Been wanting to post something about this for a while after reading Chapter 57 but was busy. This will be rather long.
After seeing Urek VS Eduan I still think AUbryon wins and that Shinies are undeniably above FHs. SIU still tries to give some crumbs to make people think FHs can be superior and probably for debates but he isn't really ambiguous IMO.
Eduan really benefits from statements more than feats which is funny considering his status. In the recent arc he has two things going for him:
- Latour says he is strong.
- Urek says he can't protect Garam while fighting Eduan.
If you are being reactionary you could argue that Eduan is stronger than Latour due to this. Plus he doesn't even have his main spear and was in base. But it doesn't really make sense.
Eduan is definitely the strongest Human Latour saw in the Tower but Latour was dissing Urek, who is stronger than the former. It's also more than just banter because Latour was dominating when he was fighting Urek so his opinions has weight.
Urek says he can't protect Garam while fighting Eduan, but it's common sense to say such a thing while fighting a "strong" opponent and he said the same earlier when Latour appeared.
Let's compare Eduan, Aubryon(and Emperor by extension)'s performances against Urek, the benchmark. The most important aspect is CQC I'd say.
Worth remembering: Eduan fought Goth Mago and was greatly inconvenienced by Hope Reversal, which is broken but he wasn't stat gapped. He was able to react to her attack and injure her even in base. He did use his spear but if he can injure her with it, he can definitely do so with physical and Shinsoo reinforced attacks as well. Still, in terms of pure raw power he seemed inferior as he wasn't willing to deal with Mago's Masenko at all.
Now let's talk about Urek VS Aubryon in CQC: Initially, Aubryon was dominating, not clearly dominating like Latour though and Urek was much more nonchalant. He gave him several injuries and was clashing with Urek's PoL. Aubryon's Emperor was able to fight Urek as well but he never got a solid hit.
Urek wasn't in the right state of mind but this doesn't change once he starts to fully focus on fighting, for Emperor that is. Emperor is still able to fight Urek but doesn't do any better. Aubryon's fingers get crushed the moment Urek starts to focus but he stops fighting like a Fisherman after. Still, his Devil Form make him much stronger, strong enough to block Urek's punch with no damage.
Urek VS Eduan: In CQC they were evenly matched and no solid hit from either. From this alone we can say that Eduan is better at CQC than Emperor, but nothing is clear for Aubryon since he stops fighting Urek like this. Eduan only gets a clean hit because Urek was distracted by Garam. The power of the attack was reduced because of what happened but it still hit the back of his head and Urek wasn't in bad shape after. Eduan loses the clash after. Again, SIU tries to make things a bit ambiguous with unwelcome developments but it's not truly ambiguous I would say.
Something that stood out is that Eduan was able to match Urek's Planet Burst(Yes, I am calling it
Planet Burst for now, or maybe I should call it Light Burst) with his own, nameless lightning bolt.
Is is really consistent after what we have seen against Mago? There are two ways to look at it.
- Urek's Light Burst wasn't as powerful as the one he used in Chapter 47: I'd say it's pretty obvious since Urek ramps up as he fights and his attack was clearly the most powerful of the arc back then. It's what made Mago realize that Urek was made. Urek also used Light Burst more than once at different level of power.
- Eduan's lightning is actually that strong: Doesn't work IMO because of what I said just above about Urek just above. Goth Mago's Masenko destroyed Marlin Gigante too, which is a named attack. For 2 to make sense, this lightning bolt has to be stronger than Marlin Gigante.
For me it's clearly 1. Urek says he was holding back too but it's possible he was only talking about the final attack(they agreed to hold back anyway).
Eduan was definitely inferior to Urek but he didn't have his main spear and could have powered up with GoL. I think Eduan would have a hard time against Aubryon's Emperor but would eventually beat it. In GoL mode he maybe beats Emperor mid diff? But he can't beat Aubryon after that.
If Eduan had used GoL against Urek he woumd have dominated the Urek we saw, but the latter would have increased his power accordingly.
To conclude, for now, I think Eduan is more comparable to Emperor than Aubryon himself but Emperor is like Traumerei's Valhalla. With his spear, you might argue that Eduan would be more skilled than Aubryon at CQC but that's the problem if you want to claim that Eduan is stronger. You have to assume a lot of things which are a bit hard to believe after everything we have seen. Is the spear really such a game changer?
