The first thing to do in a one-on-one battle is to assess your opponent before throwing your aces on the table. You need to retain a calm mind and act based on your instincts despite how easy or difficult your opponent seems.
As such, the first thing Richard did was throw several fireballs at the clone. He has to start with the basics to see how far he could keep on pushing. However, the clone easily absorbed those flames, or more like the ether involved in those spells.
Richard was reminded of that day when he saw numerous soldiers dying because of the very same reason: the clones can absorb magic from their opponent, so attacking with spells would be futile. If not for the Duchess who easily overwhelmed the clones then things might have turned quite nasty that day.
However, Richard didn't have much resource to try and use the same method as his mother.
'Here it comes....' Richard stopped using spells as he saw the clone advancing.
