1 Kyros: Stand back. I'll use my newfound powers of earth manipulation to destroy the Balrog.
2 SFX: Crack! Crumble! Crunch! {the tunnel roof caves in, crushing the Balrog}
3 Lambert: You buried the Balrog under a cave-in! Yay!
4 Alvissa: You buried our escape tunnel to the surface under a cave-in. Yay...

Cave-ins would be pretty scary. I mean, seriously.

And not just because there could be Balrogs lurking around.

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2025-04-27 Rerun commentary: You should be able to see that the cave-in is made of Lego bricks.

If Earth beats Fire, then—going around the traditional arrangement of the elements—presumably Fire beats Air, Air beats Water, and Water beats Earth. It's easy enough to imagine situations in which each of these is true:

• Earth smothers Fire (seen in the comic)
• Fire poisons Air with smoke
• Air whips Water into spray and disperses it
• Water causes Earth to landslide/erode away

Traditionally Fire and Water are mutually opposed (as makes sense), and similarly Air and Earth, which makes less sense but you can kind of see it if you think more about them as being opposites: one light, one heavy; one gaseous, one solid.

The four element system is really quite neat in many ways, and that probably contributes to its enduring popularity in things like games.