51 Edward Quill vs Ruth Ricard

Five knuckles from the dignified Edward Quill sharply settled their way into the stomach of Ruth Ricard as he pulled the girl forward by her wrist. A visible yellow shockwave shot out from her back and into the sky, the impact she received taking form and projecting itself onto reality.

"D'pwooaghh!" The air escaped her lungs as the force of Edward's punch pushed her feet off the ground several inches.

"Forgive me," he said with a smile, knowing the damage he caused.

"Tch…!"

Ruth gritted her teeth and set her sights on the man before her. Using her speed, she gripped Edward's wrist to his surprise.

"Hngh?"

In that same motion, she jerked his fist toward herself and then maneuvered her arm around his, putting him into an elbow lock. With heavy force, she used her entire leg to kick his feet from underneath him, causing his body to be parallel to the ground, several feet off of it. His black hair swayed elegantly as he was forced to stare up at the blue sky, the stadium filled with people in his peripherals.

In an instant, Ruth lifted her other leg all the way up in preparation to bring it down, almost completely parallel to her torso as if she'd done a drastic amount of gymnastics in her day, her knee almost touching her shoulder. And, as if her leg was as weightless as a paper bag yet carrying the force of a hundred falling cinder blocks, she brought it down upon Edward's torso. Her calf struck his core directly, causing a breath to spew from his lungs, the air itself seemingly shaking.

His body shot down into the ring lightning-fast, Ruth's elbow lock also undoing itself in that instant, and the stone atop which he landed shattered in every direction, causing something like a crater to erupt from the scene.

Boom!! Shards of the ring shot up all over as the pure shock from Edward's body hitting it surged throughout it. Soon enough, a smoke cloud emerged from the impact as the sound of stone shard rainfall filled Ruth's ears.

She stood there strong, her hands by her sides but balled up into fists. She didn't move an inch. The only thing she did was stare intently at the cloud of smoke beneath her, the one she'd caused using someone else's body. The moment she 'sensed' or was aware of the slightest movement, she was strong enough and fast enough to intercept him.

The cloud of light grey smoke began to clear, it was translucent at this point. She knew he'd be there, so it would be in her best interest if she were to prepare for another attack. As the smoke cleared, she pulled her leg back for one more----

He wasn't there.

"H-huh!?" she involuntarily expressed her confusion as her eyes neglected to perceive anything reminiscent of a boy over 6 feet tall laying on the ground just before her. She slowly lowered her foot back to the ground as a drop of sweat began to form atop her head.

"My, that was certainly an effective display of brute strength, I must say."

"Ngh!?"

Ruth quickly darted her head to the right in response to that familiarly elegant voice, deep and calm enough to seduce a succubus. Her mouth hung open slightly. There, she saw Edward Quill standing about 3 meters away from her with his hands in the pockets of his dress pants, smiling with his perfectly white teeth.

"Truthfully, well done." he praised her, nodding his head once slowly. "You've certainly proved to me that your strength is something to look out for, thus I thank you for demonstrating it to me."

"...So...you used a spell…" she mumbled. "But, what kind? How did you manage to activate it so quickly? You didn't even have to recite it…"

"Oh, that? Well…" he began as he took one hand out of his pocket and put his palm on his chest. "That spell happens to be one exclusive to my family. Not many people have the luxury of witnessing it 'less I deem it necessary. It goes by the name of Nisemono." He closed his eyes and smirked even harder somehow, returning his hand to his pocket. "Essentially, it inserts a fake body into a place in which I used to exist. My real body slips out of the fake's shell and becomes transparent, unable to come into contact with anything for an extremely brief period of time, something like a ghost. You could relate it to a snake shedding its skin and, as you can see, the fake usually only remains for a few seconds before it disappears. This is a spell I've been practicing for over half my life, so I would deem myself quite skilled at it. When I had first successfully performed it, my body would only stay transparent for about half a second. However, through training, I've extended that time to about 2 seconds."

"...Why are you telling me all of that? If you let me know how it works, I'll just find some way to counter it!" Ruth shouted, burying her feet into the ground and clenching her fists tightly.

"Hm?" Edward's eyebrows lifted and his face looked similar to that of a child feigning ignorance. Eventually, he closed his eyes and smirked once again. "Ha-ha...it matters not whether you've knowledge on this particular spell, my dear."

He opened his eyes another time, his bangs dramatically covering up a large portion of them, giving off an eerie type of look. His smile turned from a smirk to some kind of killer grin.

"Because at the end of the day...I am still from Class A. You understand what that means, do you not?"

Ruth's eyebrows furrowed, she clenched her teeth and became visibly frustrated.

"Huh!? Underestimating someone from only one class below you is more dangerous than you might think, you bastard!"

"We'll see about that."

As strength built up in Ruth's legs, she used it to boost herself forward at a great speed, heading straight for the pretty boy before her. It cracked the ground even further as her raw power and speed were so prioritized that it would probably even put someone three hundred levels above her to shame when it came to those specific attributes.

"Haaagh!!"

"Allow me to demonstrate the failure of a melee-specialist such as yourself."

Boom!

"D'yaaaaaaaghhhkkk…!!" Edward let out a deep scream of agony.

Ruth, at full force, balled up her fist and buried it into Edward's face. The biggest factor that led to him receiving so much damage was the fact that he didn't even try to move out of the way, he simply kept his hands in his pockets and accepted the blow he was about to receive.

A shockwave started from the point of contact and spread out in all directions, causing a great wind felt by even the audience. The impact forced Edward to remove his hands from his pockets, ball up his fists and use his arms to support his balance as the sheer amount of raw power behind Ruth's punch should've been enough to send him flying several meters. His body almost fell, but he kicked his foot back and planted it firmly atop the ring, his head turned to a 90-degree angle due to being punched. He continued to grit his teeth as blood seeped from his lips and gums, both of which were busted.

"Hrrrrghhh!!" Ruth grunted as she continued to push her fist into Edward's face to try and get his body to succumb to the damage. Unfortunately, it proved to be a fruitless effort as the only thing that managed to come to fruition was both her fist and his face being pushed back and forth in something like a game of reverse tug of war.

"...H-how...there's no way…!" Ruth muttered in complete shock as she witnessed the boy who stood taller than her stand his ground completely, though he was certainly harmed.

"Aghh...ha...ha-ha-ha...see…?" His voice barely escaped his throat, his body completely tensed up from the damage. "This is only...one of two weaknesses that an individual such as yourself possesses…"

He grabbed her wrist and slowly pulled it off of his face, blood running from his lip to his chin, dripping to the floor.

"Though you may be powerful and hasty...at least I…"

He pulled his fist back, his feet in the perfect position to maximize the force of any kind related to the arm.

"Can take a hit!!"

"Tch!!"

Fwooom…! Edward launched his fist into Ruth's face, dead-center, her nose receiving most of the damage.

"Gaaaaaaaaaaghhhhh!!!" She let out a scream one might only hear when a murder was taking place. The crowd let out noticeable noises of both surprise and sympathy for the young girl.

With a windy sound, her body was sent flying backward dozens of meters, a long trail of blood following in the wake of her body. She rag-dolled across the hard, stone ring as dust was kicked up each time she hit the ground like a stone being skipped across water. Each time she hit the ground, she let out a yelp in pain.

So much for the man who made it a philosophy to never hit a woman.

She made one final flip across the ground, eventually settling on her stomach, her face lying on the floor. Her mouth hung open, a tooth chipped, a large amount of blood flowing from her chin and onto the floor and even more spewing from her busted nose. Her eyes stayed wide open, her body somewhat in shock of the entire thing.

"Ah-...g-gah…" She couldn't even speak for a good few moments.

Edward regained his relaxed stance, sticking a hand in his pocket and rubbing the side of his face that was struck by the powerful Ruth Ricard.

"Hmmm...well, I somewhat knew something like that would happen, however, I'd yet to theorize it would be so dramatic. I apologize."

She muttered to herself in pain on the floor, her body slightly twitching from the trauma.

"Kck...kah...h-how...how did this happen…?"

"I've come across several individuals such as yourself in the past, you all make the same errors," he said in a cocky tone. "You put all of your attribute points into strength and speed, those two alone. You pay no attention to any other statistic. More specifically…

The defensive stat."

She choked on her own breath after that statement. It was as if she'd only just then realized the mistake she'd made. However, she shouldn't have had to worry about things like defense if she could just avoid the attack, right?

"Such an attack likely felt like a truck, therefore I do apologize for not holding back a little." Edward continued. "However, I've still yet to finish my critique on your melee prioritization. Your defensive stat was only one of two of your biggest weaknesses, ma'am."

He used his open hand and wiped the blood from his chin with a smirk, to which he then put his middle and index fingers together.

"Anything is possible in this magic world as there are so many different spells of different variations that it would be nearly impossible to flawlessly predict someone's actions or moves. In fact, spells are being developed every day by everyday people, spells that some folks could only dream of. Therefore, someone like you who does not possess such unpredictability and focuses on straightforward combat has their one final flaw."

He held those two fingers just before the middle of his forehead and stared dead ahead at Ruth Ricard who was only just now, while struggling heavily, getting to her feet.

"That flaw...is your inability to wield ample magic!"