Sabine knew exactly how to deal with the frost atronach, as her attack stopped it dead in its tracks. Simple flames would certainly have hurt it, but her magic lingered on impact. The boiling water stuck to the atronach, quite literally melting through its icy form, which only added to the heated steam in the air. While strong, frost atronachs were by no means invincible, and the intensity of Sabine’s magic was enough to melt off one of its arms at the shoulder. However, the threat to Sabine was only beginning, as Do’rhajul was now in a position to attack. He rushed forward, his long strides giving him impressive speed as he intended to shield charge straight into Sabine. 

Each parry and exchange between Yerig and Janius demonstrated the Nord’s experience. He was a master at positioning his blade to both defend against Janius, and threaten the weak points in his armor at all times. He quickly built up a sense that every motion he made was a potentially mortal threat. However, an attentive fighter like Janius would also pick up on his weaknesses. As experienced as Yerig was, he was still an old man. He was not as strong, nor fast, nor agile as Janius. He did perhaps have trained reactions beyond the norm for his years, but in every other physical category, Janius was superior. If Yerig did not remain perfect in his movements and attacks, Janius was more than capable of severely punishing a mistake. 

Yerig started to react to the fireball as soon as the saw the magic form in Janius’ hand, but it still served its intended purpose. The Nord managed to avoid the bulk of the flames, and those that did brush into his robe did not so much as singe it, perhaps less than Janius might have expected. It was possible that Yerig did have some magic resistance enchantments on his robe. Regardless, Yerig still stumbled back, barely maintaining his footing. It would open an opportunity for Janius, but it was one that Yerig intended to quickly close. Staring intently at Janius, Yerig finally opened his mouth, but the words he spoke were not a response to Janius’ claims: “[b]FUS-RO-DAH[/b]”

Compared to the others, Fendros certainly had his opponent on the defensive. He might have been able to see the panic in the Breton’s eyes as he realized that the advantages he was supposed to have over Fendros did not exist. As Fendros drew dangerously close, the Breton fell back to a somewhat desperate defense. He turned his ice spell to the ground in the hopes of at least somewhat slowing down the Dunmer as he quite literally dove away from Fendros’ swings, then conjuring a Dremora churl directly in front of himself. The Breton did not seem to be an exceptional conjurer, as it was not a terribly powerful Daedra, but it at least served as a present physical threat for Fendros to have to deal with. 

Even as the fight was just beginning, Kaleeth found herself struggling against her two, skilled opponents. They had enchantments that made them strong enough to challenge her directly, and clearly had the skill to match that potential. It was everything Kaleeth could do just to defend herself. The two brothers, who were arena champions according to the pack’s information, worked exceptionally well together. They moved to opposite sides of Kaleeth so as not to interfere with one another, and to divide her attention. They were both armored, so Kaleeth knew she needed to switch to her mace, but did not have the time to do so. 

A hammer swing came at Kaleeth from her right, and she was able to avoid it by both ducking down low, and striking at the haft of the hammer with her hand to force it upwards. She was expecting an attack from the other Orc while she was distracted, so she pre-emptively moved her shield to block an attack from her left. However, the other Orc’s timing was impeccable. It seemed he had read his brother’s intentions perfectly, as he was already starting to swing before Kaleeth could react. He managed to get past her shield and strike her square in the back with his mace. Her armor did little for the impact, so she was nearly knocked forward off of her feet as she felt a terrible pain pulse through her torso. She turned around as she stumbled, raising her shield to protect her head, but the Orc was already swinging his mace into her stomach. The Orc with the hammer, by this point, had recovered from his previous swing and was making another attack towards her head. This time, Kaleeth was able to block with her shield, but she was unable to deflect the force, and therefore took all of it into her arm.