Azaroth was in a bad situation. He wanted to use his chaos thread, but he was already using it for something else he didn’t want to give up right now.

The monster was already on to him, its eyes gleaming with a victorious kind of light as the boss stretched its hands forward in a grappling motion. Azaroth had to act fast if he didn’t want to get torn to bits. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

The only option left was his fire core. Even as he fell backward, Azaroth drew all the essence in his body back to his core. He removed all forms of essence forge and put it all in his core, then he fired his formation.

Fire Spray flared with heat, yellow and bright in front of Azaroth. It jetted forward with all the essence left in his core and slammed into the surprised monster.

The boss simply could not dodge at such a close distance, and its growling scream came out in a yelp of surprise as the fire took it straight in the face.

Azaroth stumbled back, holding back a gasp as his core screamed at him in a way that made his eyes water and pulled him backward. It was like an extreme case of hunger but five times worse.

His fire core was utterly empty, not even a drop of essence left, but at least he managed to stall the monster with it because the boss was hollering, shaking its head to put out the fire, and it eventually succeeded in doing so.

After its ears had finished burning and its face was now a mass of red and black burnt bruises, the monster tried to snarl, but it turned into a yelp of pain as the action pulled on its face.

Its eyes shone even redder, and it met the red eyes of Azaroth. He saw anger there. Azaroth knew that the monster was ready to kill him and not in a good way.

Azaroth narrowed his eyes. He saw Alex raise his hand and throw lightning. It collided with the monster’s head, ripping into the tender flesh that Azaroth had burnt. The monster howled with pain and hurled itself forward at Azaroth.

He did the only thing he could. Azaroth turned and ran. He brought out his chaos essence and cloaked himself with it, eating up the distance towards the pillars quickly.

The boss monster was slower than it should be; the pain was getting to it. It shook its head but still ran forward, and soon Azaroth and the monster were in the cradle of the pillars, the lair of the boss.

Here, they were hidden from the eyes of the others.

Azaroth stopped running and turned to the boss. His eyes glowed red like embers, gleaming even more than the boss’s eyes. "You should not have followed me here."

The monster stopped, uncertain. Its prey had suddenly stopped running and instead turned on it. The intelligence of the monster had been dulled by pain and anger, and now, it wanted only to tear him apart.

Azaroth took note in his head quickly. He had ways to beat this monster. It was with his chaos core. The skill of his chaos core made him invisible to all eyes except his own.

And he might have only one chance to kill it.

Azaroth looked at his hand where his chaos thread hung. The thread continued, lying on the ground towards the monster where it circled its right leg.

Azaroth had attached his chaos thread to the monster when it hit him earlier with the club. It was a risky thing to do, but fighting this monster meant using every trick he knew.

It was fortunate that the monster knew no skill; the only difference in their rank lay in its strength and speed. That wasn’t something to be underestimated, but still, it made things a bit easier that the monster had no skills.

The monster tensed, and he knew it was ready to jump at him. Azaroth also got ready. Immediately, the monster jumped, Azaroth planted his feet firmly on the ground and pulled his chaos thread with essence.

The monster stumbled, surprised, and went sprawling. Azaroth didn’t let such an advantage pass him by. He already released his chaos thread when he pulled on it. Now, he covered it on his sword and cut into the monster’s neck, deeply, but not too deep as to cut it off.

That wasn’t what he was after. He ran past the monster, and his sword blurred down again. This time, it was the monster’s leg, and he cut clean through.

The monster screamed, but it was muted by the blood in its throat.

Azaroth looked at it and nodded in satisfaction. Then he ran out and, as he knew it would happen, met Alex and Stallus at the edge of the pillars.

They both flinched back, thinking he was the monster, and Alex was even raising his hand to use his skill. Azaroth turned to Stallus, who was straining to contain the explosion of the big crystal from happening.

"Bring it." Azaroth was down and stretching his hands for the crystal, and with a sigh of relief, she released it. He was back up, weaving over the ruined pillars and into the monster’s lair.

Azaroth looked at the struggling monster and dropped the throbbing crystal beside it. He didn’t wait to read the rage in the monster’s eyes before he was gone.

Then he ran far from the place before the explosion of white light and blue essence tore everything apart. Dust and rocks flew up and around, slamming into anything in sight.

There was a mental click that signaled the completion of the crypt, and they all let out a sigh. Azaroth slowly went down. He sat on the ground, and if he were the smiling type, he would be grinning right now.

He had played it smart, wounding the monster and then using the crystal to finish it off, with no one the wiser.