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Heya, I'm on vacation now, so I'm having plenty of time to post stuff again
I don't think Luslec looked at all stressed, more like locked in. He had in front of him the very people he's wanted to kill for tens of thousands of years, now having nearly exhausted all their strength. It was an opportunity like no other, but he also had to be careful with how he handled the situation because Urek was there, and the FHs are still formidable even if weakened. Not really a situation to trash talk.
There are a couple of reasons as to why I think Luslec is not fodder for a FH:
1. Already talked about it. Gustang mocked Urek for saying a 2v1 was fine when he had brought such an "unwelcome guest" along with him. I think this clearly depicts Luslec as a somewhat relevant player with the capacity to mess things up, at least for an exhausted FH. I doubt the fight would be less than Mid Diff for the weakened FH with that alone. Low Diff feels like too little to warrant this level of acknowledgment. Gustang clearly shows some level of concern for Luslec being there. Doesn't mean he's worried, obviously, but the fact that he'd rather not have Luslec there says plenty about Luslec's strength.
2. SIU already gave Dumas and Tiara gimmicks that approached the base strength of a FH, and I think it's very safe to assume that whatever Luslec can do when going all-out is going to be >> Rosario or the Pen's fire. This already means that Luslec's abilities are not something a FH can treat lightly, regardless of their state.
The Boss' decision to leave was certainly reasonable, but there's no denying he was portrayed as insta-kill fodder for Urek. Had they left a moment later, all of them would have died.
Of course, we have no clue what level of power Urek was using at the Sprout. One could reasonably argue he was using 100% Reinforcement or something close to it. In which case, Boss retreating isn't much of an anti-feat, since it's likely this version of Urek could wipe Luslec instantly in a straight fight as well.
While I could see Boss as TT-level, he's kinda a nothing burger right now. We know he should be above Regents, but he's also canon fodder to Urek. Luslec, meanwhile, fought Urek, stopped him several times, and even injured him. All while significantly holding back. Luslec just looks a lot more impressive on paper.
I have no problem with the Boss being TT-level, but he's gonna have to show it. As of right now, I don't feel the gravitas of an overwhelmingly powerful being on par with Luslec or Adori. The gap between their introductions and portrayal is considerable, IMO.
Gustang having practically infinite versatility on paper does matter, as that makes it very unlikely he's ever gonna be hard-countered in an actual fight (if SIU bothers to write him using his powers properly) and could almost always find ways to hard-counter his opponents instead.
Of course, I do agree that having a lot of options doesn't necessarily mean he'd always have the upper hand in a fight, but I think there are at least a few abilities that would always make him stronger and more formidable to fight.
Take the pen, we know the kind of stuff Tiara could do with it (mimic abilities much stronger than her own, transform into entities with abilities far beyond her own output), and Gustang's is stated to be much stronger than hers. So just imagine the stuff he can do with it.
The purple transformation Dumas had would also give Gustang a big boost. He's almost guaranteed to have it, since the form gave off power similar to that of the FHs (and the power was called "overwhelmingly strict"; not a coincidence given Dumas is Gustang's strictness).
Other than that, we got nothing on the Library's causality manipulation, or perception change. Nothing with Mikel's twisting ability either. Honestly, Gustang practically didn't use his powers at all in that fight, lol. On paper, his arsenal is absurdly broken.
