Wonderful sprite and terrific animation. I read the line as lava right away but can see why some would be confused by that. If its an issue just shifting a part of it down/up would diffuse the line :/
Also have weird feelings about the perfectly horizontal line, at first I thought it was some kind of cutting error.
Anim is very nice and fluid though.
Great anim, but what is the horizontal line on his chest?
Nice. I like the light that dims as he dies.