Since Mogranius blocked each and every gap of that tunnel, the Lava became tremendously heavy to withstand!
At first, he noticed a sudden spike in his Stamina as soon as he filled each gap of the tunnel.
After he took that spike, he quickly adapted to it and felt like he can hold this Shield long enough. Well at least until Eric returns... but now ke knew that he underestimated the Lava's power.
Normally, once the Fire Shield is casted, the Caster only needs to focus on keeping the shield going.
Having a firm grip to the ground is just a minor mostly unnecessary trait. Because the shield itself holds back any strong pushing force opposing it. Even if the opposing force is too strong, the shield starts breaking. The grip to the ground isn't affected.
But here! It wasn't the case. The Shield isn't braking so that tension has to go somewhere else, seeking a weaker spot.
Mogranius felt his feet slowly sliding through the ground. Although not fast enough to tip him over, his feet are still slipping.
Slipping might not be the best description, they were being pushed against the hard dry ground come to think of it.
Feeling that he was being overwhelmed, he knew he had to put more power against this lava!
The Shield has to be stronger in order to prevent this... sliding. Because if this goes on he will eventually meet the end of the tunnel and then burst in the Forest causing colossal damage!
Moving his right foot forward swiftly before he lost balance, digging it to the ground, he leaned forward at a 65° scale and started opposing such great force.
Afterwards taking a left step forwards, he was able to reach his former location even though his feet kept sliding across the ground along the way.
As the tingling of Victory surfed down his spine, what he feared the most poked its ugly head out. The Fire Shield started cracking!
A minor crack on the top left side appeared, then a slightly bigger crack in the middle followed.
In a blink, another smaller crack very near the middle one appeared, continuing to psyche Mogranius out!
If these cracks keep popping up, the Shield will break and disaster will shower across what he tried to protect.
Tightening his fists and letting out a violent bit of fire through his nose, the cracks on the shield were forced to disappear but Mogranius' Stamina wasn't any luckier as the Shield became thicker!
It became thicker by an inch! Thankfully the Lava can be withstood easier now... giving him a breath to think about where this Lava is coming from. Volcanoes can't be this fearsome!
But remember that spike in stamina he had to withstand once he covered every gap of the tunnel? Well, the spike has doubled in size now.
At first he felt weak to the knees but adapted to it quickly and took charge over the weakness, afterwards he felt his lungs burning harder and harder which forced him to heavy breathe.
What this signifies, is that he burned 60% of his stamina already! To make it worse, a couple of cracks reappeared on the Fire Shield!
This shows that in order to beat this terrifyingly powerful Lava, a 4 inch Fire Shield has to be casted. Especially since he is still sliding across the ground, but half the time slower.
With such a thick shield, it can be unpredictable how long it will stay active for a level 4 Fire Wizard.
He is in second and even third thoughts about unleashing such a thick Shield, but from the looks of it his choices are limited.
Two more cracks appeared near to each other at the top right. First the Lava favoured the left, and now the right. It really is unpredictable, which makes it all the more dangerous.
"Where the hell is that kid?" He whispered to himself as he let out a strong breath and felt countless sweats dropping the ground.
He decided that forming a 4 inch Fire Shield at such a situation would be too dangerous and unpredictable.
Instead, he decided to do an even more advanced and powerful move that might be able to vaporize the Lava in front of him and cause a strong blockade.
The bad side about this spell, is that it can drain what's left of his Stamina. Good if it works but what if it doesn't? He will be toasted.
To unleash a spell that can possibly fight off such force, he has to prepare the attack while still keeping the Fire shield going.
On his right hand, a Fireball started to form. Roughly Sphering around his hand, growing bigger by the moment.
But he feels like it isn't enough. "I need to put more power into this. This shield won't hold long." He thought to himself, his breath becoming heavier as time passed.
Not wasting a moment, fire started breaking out of his nose and heading towards his right hand, giving more power to the forming sphere.
More cracks on his Fire Shield popped up, as if shouting for the old man to hurry up with whatever he is doing.
Giving a quick glance and counting them, he found out that there were 9 Cracks on it already!
His legs shaking, sweat enslaving his face, he whispered. "I need to do this faster."
In a blink, Fire broke out through his mouth, hit the Shield and bounced of it towards his right hand. That small spheric Fire, observing all of this power.
Two more cracks appeared on the Fire Shield. And on one of them, Lava was breaking through, slowly falling near his feet.
Giving out a final burst towards the Spherical fire around his hand, he tightened his fist hard enough for his fingers to start burning, feeling numb.
He stopped blasting fire throughout his mouth and nose, now his hands shaking to the bone and it's not because he is tired.
There is too much Fire concentrated on one spot, he wasn't sure at all if he can keep this sphere for long on his hand.
It can erupt before he can even unleash it. This spell is ridiculously unstable and packs a death promising blow. Luckily he didn't have to hold it in his hand and wait to see what happens.
Pulling his right elbow back, and throwing that spheric Fire against the Shield and Lava as if he threw a rock.
It managed to push through the Fire Shield without trouble thankfully.
The concentrated spheric Fireball broke through wind so easily, that it even pushed through the lava as if it were nothing, as if it was still breaking through air.
Thankfully the lava didn't bring the spell back either. If it did, death would be certain.
Knowing what he had to do as a last resort, with his arms already spread wide he clapped his hands and the Fire Shield instantly expanded in Thickness.
3/4 of the cracks disappeared in a blink of an eye, the ones still remaining on the shield thankfully didn't pose a threat at all.
But with so little stamina left, how long can he keep a 4 inch Fire Shield going? This specially formed Fire sphere was his last hope.
That Fire sphere reached the end of its road, but its effects were sure far from meeting an end! A large explosion was heard a couple of seconds after Mogranius made the Fire Shield Thicker.
The blast is worthy to be memorized with song! It completely vaporized every bit of lava which dared to swim around its radius.
A lot of lava that was near Mogranius, wasn't there anymore but he had no chance of noticing that due to all of the dust, rocks and dirt, flashing around him and the strong shake as the aftermath of the explosion.
It is very likely that a lot of Lava from the other side was vaporized as well. Imagine burning super hot lava out of existence with super hot fire! That's how strong a concentrated blast can be.
The radius of the Blast however still reached Mogranius with ease, it rushed towards the Shield with such a bullying force!
When it hit his Shield, a large rivering singular crack appeared from the left top of the Fire Shield and ranged all the way down to the bottom right. But, that crack was only to be seen for a blink.
Smaller branches of cracks spreaded near the first large one with no sign of stopping, forcing the shield to inevitably brake! It all happened too fast!
A four inch Fire Shield which can wipe out his stamina in a few blinks, seemed nothing more but a minor barricade in front of that concentrated blast. Piling up power all in one place, can't always be the best idea.
If breaking the Fire Shield in 2 seconds isn't bad enough, he was tossed all the way through the cave, landing near the entrance and even was forced into a backflip in mid air.
His strong grip to the ground caused such backflip. His back even hit the cave wall above the entrance before he fell on the ground.
Thankfully there isn't lava where he fell, as if that spot was reserved for him.
He raised his head up with the toughest effort and saw the tunnel collapsing, dust spreading wide through the cave.
As if him being tossed through the cave worked to his advantage, he noticed that the former tunnel of Lava has been shunned. Dirt and rock barricading in and around the Tunnel.
Giving out a last blink around, his eyes closed as he reached unconsciousness. Stamina did its part and so did the damage he took when he hit the walls of the cave, hard dirt and rocks after too.
But to his ridiculously large bad luck, after an exact minute Lava broke out through the tunnel once more.
Just before the lava was about to turn Mogranius into an over cooked kebab, Eric jumped against the burning force!
He unleashed a terrifyingly large amounts of fire against the raging hot lava. Enough fire for the ground to start shaking beneath his feet, the second he unleashed the fire from his palms.
The Fire he unleashed spread so large, that the beginning of the blast forced him to lose grip of the ground in mere seconds.
It threw him through the entrance and made him tumble down through the hard dirt and rocks outside of the cave, like a tumbleweed.
While Eric was just thrown all the way out of the cave, he kept the spell going even while he was in mid air, but still he wasn't able to maintain the spell going for more than 4 seconds.
The Fire. Dear God. The Fire was terrifying. It measured 5 feet wide once it left Eric's palms and expanded ten feet when it reached the Tunnel. It's length behind tailed 6 feet long, and it's strength remained unmatchable.
It had such a strong push that it didn't just overpower the lava but it also expanded the used to be dead end tunnel to a ten foot wide and high seemingly endless hole, ignoring Dirt and Rock!
It went through the tunnel so easily that it didn't shake the rest of the cave down in the process. A win win.
The heat of the fire was unbearable as well. Just by being the caster, Eric slightly burned his hands, burned his left eyebrow and even a bit of his hair.
As we mentioned before, his magic is linked to his stamina. The more he blasts the more stamina he loses. And this huge blast was way too much for someone who just discovered magic a few days ago. He didn't yet figure out how to make the best out of his stamina.
Surprisingly waking up half a minute after, crawling his way up to the cave which took a few minutes but for him it felt like forever. He finally managed to reach Mogranius.
Glaring upon the tunnel, he saw quite well that he has won!
He managed to gently wake up Mogranius up with a slap into consciousness, under breath the old man said. "Morning already?"
They both are tired. All Mogranius is strong enough to do is sit and Eric burned out so much Stamina that he can't even stand up yet. He would need a few minutes or an hour to catch his breath and get his energy back enough to stand up.
Until that time comes, they are quite defenseless. But unfortunately, time isn't on their side now.
Because from that tunnel where all that lava came from, now emerged something possibly more deadly. Something everyone expected dead.
The Calidum Lutum! Three of them came out of that tunnel. One who seemed to be the leader, standing taller than an average ten foot Calidum Lutum, was in the middle of the three.
His strong black biceps were twice the size of Eric himself and the lava like veins that covered their bodies made each of them twice as intimidating. Luckily they were wearing grey breachers as well or else it would be really terrifying.
The two other Calidum Lutum near him, seemed smaller, weaker but if the two of them were put together, they would be equal If not stronger.
You would expect the Calidum Lutum race to be peaceful. Apart from their obvious numerous war advantages, they avoided war.
But yet again they didn't seem peaceful when they blasted all that lava towards the unsuspecting. The leader, forged his hands together, making them a large fist and was about to crush the life out of both Eric and Mogranius.
A second before he was about to crush them, he heard a voice yelling in from behind. "Aki!"
The seemingly giant Calidum Lutum stopped on his spot, as if he froze and separated his hands from each other, stepped a couple of steps backwards, sparing their lives. Even though he was the leader, there seems to be a leader above leaders.
The three large Calidum Lutum stood aside and what seemed to be a shorter woman is approaching. Well at least small compared to the other three.
She is a bit over six foot tall, seems like an Ignite but not entirely. You can define an Ignite apart from similar looking races from the jawline and how wide their faces is.
But the woman that just approached Eric and Mogranius has the complete opposite features.
Wider face and a sharp Jawline, six foot tall, while most of the other Ignite women are around five foot tall.
But a big feature that defined her best is that she has no ears! And I'm not using this as a metaphor, she had no ears. At all.
There weren't any holes around where the ears should be either. Nothing. Straight out flat. But oddly, she could hear everything. Apart from that, she was undoubtedly "otherworldly" beautiful.
Her black hair reached all the way to her elbows and she is noticeably physically fit, her body toned enough to be used as a military motivation, arm muscles a bit above average.
Mogranius who a minute ago was laying on the ground gasping for air, in less then a split second stood six foot tall although still a bit shorter than her.
In a flirting like manner he said to the lady, "Who might you be, let me guess.... They call you Dandelion because you sure look as beautiful as one."