Even one with no magical knowledge would be able to identify Teroiah's spell as an illusion, though its purpose was not to be subtle. The obvious solution would be life detection, but Teroiah would know that, and it was a spell that could be fooled with enough skill. As such, Meesei decided to take a different approach. 

Meesei hunched over slightly, bringing her self closer to the ground, then held her hand up over her head. At the very least, the effort of maintaining such a powerful illusion would delay Teroiah’s incoming attack enough for Meesei to respond. Planting herself in place, Meesei projected a powerful ward in all directions, enveloping her like a dome. She knew well Teroiah’s reputation for breaking wards, but she had a plan to deal with that particular eventuality. 

In her other hand, Meesei began to cast a spell, but then something seemingly bizarre happened: it [i]failed[/i]. Meesei, who had demonstrated herself to be nothing short of a master of the arcane arts, was [i]failing[/i] to cast a spell in the middle of the duel, and it was not one that felt particularly powerful. Regardless, she seemed undeterred. She sniffed the air to sense Teroiah’s location as she continued to try and cast her spell. Fortunately, her sense of smell would certainly still be reliable. Master illusionists had countless hours of practice fooling the sense of sight and hearing in combat, but there did not exist an opponent who would have a lycan’s sense of smell in a [i]magic[/i] duel. Except Meesei.