Once the oil caught fire, it spread through the room ahead of them quickly. Although the automatons did not have too much of a sense of self-preservation, whatever the Dwemer used to animate them gave them at least enough sense not to stroll directly through a wall of flames. Most had to move towards the edges of the room to go around, but a sphere and a spider had been caught in the middle of the oil before Sabine spell. The spider's components melted and exploded into a ball of lightning before it could even escape the fire, and the sphere did not fare too much better. The intense heat had caused it to quickly begin overheating, so while its metal exterior was only barely damaged, several of its pipes burst from the steam pressure, causing it to almost fall apart before them. 

With flames engulfing the center of the room, the automatons were pushed to the left and right flanks, led by Ri'vashi and Hjergir. The warband was now facing more automatons than they had before, but the concepts were still the same. They still outnumbered the machines severely, so they maintained their formations behind their shield walls. Hjergir was targeted by one of the spheres, and while the machine's blade delivered more of an impact to his shield than he had been expecting, he was able to hold up his guard and allow a soldier beside him to deliver a blow on the machine's sword arm with the spike on his axe. 

In the center of the formation, Meesei's pack could not do much to reposition and help their flanks. Their formation was too tight to move to the sides, and the space ahead of them was blocked by fire. However, they had to be calm, as this kind of fighting was all about patience and opportunity. The automatons would only be a threat to the warband if they made mistakes, so it was better to wait until they had openings instead of trying to make the openings themselves. The center group could not move effectively to help in melee, but those with range could still be perfectly helpful. Meesei stepped forward into the frontline and targeted one of the spheres off to the left. She let off a few, quick thunderbolts one after another, stalling the machine completely in its tracks. 

---

Peiter, all things considered, was in an average mood. It has been over a week since Sabine and the others had left for the ruin, so he was starting to settle into mundane tasks around the clan. There were more ways than he had been expecting that he could help around the clan, and he did his best to avoid focusing on the things he could not do. For the last few weeks, he had stopped drinking as much as he had in the Bruma clan, not out of a lack of desire to do so, but for the mere fact that he had a hard time finding alcohol. Although, now that he was settled into the Riften clan, that could change. 

When Gallus approached, Peiter did not bother arguing. He had little else he could be doing, so he actually appreciated the chance for a diversion. "Eh, sure. I'm not really doing anything else."