The explosions of fire and light that Rossarm produced was enough to blind the duel's onlookers to what was happening just as much as it did to Neesa. The capstone of his flurry of spells was, without a doubt, the product of a master mage who was at least a peer of the likes of Teroiah and Meesei. However, they all had to wait a few seconds for the smoke and flames to clear in order to see the results, and as usual, Neesa's magic found new ways to surprise Meesei. She had not seen nor heard a ward at any point during Rosssarm's attack, and indeed, she had not cast one. 

Neesa hovered a foot or so off of the ground, her hand outstretched with a blank expression towards her opponent. She was surrounded by a protective barrier, but it was not a ward, and not at all like any spell Meesei had seen. It was a red, somewhat transparent barrier surrounded by a dark energy with the appearance of black smoke. The barrier formed a complete bubble around her, giving off a loud hum until the point that she lowered it herself. Meesei did not have any way to even begin quantifying how much of an affect Rossarm's spell had on the barrier, other than the clear fact that it had not been enough to destroy it. 

"Congratulations, I felt it." Neesa remarked just as her feet touched the ground once more. "So you are at least capable of a reasonable offense. There is much more I could test you on, but you look like you just might kill yourself if I try. I doubt throwing spells at each other any longer is going to tell me any more that I need to know. The only thing of value that is left to learn about you is your strategic competence regarding Daedra, but that doesn't require a duel between us. Now, heal yourself. You're much less handsome with internal bleeding." She said, giving a grin that revealed her fangs. "Though, notably more...appetizing." 

[hr]

Going into the duel, Julan's first thoughts went into identifying his strengths and weaknesses. He was not using a shield, so Narsi would probably have comparatively more defense, at least theoretically. But, she was using an axe instead of a sword, which he knew gave him certain advantages. The largest of them was reach, which he had painful memories of lacking during his trial back in Black Marsh. But, the fact that he won that duel did prove that he could still lose with a reach advantage. He just had to stick to his training. 

Julan's first response was indeed one that was trained. As Narsi rushed at him, Julan launched his fireball high, then quickly stabbed low. It was a simple attack, but it meant that her shield could not defend against both at once. A sword was an agile weapon, especially compared to an axe, and Julan was good enough with it to get it around her first attempt at parrying it. If she did not stop her charge, she would end up just running straight into the blade. Julan did not have near the skill or experience as Lorag, so victory would not seem nearly as out of reach for her, but she still would not find it easy.