One on one

Yousuke looked at the muscled monstrosity before him and immediately used his balls to harden the suit, while leaving one layer of balls just over his body to absorb all the shock left over. He wasn't sure how powerful the thing was, but it had huge muscles.

If he just made it so the shock could pass over him harmlessly, it'd hit Thirteen, so he could only take the hit head on.

Yousuke barely had time to blink before the beast appeared right before him, right fist cocked back in what could only be considered an amateurish punch, yet the strong winds created behind it spoke lengths of its true power.

Tomura was practically one step away from creaming his pants when he saw the hero trainee was about to be hit by Nomu's punch, willfully ignoring Kurogiri's unconscious body next to him. Yet, to his disappointment, the scene he was looking forward to did not happen.

Instead of Yousuke turning to a pulp beneath the monster's heavy fist, with Thirteen being on death's door, what the blue-haired villain saw was the teen getting hit, and not dying.

'What kind of quirk does he have? Super speed? With that kind of durability?' thought Tomura.

It was true that he didn't die, but the hit still affected Yousuke. The teen was knocked back a few meters, and from the pain in his chest he could only surmise some of his ribs had fractures, though that wasn't that much of an issue since he could make some balls in his body to fix his bones.

In fact, Yousuke's biggest problem was keeping Tomura distracted so that he wouldn't attack Midnight.

What about attack, might you ask? Well, that was a simple matter considering his balls could just ignore all defense. He was fully taking advantage of the fact that outside of reacting to his movements, the beast wouldn't do anything else, by sending minuscule balls through the ground with the intention of entering Nomu's body from the feet.

The only issue being that he had to last out till the balls reached their destination inside the monster's body.

Yousuke changed his position to prepare for any attack Nomu might throw at him. He placed his center of gravity in his toes, putting one leg in front of the other. He twisted his upper body slightly, keeping it mostly behind his left arm to minimise the area where he could be attacked while also protecting Thirteen.

His left shoulder was acting as a cover for the chin, making it a clear obstacle. With one fist close to the face for extra defense and the other held in a loose grip near his midsection, his form was complete.

All this time, Nomu didn't react. Yousuke didn't know why that was the case, but he honestly didn't care. Perhaps the monster was giving him the courtesy of getting ready to be pummeled.

Yousuke smiled at Nomu, even if the beast's empty eyes told him no thought was going through its brain. The monster took that as a sign to begin his assault, as Yousuke was in a world of pain afterwards.

But the teen toughed it out. He had to. Midnight and Thirteen were his immediate concerns, but the rest of his classmates were in danger too if Nomu was to attack everyone else. He could feel his left hand's bones were practically crumbling apart with every hit from the beast, the balls inside him being insufficient to keep them together.

If this was allowed to continue on, Yousuke was sure he'd be defeated. But before that, Nomu stopped. Its hands fell uselessly to its sides, its empty eyes still looking empty, but the glimmer of consciousness that was always present before was missing now, as if the beast fell asleep while standing.

And then, blood started pouring out its orifices.