Kaleeth's armour saved her life for long enough for Janius to intervene. Contrary to his previous advice, they were both displaced from the safety of Sabine's ward due to her magical duel initiating. Fortunately, that problem seemed to be its own solution for now.

Janius decided to engage the Suthay with the short sword before she could land any more strikes on Kaleeth. He knew that the a swift and short opponent was not to be underestimated. With his shield low, Janius brought his axe down diagonally towards the Suthay's wrist.

The beleaguered Sabine had not been in an official magical duel before now. She was falling back on her training and keeping her ward strong, but she was tense. She didn't know what to expect. The weak spell that the mage was using seemed to be taking up all his time, so she thought that if she charged something stronger to...

She heard the clack of her teeth before she could bring her hands up to defend herself. The reeling sensation of stumbling back caused her to let out a small scream in fright. Then the pain and dizziness from the mage's fist set in. She might have shrunk away and run at that point. She was on the edge of panicking. If she hadn't listened to Meesei's training, then she might not have known to charge an ice wall spell in her hand as a reaction to getting struck in melee. She extended her right hand towards the mage's feet and blasted them with a powerful cold magic. It was no conscious thought that allowed her to stick his feet to the floor, it was days upon weeks of solid practice. Now that the mage was stuck, Sabine threw out an ice storm spell to sap his ward and then cast an icy spear at his midsection. She barely had the magicka left to restore her ward against any retribution. When she unconsciously swallowed, she very consciously tasted her own blood.

When Gallus made himself apparent in the corner of Fendros' eye, Fendros made one more attempt to quickly finish off his injured opponent. He stomped down on his enemy's sword to flatten it against the ground before bringing his own blade above the enemy's neck. And then, in a sudden rush of realisation, Fendros instead threw his other foot forward to kick the man unconscious. They might make use of captives later.

Under any other circumstances, the reach of the Cathay would have been a tremendous advantage against a lightly armoured human such as Gallus. However, the Cathay was not aware that Gallus had been practising against a Khajiit swordswoman of greater stature and skill than most beings currently in the fortress. Gallus halted his advance and backed off a step to let the sword pass in front of himself. He then feinted a step forward while holding his shield out to invite another strike. He intended to catch and parry the sword while stepping in properly and following through with his hammer. The side of the ribs was much easier to hit square-on from his height.