Azaroth already guessed the man wasn’t dead, but he also had doubts because it felt so real. But with the power he had felt from the Crypt Master, he knew there was no way he would hurt him.

The others gasped when they saw him come back from death, or when they saw him come back from his pretended death. They hissed that they actually worried about him.

Crypt Master faced Azaroth. "Well? Send the rest of the attack now while the power is still yours!"

Indeed, Azaroth thought, and then he raised his hand again. Power gathered around the energy sword, and with a single flick of his hand, he sent the whole thing at the Crypt Master.

The Crypt Master didn’t bother with a shield as he raised his hands. The twisting, rolling energy blade hit his raised hand like a hammer to a nail, and the explosion that followed was a shockwave made of raw fire energy that blew the whole side of the mountain away as if it were nothing.

The whole mountain shook, and the floor cracked as the mountain started to slide and fall. The Crypt Master hovered above the new cliffside, staring at his raised hand where a small sword wound had appeared.

Azaroth saw but didn’t have time to worry about it as the mountain started to quake and shudder.

Crypt Master shook his head. To think that Azaroth had managed to wound him. It should be impossible for a boy at his rank to be able to control that power. With a small will and flow of power, he healed his hand.

Then he looked at the team that was rushing, trying to get to stable places on the mountain face. He raised his hand, essence gathered, and with a twist of his fingers, he teleported everyone away to another mountain.

"That was intense," Alex said after he caught his breath.

They all watched in silence as the mountain they were previously standing on crumbled and fell, the whole thing just sliding down in a rubble of broken stones.

"I can’t believe you broke the mountain with a single attack," Stallus said, wonder filling her voice.

Azaroth said nothing. He was standing, but his eyes were swimming, and he felt headaches building. He could feel the last of the energy still tingling in his veins.

Right now, he couldn’t believe the amount of power he was able to unleash, but that was only because he was on borrowed power. Right now, he could hardly fire a fireball even though his core was full.

Crypt Master understood. "What is happening to you is probably mental stress. Or tiredness. No difference really. By using that much power in that amount of time, you are bound to make yourself tired mentally. Think of it as mental muscles getting tired."

Azaroth got him. He checked his chaos core and flinched a little. The core was red hot with power, and it pulsed in time with his heartbeat.

A lot had happened when he took on that power, and one of those things was that Azaroth got an inspiration about the true nature of essence. It was brief, barely useful, but he held on to it firmly with his mind. He had to make use of it before it went away.

Apart from that and the fact that the core wasn’t listening to him when he wanted to move it, everything else was fine. He made a mental note to ask Corvus what was wrong later.

"You can rest a while," Crypt Master then turned to the others. "But not you! Time to train!"

They began their training then, on how to use essence shields. At first, Crypt Master asked them to fight each other and keep the image of their shield in their minds, but even when they were breathing hard and their cores depleted, none of them were able to do it.

Crypt Master shook his head. "Let’s see how you will do when fighting for your lives." Then he raised his right hand, palm front, fingers spread, and fired off a blast of white silver energy.

The team scattered when they saw the blast coming at them. They forgot their tiredness and got out of the way quickly, and they were right to do so because when the energy blast connected with the ground, it simply sunk it. The ground just crumbled.

They shuddered, trying not to imagine what that would have done to them. Crypt Master growled at them. "Don’t dodge! You have to use the thought that you are dying to manifest your shield!"

Easier said than done, Azaroth thought from his place. The body is wired to run in the face of danger. It was the natural instinct of the body. It’s hard to get over it, and maybe that was why they wouldn’t be able to pull an essence shield off because the body must protect itself somehow.

But that was if the brain didn’t send signals to move you out of danger first. Azaroth was now sitting down on the ground, cross-legged, so he could think more about the nature of the inspiration he got.

He got a brief glimpse of how essence was used as skill and how you could bypass the whole need for formation. What he now knew was that formation was just a way to channel essence properly. It wasn’t the only way or the best way.

Azaroth knew that he could do it with just his imagination and will, but it would cost. It would cost a lot of essence that he wouldn’t be able to provide at his current rank.

Azaroth narrowed his eyes. Time to think about his shield and see if his newfound inspiration would work for manifesting it. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Azaroth watched the others. The Crypt Master shook his head, threw back his head, and growled. "Don’t worry. We’ll continue after you eat! Maybe by then you’ll be more open to the thought of dying."