Noah, a wraith in the self-made darkness, weaved through the cavern, his movements a blur of dark energy and precise strikes. The Troll, a thrashing beast robbed of sight, roared in frustration, its attacks nothing but clumsy attempts to swat at the unseen menace. Each time it swung, Noah would appear like a phantom, leaving another searing gash across the Troll''s glowing veins with Nemesis.


    The bridge, illuminated only by the fleeting sparks of their sh, trembled with every earth-shattering blow. Noah knew this couldn''tst forever. The darkness was a double-edged sword, and the strain of maintaining Night of Death was starting to tell. He needed to finish this fight, and fast.


    With a surge of dark energy, Noah unleashed his final gambit [Blood Flowers]. Every wound he had inflicted on the Troll during the chaotic dance in the dark began to glow with an ominous red light. The Troll, sensing the impending doom, roared in terror, but it was toote. With a mentalmand, Noah detonated the Blood Flowers.


    Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!


    A series of bone-jarring explosions ripped through the cavern. The Troll, its body wracked with pain, was thrown back against the bridge railing, its form illuminated for a brief, horrifying moment in the crimson light of the detonations. Noah seized this fleeting opportunity.


    Like a shadow, he materialized behind the reeling monstrosity. In that split second, bathed in the afterglow of the explosions, he raised Nemesis high. The de, imbued with the power of Night of Death and the Lord of Night, radiated a dark fire that burned with an otherworldly intensity.


    "Let me set you free," Noah dered, his voice a low growl in the echoing silence that followed the explosions. "I am the Angel of Death!"


    With a single, powerful swing, Noah brought Nemesis down in a devastating arc. The obsidian de sliced through flesh and bone with terrifying ease, parting the Troll''s head from its body in a clean, brutal stroke. The severed head, eyes wide with surprise and a flicker of extinguished rage, tumbled across the bloodstained ice.


    The darkness its purpose served, dissipated at Noah''smand. Light flooded back into the cavern, revealing the carnage of the battle. The Troll''s bodyy lifeless on the bridge, a testament to Noah''s cunning and skill. Noah himself, his body wracked with fatigue and his cloak singed from the Troll''s berserk energy, sank to his knees, gasping for breath.


    [You have obtained 25% Exp!]


    ''''Let me rest for a moment please!" he said to nobody in particr.


    Fifteen minutes crawled by as Noah slumped against the icy railing of the bridge. The adrenaline that had fueled him through the battle with the Ice Troll had faded, leaving behind a bone-deep exhaustion. His breaths came in ragged gasps, hand is muscles screamed in protest with each movement. The air, no longer choked by the darkness of Night of Death, felt thin and sharp in his lungs.


    He surveyed the aftermath of the brutal battle. The bridge, once pristine, was now a scarred and broken testament to the ferocity of the sh. Chunks of ice were missing, the surface slick with a mixture of blood and frost. The headless body of the Ice Trolly sprawled across the bridge, a chilling reminder of the power Noah had faced.


    But amidst the devastation, a sense of aplishment bloomed within him.


    As the minutes ticked by, his ragged breaths slowly turned into deep, measured inhales. The aches in his muscles began to dull, reced by a throbbing soreness. He retrieved some healing potions from his pouch, downing them one after another, the sweet, tingling sensation seeping through his body, mending minor injuries and easing the strain.


    He then turned his attention to Nemesis. The de, once gleaming obsidian, was now stained with dried blood and scorched by the Troll''s berserk energy. With a practiced hand, he cleaned the de, the rhythmic motions a calming ritual after the chaos of the fight. As the darkness lifted from the metal, so did the darkness from his mind.


    Stepping off the final ice shard of the bridge, Noah found himself transported from one extreme to another. The biting cold of the frozen wastnd was reced by a suffocating heat that washed over him in waves. He squinted, his eyes adjusting to the sudden brightness that assaulted his vision.


    Gone was the pristine white cavern; instead, he found himself standing on a narrow ledge of ck volcanic rock.


    Below him, a vast expanse of moltenva stretched as far as the eye could see. The fiery liquid bubbled and churned, its surface a canvas of swirling reds and oranges, punctuated by asional shes of white-hot heat. The air shimmered and distorted above the molten river, creating a mirage-like effect that made it impossible to discern any features on the far side.


    The heat radiating from theva was almost unbearable. Sweat beaded on Noah''s forehead despite the exertion of the previous battle hhadlong faded. He could feel the soles of his boots warming through the thick leather, a constant reminder of the inferno beneath his feet.


    The ground around him was littered with volcanic debris. Jagged chunks of cooledva and ck cinders crunched underfoot as he cautiously stepped forward. The air hung heavy with the acrid scent of sulfur, a pungent reminder of the raw power that had birthed this fieryndscape.


    The only source of light, aside from the moltenva itself, came from gglowingvents scattered across the distant walls of the cavern. They cast an eerie, flickering light on the scene, highlighting the stark contrast between the jagged ckness of the volcanic rock and the ever-churning fiery river below.


    The silence was oppressive, broken only by the asional hiss and crackle from theva flow. Noah stood there for a moment, taking in the sight, a mixture of awe and apprehension gripping him. This was the fifth floor, a fiery inferno unlike anything he had encountered before. The challenges of the ffrozen detection werea distant memory now.


    Here, a whole new set of dangers awaited,a fiery gauntlet that would test his mettle in entirely new ways.


    He gripped Nemesis tighter, the familiar coolness of the de a grounding force in this searing environment. He wouldn''t let the heat, the uncertainty, or the sheer scale of this fieryndscape deter him. He hade too far to turn back now.


    With a deep breath, he adjusted his cloak to offer some semnce of protection from the heat and stepped off the ledge, ready to face the trials by fire that awaited him on the fifth floor.


    Noah strained his senses, his Presence DDetectionskill humming with minimal feedback. The intense heat seemed to distort the usual flow of magical signatures, leaving him feeling strangely blind. He crept forward, each step a delicate maneuver on the uneven terrain of volcanic rock.


    Reaching the seventh rock, a particrly precariously bnced shard of cooledva, he paused, a flicker of movement registering on his Presence.


    Crouching low, he peered into the swirling mass of molten rock below. At first, h nothing but the ever-churning inferno. But then, a sh of crimson caught his eye. A creature, seemingly born from the mes themselves, erupted from theva. It was a Fire Lizard, a creature often found inva.


    This particr Fire Lizard was a true behemoth. Its sleek, reptilian body, easily reaching two meters in length, was a vibrant crimson that seemed to glow faintly even in the harsh light of theva. Molten rock dripped from its armored scales, hissing as it cooled on contact with the surrounding air.


    Its eyes, burning embers set within its reptilian skull, glowed with antense heat, locking ooah with a predatory glint.


    Powerful, wed legs, tipped with razor-sharp obsidian talons, propelled the creature through the air with surprising agility. Its long, whip-like tail, tipped with a cluster of wickedly sharp barbs, swished back and forth, leaving trails of sparks in its wake. A plume of superheated air billowed from its nostrils, a silent testament to the inferno it called home.


    SCREECH!


    The Fire Lizard let out a deafening screech, a sound that echoed through the cavern and vibrated through the very rock beneath Noah''s feet. As the screech subsided, the creature hung suspended intowardr for a moment, its fiery eyes boring into him. It seemed to be sizing him up, assessing him as a potential meal or a foolish intruder.


    Noah''s grip tightened on Nemesis. He knew the rumors surrounding Fire Lizards. They were creatures of immense heat, their bodies impervious to conventional mes. They were fast, agile, and possessed a venomous bite that could melt flesh and bone alike. This was no ordinary foe; it was a denizen of the mes, a predator perfectly adapted to this unforgiving environment.


    The Fire Lizard, having made its assessment, let out another ear-splitting screech andunched itself towards Noah, a living projectile hurtling through the superheated air. The battle for the fifth floor, a battle between a lone yer and a creature of pure fire, was about to begin.