For a split second, Damion wondered how his Fire Breath could have grown powerful enough to ignite the entire chamber, but then he realized the flames engulfing the place were not his. After a quick flash of intense flames, the flames in the chamber itself vanished. Only the walls of the chamber continued to burn along with the walls of the passageway on the other side of the chamber and the passageway behind him.

The flames along the walls of the passageways initially were large, but they quickly died down, becoming only small flames in lines where the odd smelling liquid on been seeping from the rock walls.

"Was that gas?" Damion asked himself as he watched the walls of the passageways continue to burn.

Petroleum was the lifeblood of Earth. Used in so many forms and functions it was nearly impossible to keep track of. While the liquid had smelled familiar to Damion, it did not quite smell like gasoline or other combustible fluids he was familiar with, but then he had not smelled such things for almost 20 years now.

With magic powering almost everything, in one form or another, there was no need for fossil fuels on Nerotath. Still, even if they had no use for it, that did not mean it did not exist. Even if what was seeping from these cave walls, now burning out of them, was not petroleum in some form it was obviously similar or this world's equivalent.

The question Damion was faced with now was, should he continue on or retreat? This was obviously a highly dangerous Breach. A single spark was enough to ignite this chamber, and he felt fairly sure that if he was not wearing armor that had strong fire resistance, he would have been in serious trouble.

On the floor of the chamber lay the bat Demonic Beasts that had been about to attack him. They had all been burned to a crisp in the fire, leaving only charred remains. Even the cores of the beasts had been destroyed.

Across the chamber the passageway on was lit up by the small fires still burning on the walls. That did not worry Damion. What worried him was the glow coming from further down the passage. It was obvious that the quick explosion of flames which had happened in the chamber had continued on down the passageway and was still burning fiercely somewhere ahead.

Looking behind him, up the passageway he had come down, there were only a few small fires burning on the walls and floor. A few meters up the passage a small flame dripped fire from the ceiling. The flame dropped to the ground and splashed as if it was a water droplet. The droplet of fire sent smaller drops outward. Most of those smaller drops fizzled out before they could do much, but one splashed into a small stream of the flammable liquid, causing the stream to burst into flame.

As Damion watched the small flame renew the fire burning in the passageway for a few moments before dying down again, he realized he was in a great deal of danger. If a single drop of fire could cause the liquid to erupt in such a way, then a drop in the wrong place could be devastating.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

'I need to get out of here,' Damion realized.

He had no way to know if the fire he started was going to continue on or burn itself out. Just as he had no idea if there was a large deposit of the flammable liquid somewhere in the Breach. If there was and the fire reached it, then there was no telling what might happen.

Damion started rushing back down the passageway towards the entrance to the Breach. While he did not normally put much weight behind what if's, sticking around inside a powder keg seemed to be a sure method of suicide.

As Damion ran back the way he came he kept a watchful eye out for the seeping liquid and flames. There were a few spurts of fire here and there, but as he drew closer to the exit the seeping liquid was less and because of that, there were less flames burning. Reflecting on his journey into the Breach, Damion recalled how the smell of the liquid had grown steadily the further he went, the deeper he went.

'The cavern!' Damion shouted to himself. 'What if the large cavern is not where the guardian of the Breach resided, but where all the flammable liquid flowed to.'

With that thought, Damion started to run even faster. If the fire he started managed to make its way all the way there, then the entire Breach might just blow up.

Just as Damion was reaching the Breach exit he was forced to stop because his way was blocked.

"Whoa there!" Cried out the B Rank mage in the lead of the group as Damion crashed into him, knocking the Fire mage backwards into the two other B Rank mages behind him.

The three mages were wearing artifacts that appeared to be a type of goggles which let them see in the dark, but otherwise, Damion did not see any other artifacts on them.

"Sorry. We have to leave now!" Damion told the mages he had just collided with.

"Mage Wells?" the Fire mage questioned.

"Yes. We need to leave. Quickly," Damion urged.

"I thought you were an up-and-coming fearless monster. What kind of Demonic Beast has you so scared?"

"I will be more than happy to discuss it with you once we are outside the Breach."

"How 'bout we discuss it now," one of the other mages said.

Looking over the Fire Mage's shoulder, Damion could see the other mages were a Water mage and an Earth mage, but he was not sure which had just spoken.

Trying to think how to convince these people to let him through, Damion lowered his head, trying to think of something when he spotted a small puddle of the flammable liquid in a small recess of the passageway floor. Instead of arguing further, he lowered his palm towards the puddle and cast a quick Fireball.

The puddle burst into flames with the fire licking up the walls as it followed the liquid up the passageway walls. As fast as the fire climbed the wall, it burned itself out. From a distance the flames might look like a group of fireflies making their way up the walls of the passageway.

At first, no one showed a reaction to the fire, but after a few seconds the Fire mage's eyes went wide as he appeared to realize something.

"Out! Everyone out! Now!"

"What do y…" the Earth mage started a question, but the Fire mage pushed him to the side of the passageway and tried to force his way past.

As the Fire mage forced his way past the Earth and Water mage the two were bewildered by his sudden change in behavior. Damion was about to follow behind the Fire mage, but before he could, the Earth mage blocked his path.

"Explain what is going on," the Earth mage demanded.

"This place is a deathtrap. It could explode any second. Get out of my way!" Damion shouted at him and like the Fire mage had, pushed the Earth mage aside practically trampled the Water mage.

As the Water mage was struggling to get up after having been runover twice, he felt a slight dampness on the floor of the cave and after bringing his hand up to sniff the strange liquid he touched shouted.

"Fire Cave! This is a Fire Cave!"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.