"Both are good. There are a lot of them. But I'm not settling for an offer to be slightly scarier.

For the contest, you don't have to stay in one place. First one to be here with the head of an orc?"

"If I win," she says, "you advise us in where we can find our mutual enemy. If I lose, I have to stake out the boundary of my whole territory with the heads of orcs."

"East boundary. You're planning on killing that many anyway, and no point in decorating the parts they won't see."

"Deal."

That okay?

That's a lot of orcs. Aren't they people?

Yes, but they serve the Enemy and are better off dead anyway. 

That sounds highly questionable. But if what I landed on last time I crossed was any indication there are going to be that many orc casualties anyway...

You'd have the world's most macabre demesne and that would normally influence what kind of magic you find easiest. Other than those, it sounds like what people here would consider reasonable stakes. But I don't know who or even what this guy is. There could be anything going on we don't know about.

Yeah. But we can fly, right? So we can win the contest.

Yeah, and it might seem like a safe proposal if he didn't know about that.

All right, worst case I have a creepy demesne. I can live with that.

"Just say when you're ready." The Other is fidgeting or gesturing or something, but there's no apparent purpose.

"Uh, back home we'd shake hands, walk ten paces away, and then go, can we do that? It's more fun."

"Yes but then I'd have to shake hands with you. I'll happily walk ten paces away."

"I've shaken hands with people I cheerfully loathe, and will do so again on the other side. It means 'I can beat you fairly', not 'I think you're a good use of the essences that make you up'. But okay."

He walks ten paces away.

So does she.

And her opponent starts lazily watching for when she's going to start moving.

She draws her bow and fires it, far out of sight. "Let's go," she says to them.

Water, elementals, practitioners. Less water than before; there isn't quite comfortable elbow room, but they can move fast.

"We're probably going to have to go all the way to the continent to find orcs, I don't think there are any here."

"What were you shooting?"

"Well, if the universe runs on drama it could've put an orc there for me, but mostly I just wanted to tell if being a practitioner changed anything."

"It could, but I doubt the spirits would think it makes a good story.

Changed anything?"

"Strength or dexterity or concentration or senses-wise."

"Did it?"