Anyone else beat Ruby and Emerald WITHOUT knights of the round

[Desert Wolf]

I beat Ruby by nuking Ultima over and over with Quadra magic, HP and MP absorb. Had to have Pheonix ready also with Final attack. I used KOTR once on Emerald, but it did like, not even 10k. Didn't use Underwater materia, so I usually died when the timer went out. Omnislash + Highwind + 9999 because of Vincent's insane kills == love.

I don't rememeber what else I had equipped, however.

Ultima does hardly any damage to Ruby so it muct have been a pretty long battle. Like a few days long. As for KOTR not doing much damage, play the game again please.

I beat both without materia.

Then please explain how you beat Ruby without Pheonix or Hades.