There was one thing about the cavern. Since it was full of mana crystals, the entire area was rather high on mana. It was high enough to give birth to things such as the earth elementals.

"Its a shame it was discovered in this manner", Kaden thought as he proceeded to shoot some Fire Bombs into the attackers. "One can fight here extremely long time without becoming exhausted. This would also be top tier location to cultivate, if one can arrange things so that the earth elementals will not bother you."

Kaden also wondered whether there were more of such concealed caverns under Madakar. Was it common occurence to have remant rift appear inside the ground? There could be many of such 'bubbles' of mana dense spots beneath the ground to be found.

Whether this was the case or not, Kaden didn't really care after he pondered it for a moment. He did not have earth based spells. Digging and looking for any would be waste of time. More so, if more indeed did exist, they would usually be discovered and harvested. He wasn't even certain of the actual conditions required for such places to be formed. Perhaps it required a specific kind of remnant even. Simply put there was no way to gain the benefits alone. By the time one was strong enough to do it all alone, you wouldn't need it anymore.

He did get some more relevant ideas, though. Kaden started to construct clever little formation. It was very simple, but in such mana rich environment, it could produce far greater effect than elsewhere. The formation was basically Kaden's usual way to torch something with remote control. Fill the formation with Devouring Flame and make it spew out on trigger.

Usually it would stop when the initial spell ran out of power. Yet, with the area filled with mana and mana crystals lining the walls, the cavern was basically filled with fuel, he only needed to light it up and it would burn for quite a while. Someone very powerful would need to come around and forcibly stop it, if someone wanted to stop it.

Lighting it up would take some effort, though. The spells that he and the other Lower Cari tossed about wasn't enough, but all he needed was a proper trigger. The formation needed to condense the spell it releases just enough for it to ignite the ambient mana. Basically just a spark. To compare it to something like True Magus, their basic mana was dense enough that if they so desired their mana could achieve the same anywhere and be in full control of it. Yet, they had better uses for their abilities than light up some mana.

There was no telling whether it would be useful, but if there was a need to retreat, it would make sense to destroy or at least heavily damage the resources available in the cavern.

"Then again, the decision to wreck this place isn't mine", Kaden knew as he finished the formation.

The fight was getting worse, so it should be useful. The entrances were now extremely wide. Some dug out, some blown open. Only thing reducing the size was enraged earth elementals ejecting spikes and otherwise trying to attack back. Yet, they were too weak against a horde of Lower Cari so they did very little.

"I can light this place up and destroy large amount of available resources here", Kaden told the leader phoenix who in turn questioningly looked at Kaden. "Should we lose this location, which seems likely, it would be shame to leave all the mana crystal for the taking. I made a formation that will ignite all of it, if we need to retreat."

"Hmmm, this was a big move from our opponents", the leader said. "Far bigger than just what happened here. The True Cari are probably moving away as the shock from their attacks are weaker now. Soon we will get rushed from above too. The loss is almost certain. Do it once we leave. If possible, wait a bit so more enter the cavern."

"Of course", Kaden replied with a nod.

Kaden doubted he would have got much himself out of the place anyway so it didn't matter to him whether it blew up or not. It was still good way to show initiative and deny enemy resources. All for contribution points.

While waiting for the True Cari to stop devastating the outside and a chance to escape would open up, Kaden joined in the fight to prevent themselves being overrun. If they had to leave, there was a good risk being annihilated by whatever aftershocks True Cari left behind. That also while enemy would still likely follow too. That is, if they were not incinerated by Kaden's trap.

If enemy True Cari won, there could be problems, but there was a reason they didn't randomly join combat and only fought other True Cari. If one used them, then everyone else would too. That would result in annihilation of anything below their power level for everyone. They might just let everyone go - at least most.

After some time passed, just by the time it was getting difficult to hold the enemy back, the battle on the surface seemed to end or move further away. Everyone was told to prepare to leave and not too soon. Indeed, the True Cari had moved further and some enemy troops on the surface seemed to move to the edges of the collapse and began to shoot down, if they were able. The rest started to leap down or climb.

"Everyone! Retreat!" Order was shouted.

Everyone started to move backwards while shooting at any enemies. Until now they had been able to prevent too many injuries and casualties, but now retreating under fire was entirely another thing.

Kaden himself arranged himself somewhere at the middle. He didn't want to be the first one to come out and be potentially killed by enemies waiting outside, if they had discovered the exit. Nor did he want to be the last one.

There was also likely tough retreat to safety anyway. Enemy had basically taken the area and Kaden had no idea how far closest friendlies were. The location was supposed to be behind frontlines! Had frontlines fallen? Where was it now? Perhaps that was what the True Cari were doing. They were trying to keep the enemy progressing too far during this major move they had managed to arrange.

Whatever it was, it was bad for the phoenix clan and their allies. Again, Kaden didn't really care. The clan was too powerful and wouldn't be moved about easily. That was what Kaden cared for mostly. Safe place to grow. At worst, or best, he would receive more chances to kill some enemies of the clan in some retaliation or new conflict.

Once Kaden reached the outside, the area was near unrecognizable. It wasn't just the enormous collapse, but mountains and hills and changed shape, basically all trees and other plants had been shredded apart. There were smoldering craters. Ground was in many places glassed. It also seemed space might have been distorted a bit.

Luckily the enemies had not discovered the exit and were only now noticing the group appearing. Due to the previously mentioned changes to the area, there were basically no good hiding places except the craters.

"Everyone move quickly!" The phoenix leader shouted and then looked at Kaden. "Is that trick of yours ready?"

Kaden nodded. "I hid it so unless someone runs into it directly, its fine. I'm also still sensing the connection, so it wasn't destroyed during the combat either."

"Wait my call to trigger it", the phoenix told Kaden.

Kaden hoped it wouldn't be too long since they would have to retreat soon. If it was just him, he would have triggered the formation himself right after he was out, but he had to at least superficially care for his 'allies'.

"Last ones are coming out. Do it", the phoenix told Kaden.

Kaden triggered the formation and near instantly the hole in the ground flashed in light and dark red fire spewed out. The last ones coming out were basically blasted out as fire exploded through the escape tunnel too. Lucky for them, that far from the ignition point, it wasn't the devouring sort anymore and was basically just a the initial blast. Not that they didn't get somewhat burned anyway.

There were screeches. It wasn't just the burning enemies inside, but the earth elementals got enraged. They even burst forth on surface where they didn't seem to like being normally. They were pulling rocks and spikes from the ground and tearing cracks.

They were trying to collapse everything to put out the fire that was eating away their sustenance. Kaden would have started killing them, but it was time to run instead. In fact, Kaden felt extremely annoyed he couldn't stand there to watch and listen as his enemies burned to death. It was only small portion of their enemies that were in the cavern. The ones on surface were already coming.

Lucky thing was that the elementals were able to collapse small portions of the surrounding area and they messed up the ground which made it difficult to traverse. They attacked anyone in the area. If it was just the weaker elementals, the army consistin of Lower Cari were probably going to just go through them with only slowing down slightly.

The thing is, there was even a greater roar at that time. The earth shattered like bomb exploded inside it. It was not an explosion, just powerful ejection of earth. Large spikes sprouted from the ground too. This effect was an attack and at the same time a way to collapse the cavern.

Kaden was pretty sure there was one or more powerful earth elementals that avoided taking part in the combat until they were forced to act. They were likely smart enough to not show up.

"It would have been catastrophic to us", Kaden thought. "Whatever the reason was, it is good that things went that way. Now they are wreaking havoc in the surrounding area and gives us a good chance to retreat."

Kaden understood that this all could have gone really bad. Without a couple coincidences there would have been high chance for his death. Thus he was reminded of his weakness once more. Despite everything, he was still subject to suffer unavoidable death due to bad luck.

"How long will this be the case?" Kaden pondered as he continued running away. "I need to concentrate on reaching mid Lower Cari before I involve myself in the next conflict."

He wasn't yet certain what would happen. Would he be required to stay around a bit longer while the frontline rearranged itself? At least, unless even greater move would be made against phoenixes, it should be safer at the very least.

Yet, Kaden wanted more resources. He only had very little stored, that likely still wouldn't take him over the next limit until he could advance to mid Lower Cari.