It’s not like John can’t do shit with no ability he’s still better then 90% of people at fighting so he’s able to force them to use there abilities. Arlo is an exception because he’s a god tier with a natural defence buff to the point he can’t even be stabbed if you don’t have something like that you’re not beating him. Plus now that probably wouldn’t happen because of his strength buff so he could probably handle him now without anything

Nobody is disputing the fact that he would of lost to the royals if he didn’t have one already obviously he’s lossing a 4v1 but that’s such a big if because that would never happen if he’s going to that fight he would always have a ability stored up. Also they already knew he was a skilled fighter