The approach to the veritable phalanx that the hunters had set up was not something that Janius could immediately rush. His approach was suppressed by keeping two of the spearmen at bay, but at least he was distracting them. Jarring thrusts were deflected by his shield, but he couldn't quite follow through to one without exposing himself to the other.

Meesei's audacious shot at the stalactite above the mage was one that heralded an ebb in the fight for their enemy. Not only could Fendros take the required shots to keep the archers and mage at bay, he managed to land a hit on one of the archers' arms. It didn't outright kill the Khajiit male that had been hit, but it put him out of action, and distracted the mage for a moment as he tried to heal the man.

Runt stalked around her prey to the right of the formation on all fours. Keeping out of his range and eying him down with a growl and a snarl, her ears flat and her teeth glistening. The hunter stood his ground, prepared mentally and physically. Sabine was in a disadvantage in this situation, but she wasn't going to let that stop her. A feinted lunge at the bulky Argonian hunter caused him to try a thrust, one that was swatted to one side by Runt. A sharp pain ran across Runt's palm as her parry was ill timed and caused a scratch from the spearhead, but it was just a scratch. While the spear was displaced, Runt was about to pounce, but was discouraged the one of the hunters facing down Janius sensed the need to assist his comrade and brought his spear around to ward her off. Runt snapped and growled, frustrated.

Janius now only had one opponent, and was quick to take advantage. The next thrust by the Nord spearwoman in front of him was one he could parry and trap with his axe. Twisting the spear up and out of the way, Janius rushed the woman and slammed the full weight of his body into her shield. Knocking her out of balance and behind the formation. Now was the time to take advantage. Before the Redguard to his right could react, Janius swung his axe and buried it into the man's back, before yanking it out of the leather it had cut through and letting Lorag finish him off. Janius took a swing at the two other spearmen, but their formation contracted onto the ramp. There were now only three spearmen, the enemy advantage was diminishing further.

Fendros had tried his best to keep the enemies up on the mezzanine busy. Keeping count, he had about ten arrows left. Most of his shots were on their mark, but if they weren't stopped by that damned mage's ward, then they just ducked behind the crates and barrels that had been set up. He loosed another shot. It caused one of them to duck again, but the arrow stuck into the wood of a crate in front of him. With how slow this was in comparison to their opening assault, Fendros hoped that their target wouldn't slip away, or worse have something deadly prepared for them by the time they reached him.

With more space to move, Runt sniffed the air and scanned the chamber while Lorag and Janius faced off against the now recovered spear formation that had pulled back onto the ramp. The raised area was too high to outright jump up to, but she tried to look for handholds to climb on. If there was a route up to the top, she could deal with the archers and the mage with impunity.