I looked over to Yr'Arl, ready to say something or other about each match being decided in a matter of single moments and mistakes, and that when it came to our turns in the arena we should be careful to try and make as few as possible. But as I turned all I was met with was a flash of white light. 

Yr'Arl was the next competitor in the spotlight. 

"And next up we have the skilled and dangerous Yr'Arl of the Ethati Trade Federation Worlds, up against Borock, who hails from the legendary Natani race, famed of course for singlehandedly turning the tide against the Null Space Invaders at the battle of Sphel'Pat!" Squadron Leader Belana explained over the comms system. 

Borock, the Natani that Yr'Arl was going to fight, was a four legged creature that almost looked similar to a centaur, in that it had a horse-like bottom half and a more humanoid torso up top. 

Not only did they have four legs, they had four arms too. Two jutted out from their midsection, while the other two were at the top of the torso in the same position as a Human's. Their head was small and narrow, with an eye on either side in a similar setup to a rat or any other prey rodent. 

While the alien certainly looked weird, they also looked fast and strong. Yr'Arl's new teleportation skills would come in very handy in this fight, I had no doubt about that. 

"Let the battle begin in 3, 2, 1, begin!" Belana called out!

As was so common with Yr'Arl's fights, the moment the call to begin was given he began the chant for summoning his spectral set of armour. 

Borock moved in to attack himself, unwilling to allow Yr'Arl to finish chanting his summoning spell. As the four-legged alien galloped toward Yr'Arl they manifested a glowing armour of their own around their upper torso, ending with a horned helmet on their head, which they pointed straight toward Yr'Arl. 

It was clear that Borock intended to ram into Yr'Arl with their projected armour, but they were never going to get the chance. In the split second before Borock was about to hit Yr'Arl, the feline alien managed to finish his chanting. 

The Spectral armour ripped itself into reality, bringing its shadowy sword to bear. Borock drove themselves straight into the sword, unable to stop themselves, and ricocheted off to the side in a shower of sparks. 

The blow that Yr'Arl's spectral armour managed to inflict would have been enough to knock most people to the ground. Similar blows had sent me careening off to the floor numerous times since I had met the alien. But to Borock it was seemingly nothing. The alien continued charging, curving around to strike at Yr'Arl from behind. 

Once again it looked like Yr'Arl was going to be skewered by the horned helmet that Borock wore. But what Borock didn't know was that Yr'Arl had been practicing teleportation magic ever since he had first seen Squadron Leader Belana perform it. 

Yr'Arl blinked away from Borock in a flash of white light. The light blinded Borock to the real threat, which was the spectral armour charging through the haze to shoulder barge the centaur-like alien to the side once again. 

Borock wasn't able to keep their footing this time. They went crashing to the ground, spinning out with their conserved momentum. 

Yr'Arl took advantage of Borock's weakness perfectly. The spectral armour rushed in with a mighty kick, tossing Borock high up into the air. Yr'Arl followed that up by teleporting directly above the now airborne alien, bright lights of power shining in the palms of his paws. 

Bright lights of power that looked incredibly familiar. 

With a yell Yr'Arl unleashed two beams of pure energy. They slammed into Borock and sent the alien crashing straight back down to the ground, with force. Borock landed heavily, but Yr'Arl didn't let up. 

Borock tried to stand despite the onslaught of the energy beams coming from above. They managed to get one knee under them, but then faltered and fell to the ground once more, this time unconscious. Only then did Yr'Arl allow the power of that oh so familiar move to let up. 

"And Yr'Arl is the victor!" Belana called out, zapping the two away with his own teleportation magic. 

Yr'Arl, completely unharmed by the battle, came straight over to the viewing area and retook his seat. 

"So," I said, "I'm pretty sure I saw a pretty familiar move at the end of your fight there."

Yr'Arl glanced over at me, a decidedly sly look across his face. "Well, I did tell you, Jacob Lyre, that one of my more unique abilities was to understand and repurpose the spellwork of other people," the feline alien said. "Those energy beams of yours seemed to work so well for you, how could I not give them a try myself?" 

It was the cheekiest I had ever heard Yr'Arl be, but I had to admit he wasn't wrong. The energy beam attack was probably my most versatile ability, even though it was one of the first that I'd actually gotten. I'd learnt how to utilise it in all manner of creative ways, so if there was one single ability that Yr'Arl was going to try and copy from me I could understand why, out of anything that I had displayed so far, it would be that one.

"Fair enough, fair enough," I said in return. "Just don't get upset if I figure out how one of your abilities works one day, that spectral armour does look mighty tempting." 

"I'm sure it does," Yr'Arl replied, clearly not offended by my banter. "Your jokes aside, should you not be preparing yourself mentally?"

"What do you mean by that?" I asked. 

"Ah, you have not been paying attention to the number of fights, have you?" 

I shook my head. 

"You're up next, Jacob Lyre, and I wish you luck."

I was unable to reply to Yr'Arl, as all of a sudden a blaze of white light wrapped around me. 

It was time to put my money where my mouth was. 

Before the blaze of white receded I pushed BB down into Synchro mode. It was time to get serious.