We propose a continuous-wave dual-seed cascaded heavily erbium-doped fluoride fiber amplifier scheme with a 981 nm bi-directional pump configuration for hundred-watt-level power scaling for the first time. When the powers of the 2.8 μm and 1.6 μm seed lasers and the total pump light are 5 W, 20 W, and 300 W, respectively, the 2.8 μm laser theoretically achieves an output power of ∼100 W. The amplifier scheme can also reduce the fiber temperature. Additionally, the results show that there is no excited state absorption at ∼1.675 μm, and thus injecting a 1.675 μm laser to the amplifier is not conducive to the power scaling. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd