Froir, Center Plaza.

Once Yarla stepped onto the plaza, Quln simply walked to the opposite side with the black scars following in the air like coiling snakes. Yarla closed her eyes and a wave of energy was released when she opened them. Blue scars ripped into the space around her and if one looked closely, several white dots that resembled eyes could be seen staring at Quln.

As soon as both of them took to their spots, Shel and one of Quln’s bodyguards stepped inside of the dueling square at two of the other ends. The barrier recognized them as judges and shrouded them, which would act as a restraint and a protector on them.

After a moment, Shel and that bodyguard raised their arms simultaneously and brought them down, initiating the start of the battle.

Immediately, Quln waved one of his arms initiating the ‘invitation’ to his World of Em. Screams and wails came out of his scars as numerous black skeletons crawled out of them. They fell onto the ground and stood up with their bones popping and shaking. Without any semblance of flesh such as muscles or tendons, they rushed forward. Black beams of light also shot out of the scars aiming at Yarla, moving with the intensity capable to bore through her instantly.

Yarla, meanwhile, also waved one of her arms, causing a blue scar to spew out a mist that formed a barrier. She waved another arm and two more of the blue scars dropped to the ground. Once they reached the ground, they widened, and out of each, eight thin crystalline legs pierced into the plaza. The legs lifted whatever was inside the scars and it revealed two daddy longlegs, standing at fifteen feet.

They stood still untile the black beams hit the shield created by the mist, causing it crack, and break like broken glass. With the collapse of the shield, the attack was visibly weakened by evidence of their faded light. Even so, the black beams still posed a threat, causing one of the daddy-longlegs to blur, moving in front of Yarla, while the other charged at the black skeletons similar to a mobile tower.

The one that blocked the black beams cracked by the impact, but it absorbed the brunt without being destroyed. Right after the attack, it started repairing itself drawing in a blue mist from the scar it came from. The mist entered its fractured body, causing the damage to slowly fade.

The other daddy-longleg raised itself up and swiped forward at the dozen or so black skeletons with four of its legs. The single movement rendered all of the skeletons into fragmented bones that spread over the plaza.

On appearances, this single exchange made Yarla seem to have the absolute advantage…

As he saw this happen, Quln smirked. He pushed a palm forward and raised it. The numerous black scars that surrounded him conglomerated together, forming a single large rip of dimension. The scar flew up into the air and the scattered bones that covered the plaza burst into black fog, obstructing the vision while bringing upon a bone chilling cold.

“Massacring Witch! If you can’t defend against this next attack, then you don’t deserve the handed down title!” Quln’s casual voice echoed from within the fog as the massive black scar hovering in the air expanded, reducing the remaining visibility to nothing by fully blocking out the the sun. Then, a humongous pitch-black palm descended down from the scar in the darkness.

Yarla with a serious expression, who was surrounded by the only source of light coming from the blue scars, kneeled with her arms extended out, palms up. She slowly stood up and raised her arms.

The action seemed to have caused a calling from the blue scars as thick blue mist poured out. The mist swirled and formed several visible lines that rotated around a ten foot area. If looked at from above, the mist seemed to have formed several blender blades. The daddy-longleg that was still outside retreated beneath the ‘blades’ safely.

The pitch-black palm struck the formation and was torn to pieces, releasing more black mist into the already completely dark surrounding, causing the silent audience incapable of seeing anything inside.

Seeing this, Worill’s expression became increasingly grim. He muttered, “Milady, you need to become more active in controlling the surrounding space.”

Tus heard what he said and asked, “What is going on with the World of Em’s?”

Worill glanced at the ‘lucky charm’ and explained, “The World of Em relies mostly on the spatial internal energy to cause the space to fracture, which allows for utilization for the other world. However, the other part is relied on released essence from that world into the area. The more of it there is, the more powerful that World of Em becomes. This bastard chose to use a feint attack and a sacrificial approach to the duel and thereby released a lot of his World of Ems’ essence early, while milady chose the defensive and then offensive approach. Her approach would usually fight on par or defeat most other strategies that lack practice.

“It would be like someone trying to hit you, but you deflect it, pushing the opponent off balance, and then making a critical strike on them. However, with the bastards’ approach, he turned milady’s attack into fuel for a bigger play on his part.

“The only way to reduce the power of his next assault would be to release as much essence into the dueling area as possible, destroy the current essence, or make an accurate hit on the bastard to make him lose concentration, resulting in the essence to directly disappear. That is what I meant for milady to take control of the situation

“Another method is time based. For the loose essence, after two minutes of time, it would start to channel back into the World of Em, and disappear, while the creatures like those daddy-longs require at least twenty minutes. The current role in this case would be Qulns’ short term advantage versus milady’s long term advantage.”

Tus nodded his head, “I see.” While he also thought, ‘At times like these, I wish I had a hot dog or popcorn, while trying to understand what this commenter is saying.’

Yarla’s eyes flitted about in the darkness as if she was trying to find something. The swirling blue top slowly expanded, desperately shredding the black fog into non-existence. She waved an arm and one of the blue scars that fueled the spinning top, shot a blue beam into the darkness.

“Too bad you missed!” Quln’s voice reverberated in the surroundings. “I’m almost done spreading my control over the essence. Soon, I’ll release a tier one behemoth!”

“What?!” Worill yelled out.

Startled, Tus reflexively yelled, “What’s wrong?”

Worill calmed down and hurriedly said, “Tier is shorthand for grades of ten. A tier one creature is something that is beyond grade ten! Both milady and Quln are grade 8’s. Quln bringing out something that is at least two grades higher than them would be something that milady wouldn’t be able to withstand! It seems that the method he chose to increase his own power, but not increase his grade, was by using the power of the World of Em.”

“How does that make sense? Doesn’t grade refer to the ability of something?” Tus was confused.

“Yes, normally speaking. However, when referring to an individual, it combines all of their strengths and weaknesses. Quln avoided officially increasing his own by not improving himself at all and instead sought for a contract with a creature in the World of Em. According to the Regime, that is considered not part of his own power, because it is unreliable.” Worill spoke offhandedly.

“A loophole?”

“Correct.”

‘What the hell?! Isn’t that still part of his own strength?! He is still using it as one of his powers!’ Tus complained to the non-listening government.