The appearance of the leaping magical traps the Daedra had set made Fendros suddenly appreciate the Dominion's slower and more methodical means of advance. If Ahnasha, Leaps, and he were scouting ahead before Meesei could ward such a device, they might have been seriously hurt. And that was mentioning nothing of the casualties they would have faced marching a formation into them.

Not that their current situation was good. Fendros loosed a dark chitin arrow across to lodge in the neck of a Skaafin mage, though he could not stop to fell any more under the enemy retaliation. They could not afford to be bogged down here.

"Ahna!" Fendros said over his shoulder. "Could you summon something tough to run through these traps?"

Over in the central path, Janius, Kaleeth, Sabine, and their force made quicker time. Janius was the one who triggered the first trap. He smelled a whiff of magical fire coming to his nose right before Sabine cried out warning. He covered his face as a reflex and the blast forced him back.

The smoke cleared as Janius regained his balance. He shook his snout and growled ahead.

"Wait! There are more of them!" Sabine said, holding a spell in one hand that helped her at least see that there were illusions ahead. "They are hidden!"

The Skaafin they faced saw fit to let loose on them with similar arrows and spells from behind their barricades. Sabine brought up a ward to help cover herself and some of those behind her. She tried to figure a way through, looking past the shimmer of her ward. She did not have the time or space to set up a portal to bypass the traps. She did not have the ability to ward everyone against them. She barely had a few potions that could effectively protect against magical fire. Most of all, she was not used to being any leader in this battle.

"Do'rhajul!" She called over to the one with experience as a general. "I cannot protect everyone from these traps. How do we advance?"