Okay, thank you for the clarification!

Alright, thank you for the fast response! Would it add clarity if the time end was when the credits begin, as opposed to the final hit (especially with the difference in regular hit vs wall break, and that there is still a little bit of player input while skipping the post-fight dialogue)?

If one were to do a route with no losses, is the run still eligible for the regular 8-stage arcade mode category even though there is still the 9th stage boss left? The wording in the rules "It is up to you where you want to lose a round should you want to drop a difficulty during the 8 stage default ARCADE MODE speedrun." is a bit vague and wondering if it's optional to lose. Is which battle leads to the credits what separates the runs?