Era of Players: Death God-Chapter 294: The Howl of the Seventh Floor

The forest was eerily quiet after the clash with the two High Orcs, their massive bodies sprawled lifeless on the forest floor. The scent of blood mingled with the natural aroma of damp moss and old bark, the moonlight filtering through the thick canopy above like silver threads.

Noah exhaled slowly, sheathing Nemesis. But the respite lasted only a moment.

The ground trembled.

Leaves shook.

Somewhere deeper in the forest, a low, guttural roar echoed — not from a single creature, but from many.

Noah’s sharp eyes narrowed. That’s... a lot of footsteps.

A thick mist began to curl between the tree trunks, faintly glowing under the pale light. At first, shadowy shapes flickered in the distance — a slow, ominous procession. But the sound grew louder, heavier. Twigs snapped like bones beneath an army’s march.

And then they emerged.

From between the gnarled roots and moss-covered boulders, dozens — no — hundreds of monsters poured out like a living tide. Wolves with bone-plated spines, lizard-like beasts with eyes that glowed like molten gold, more High Orcs wielding jagged stone clubs, and even ogre-like giants with skin as thick as steel bark.

Noah smirked faintly. "A wave battle, huh? Perfect... I was starting to feel warmed up."

’’Lord of Night!"

The moment his skill pulsed through his body, his senses sharpened further. His hearing could pinpoint each footfall, his eyes tracked even the twitch of a claw, and the mana signatures of every beast in his range lit up in his vision like moving stars in the darkness.

With Night of Death still active, the forest plunged into pitch black — but to Noah, it was a stage painted perfectly for slaughter.

The first to rush him were the bone-spined wolves. They leaped with terrifying speed, their jaws wide, fangs glistening with venom. Noah’s black blade flashed —

— shhkk!

One wolf’s head tumbled, another was cleaved in two at the midsection. Blood splattered in arcs, glinting like liquid obsidian under the artificial night.

Noah spun, slashing upward as a lizard beast lunged from a tree trunk. Nemesis bit through scale and bone with a sound like tearing metal.

But there was no pause.

A High Orc roared, swinging a massive stone club at his head. Noah sidestepped, the wind from the swing rattling the branches behind him. He retaliated with a diagonal slash, the blade’s black aura cutting straight through the orc’s chest. The creature staggered, then fell like a felled tree.

From the treeline, a group of ogre-like giants moved in — slower than the smaller monsters but radiating a crushing presence. Their skin was rough and gray, like slabs of rock. They didn’t just swing — they smashed. Each step they took made the earth quake.

Noah lowered his stance. Mana surged into Nemesis, the black steel drinking it like a thirsty beast. Shadows coiled along the blade, sharpening its edge beyond mortal steel.

One ogre lifted its massive club overhead. Noah blurred forward before it could swing, slipping into the shadow it cast. In that instant, he reappeared behind it —

— Sshhrrkk!

The black sword cut cleanly through its thick neck.

But the wave kept coming.

It wasn’t a fight — it was a flood.

Dozens more wolves. Dozens more orcs. Lizard beasts climbing over fallen comrades. And beyond them, Noah could sense something else. Something bigger, waiting in the darkness like a predator letting the smaller ones weaken its prey.

Noah tightened his grip on Nemesis. "If you’re going to keep sending more... then I’ll just keep cutting you down."

He moved like a shadow given form — dodging, cutting, weaving between blows so heavy they cracked tree trunks in half. Every step was calculated. Every slash carried killing intent.

Blood sprayed in crescents as he bisected enemies one after another. Wolves lunged only to be cut mid-air. Lizard beasts tried to flank but were skewered through the mouth. Orcs swung clubs, but Noah’s counterstrikes left them in halves before they could roar.

The forest floor was becoming a crimson swamp. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

But then—

A massive roar ripped through the chaos, deeper and louder than anything before. The wave of monsters suddenly parted, as if making way for their leader.

From the shadows stepped a creature nearly five meters tall. It was like a fusion of ogre and lizard— scales covering its torso, jagged horns curling from its skull, and eyes glowing a deep crimson. In its clawed hand, it gripped a blackened war axe so heavy it warped the air around it.

[Mid-BOSS Monster Detected — Rank B+]

Noah exhaled slowly, his lips curling into a grin. "Finally... the real fight starts."

The boss charged. Despite its massive frame, its speed was blinding. Noah crossed Nemesis just in time to block the axe. The impact rang like a gong, shockwaves blasting leaves and splintering nearby trees.

Crack!

The ground beneath his feet cracked.

Before the boss could pull back, Noah twisted, using the momentum to slash upward — his blade scraping across the beast’s scaled arm, drawing blackish blood. The boss roared in rage, its axe spinning in a wide, brutal arc.

Noah ducked under the swing, shadows swirling around his feet, and stabbed forward — aiming for the heart. But the creature twisted, catching his sword with the haft of its axe. The two locked eyes for a brief moment.

"You’re tougher than you look," Noah muttered, his voice calm even as the ground around them quaked from the force of their clash.

Clangs Clangs!

The fight escalated into a blur of high-speed exchanges — Noah dashing through shadows, striking from impossible angles, the boss retaliating with bone-shaking swings and bursts of draconic energy that scorched the trees.

All around them, the remaining monsters still attacked in waves, forcing Noah to split his focus — parrying a wolf’s leap one second, sidestepping an orc’s club the next, all while avoiding the boss’s lethal strikes.

It was chaos.

It was beautiful clashes of weapons.

And Noah thrived in it.

By the time the fight reached its peak, the forest floor was littered with corpses, the night air thick with blood and smoke. The boss, breathing heavily, raised its axe for one final overhead smash.

Noah’s golden eyes glinted.

He poured every last ounce of mana into Nemesis, the blade’s black aura erupting like a storm. The shadows around him surged upward, wrapping the sword in an edge so sharp it cut the very air.

The boss swung.

Noah stepped in.

One slash.

A black arc of light cut through the darkness, and in the next instant — the boss’s body split in two.

The forest went still.

The wave was over.

Noah stood there, breathing calmly, his sword dripping black blood. Around him, the bodies of his enemies lay scattered like fallen leaves. The Lord of Night faded, the stars peeking through the treetops once again.

He looked at the carnage, then at Nemesis.

"Not bad... but I’ll need to get stronger. The deeper I go, the worse it’ll get."

With that, he began walking deeper into the seventh floor, the faint, eerie connection of the golden egg still pulsing softly in the back of his mind.