Azaroth gritted his teeth. The fire platform was heavy and they were hardly holding it with one hand, worse, some of them had used too much essence already and they were already low on it.

The fire above their head licked at them, the heat shimmering and wavering, bore down on them. The only thing protecting them was their essence and that was running low.

"What is this? How can fire be so heavy?" Alex breathed hard, his mouth opened as sweat covered his face.

"Idiot! Look, this isn’t a normal fire. Kael isn’t holding back." Stallus said at the back with Azaroth since they were both shorter than Catena and Alex who stayed in front.

And she was right, the fire platform was not a normal fire, it was as if the fire was given form. It was hot red and molten like liquid fire. Azaroth didn’t want to think about the damage it would cause if they allowed it to slam into them.

But they had a serious problem, the only thing still keeping them alive was that they were stronger than normal humans and they were holding it back with essence-covered hands.

Even then Azaroth knew they wouldn’t last, the fire was so hot it was burning up their oxygen and it hadn’t even been a full minute. Their sweat kept drying up as soon as it came and very soon they would become dehydrated if the heat didn’t get to them first.

"My essence is very low," Catena grunted, his eyes almost closed with his mouth opened.

"Same," Stallus said, her voice dry. She tried to swallow and ended up coughing and hacking.

Azaroth himself wasn’t any better, he could almost feel his blood burning up just like his saliva had done. He was breathing in dry air through his mouth, very soon there wouldn’t be any air at all.

And worse, his essence was almost depleted. He had to do something before anything that would bring serious harm to him happened.

Azaroth took a quick look, others weren’t watching him, and everyone was concentrating on holding up the fire. Azaroth touched his Chaos core with his mind, it was still full and even though it was half of his normal core it should be enough.

He started channeling Chaos essence but he had to time well, it was hard on a normal day to mentally channel two essences at once but now? Azaroth had to drown out all distractions and concentrate hard.

With perfect timing and concentration, he switched to Chaos Core without missing a beat. Azaroth channeled the chaos essence to the very tip of his palm and spread it a little so the fire wouldn’t burn the rest of his hand.

The red color of the essence blended well with the fire platform.

"Befo....before our essence runs out we have to do something," Azaroth swallowed through a dry throat. "We should be able to throw the platform, at least a little away from us."

"That’s impossible, we don’t have the strength!" Alex whispered weakly, his hand was visibly shaking now.

"We don’t have the essence, Azaroth. The little we have is keeping us from turning into roast meat." Stallus said.

Azaroth frowned and shook his head as a drop of sweat dripped into his right eye. It stung and he said harshly. "Take the rest of your essence and channel it in a short blast."

"That means we used all our essence." Stallus said.

"No, it means we don’t end up burnt," Azaroth said.

"Sounds good to me," Catena said.

Stallus hesitated then nodded. "Let’s do it, I’m so low already that it hardly made any difference."

"Whatever we are doing, let’s be fast!" Alex said.

"Channel your energy close to your hand and when given the signal release it in a blast and throw this fire to the right," Azaroth said and started preparing himself, he started channeling chaos essence to his right hand without releasing or doing anything with it.

When his right hand glowed and he could barely contain it Azaroth shouted. "Now!"

Then he jumped with the others, releasing and throwing with essence, the fire lifted to the right but then tilted back, even their combined effort hadn’t been enough.

Azaroth jumped and with all the chaos essence left inside him he slammed the fire platform with his palm, sending it to the right.

The platform banged into the floor but instead of exploding, the fire.... collapsed into itself until it took another shape. It took the shape of four whips, connected with a single head like a malnourished octopus.

The fire whips cracked in the air and it flared hot red.

Stallus cursed where she sat on the floor, her saber lay beside her. Alex was bent on all four breathing hard. Catena had collapsed and closed his eyes.

Azaroth used his sword as support and eyed the whips as they twitched and shifted like eager hands. He was tired, his muscles were quivering and he was still feeling the effect of depleting his essence.

Even then, Azaroth brought up his sword and settled into his sword-fighting form. The first whip that snapped at him sent vibration through his shoulders and his right hand became numb.

Azaroth stared in shock, this skill even had more power behind it than when it was a platform, Kael must have doubled the essence of the skill.

Azaroth knew he wouldn’t be able to take another hit like that without popping his shoulder or taking liquid fire to his face.

Azaroth shifted until he was in front of Alex then when the whip came, Azaroth dodged with all his strength. The whip whacked Alex from head to shoulder, releasing a yelp from him and sending him spinning through the air, he landed with a heavy crash against the weapon rack.

Azaroth smirked. That was for lazing off and being annoying in the crypt.

Immediately Stallus was up, saber in hand, she hauled herself until she was beside Azaroth, saber pointed at the whip. She gave him a narrowed eye look but even then her lips were twitching. "You are crazy, Azaroth."

Azaroth shrugged and got ready for the next fire whip.