book had summoned before, or rather, more parts of its body.

  She saw a huge cloud - like entity, from which black tentacles stretched out, mouths dripping with mucus, and short, twisted goat legs.

  That existence seemed to be fighting with another thing.

  It was fighting with a black, amorphous mass of tentacles.

  While the mass of tentacles was devouring the stars, it was also fighting with the cloud - like entity.

  Suddenly, the amorphous mass of tentacles seemed to notice Lena's existence.

  It transmitted a piece of information to Lena.

  That information broke through the perception block of the magic book and entered Lena's mind.

  Then Lena fainted because of the huge amount of information.

  Due to the self - protection mechanism of living beings, she would forget this part of the memory after waking up.

  Then the mass of tentacles invested a mass of energy downward.

  If there was still someone in the cave who could maintain a complete consciousness at this time, they would find that this mass of energy was gradually taking on a human form.

  If Alex still had consciousness at this time, he would find that the energy body turned into was actually the waitress he met at the café, a tall woman with sharp features and piercing green eyes.

  The woman came to Alex and muttered to herself, "Since you accepted my help, you have to pay a price."

  Then she separated a ray of energy from herself, and that energy directly entered Alex's brain.

  In the dead of night, the forest outside the cave is like a slumbering, shadowy world, enveloped in a mysterious and profound silence.

  Moonlight filters through the dense canopy, casting dappled patterns on the forest floor as if nature itself has woven an enigmatic tapestry beneath the night sky.

  The forest is imbued with an ancient and tranquil aura, as if every tree and leaf were whispering secrets of a thousand years.

  The towering trees reach for the heavens, their branches swaying gently in the night breeze, producing a soft rustling sound, as if murmuring ancient incantations.

  The leaves quiver in the wind, and occasionally a few fall silently, like fragments of time drifting through the night.

  The air is filled with the scent of earth and foliage, mingled with a hint of dew, fresh and damp.

  Now and then, a night breeze sweeps through, bringing the distant calls of nocturnal birds and the rustling of leaves, breaking the stillness.

  These sounds echo through the forest, adding to its mystery and serenity.

  In the distance, the occasional low growl of a nocturnal creature serves as a reminder that the forest is not entirely uninhabited, but a world teeming with life and unknowns.

  In this forest, time seems to slow down and stretch out, with every moment filled with tranquility and depth.

  The forest at night is both a peaceful haven and a realm of mystery and the unknown, waiting for the brave to lift its veil.