Both Meesei and Vinaremo took their positions in an open part of the training room. The Altmer's anger seemed to be masking any other emotions Meesei might have been able to see in his expression, though if he was wise, he would be worried about Meesei's abilities just as well as she was of his. As soon as Meesei put up her ward, Vinaremo followed suit with his, followed by near simultaneous destruction spells. Vinaremo did not seem to be inexperienced, as he selected the same spell as Meesei: a constant stream of lightning, which was generally the preferred spell to use on mages. 

While Meesei started out pacing herself, the Altmer was aggressive from the start. Unfortunately, his arrogance was backed up with skill, as he was able to produce quite powerful bolts of lightning. The light of Meesei's ward flickered, but did not yet break, as Meesei had one talent that made her well-suited to maintain a defense. Her meditations and studies into the nature of magicka granted her a strong understanding of how interconnected various forms of magicka really were. As a result, she could take a portion of the magicka from Vinaremo's spell and use it to bolster her ward's strength. It still, of course, weakened over time, but at a much slower rate. When the Altmer concentrated his magicka into a single bolt in the hopes of suddenly overwhelming a weakened ward, he was surprised to find that it was still more than strong enough to hold up. 

Now that he had exhausted a large portion of his magicka on offense, it was time for Meesei to retaliate. She heightened the intensity of her storm of electricity, causing the Altmer's ward to begin to flicker and fade. He had to struggle to keep his ward up, to the point that he abandoned his offense entirely. With the pressure off of her, Meesei lashed out with a concentrated bolt, much like the Altmer, but this time, his ward burst in front of him. 

Generally, Meesei was not one to gloat, but this Altmer deserved to feel shame. His Argonian friend was already laughing by this point, which drew an annoyed glare from Vinaremo. Meesei would have joined in, were it not for another voice coming from the entrance of the chamber that captured everyone's attention immediately.

"Well done." Hal-Neesa commented as the approached the group. "Perhaps you will be less insufferable from now on, Vinaremo. Your arrogance annoys even me. Go, take a rest and lick your wounded pride. I desire a...friendly duel with our guest." Meesei did not know for how long the cult's leader had been watching, but it was obviously long enough to attract her attention. As much as Meesei wanted to get a sense of Neesa's abilities, she felt a duel with her was a bad idea. If Meesei won, then she might consider her a threat and have her killed. If she lost, Neesa might become confident enough to become more demanding in their negotiations. If at all possible, Meesei wanted to find a way to avoid a duel. 

"I would like to duel, of course, but...I feel far too drained from the last duel.. I am afraid it would not be much of a contest at the moment, I need time to rest." Meesei responded, hoping it would be enough to excuse her from the duel. Unfortunately, Neesa simply reached into her pouch and produced a potion bottle. Using telekinesis, she hovered it in front of Meesei as she took her position in the center of the training room. 

"That is no problem. Take a moment and drink this magicka potion. You should be ready in moments." Neesa said, somewhat demandingly.

Letting out a sigh, Meesei grabbed the bottle out of the air. She uncorked it and took in the scent of its contents. It at least smelled like a normal magicka potion; not like she had an actual choice in drinking it by this point. Reluctantly, she drank it, wondering if it would have been better to simply lose the first duel.