A new dawn in Remnant: Volume 7

The Enemy of Trust

Jaune: Give up. We've got you outnumbered.

Nora,Ren, Oscar, Maira and Jaune were standing together in a hallway in Atlas Academy, facing Neo with their weapons drawn. She flicked her umbrella down to make the hidden sword blade protrude from the top, and the others respond by getting ready to fight.

Nora: All right, then.

Ren shot at Neo, while Nora fired two grenades from Magnhild. However, Neo opened her umbrella, turned around, and blocked the attacks with her umbrella by resting it over her shoulder. When the smoke cleared, she smirked and turned to face them again. Ren ran toward her, firing his guns again, and she blocked the bullets with her umbrella, then ran on and jumped from the wall. Just as Ren began to aim at her, she came down from the air and swung her closed umbrella down at him, only for him to block by crossing his guns.

He pushed her away, and she used her umbrella on the floor to bounce further down the hall. Nora charged at Neo and swung her hammer, but Neo ducked down, scooped Nora up with her open umbrella, and dumped Nora on the floor behind her. Neo then stroke a pose, winking and flashing a crooked grin. Ren fired StormFlower's blades at Neo, who closed her umbrella and casually deflected them with one arm behind her back. The blades planted themselves in the wall behind Neo, and Ren had StormFlower begin retracting the cables to send him flying toward her.

Neo did an exaggerated gasp gesture, smirked and dropped to the floor by doing the splits. While on the floor, she flipped her umbrella in her grasp. As Ren passed over her, she rised up next to him, hooked one of StormFlower's cables with her umbrella and pulled, causing him to be turned in mid-air by his own weapons. Unable to right himself, Ren slammed into the wall.

Oscar charged toward Neo with his cane drawn. She took him by surprise by thrusting her umbrella between his arm and his side. She then moved her arm up and hooked it under his arm before flipping over him. When her feet returned to the floor, she used the momentum to throw Oscar into the air, causing the Relic of Knowledge to fall off of his belt. Seeing her chance, she thrusted her umbrella toward the Relic, only for Oscar to slip his cane through the Lamp's ring first.

As soon as Oscar landed on the floor, Neo began stabbing her umbrella's blade at the Relic's ring with her other arm behind her back, while Oscar could only defend himself. With a crooked grin, she swung her blade at him, only for Jaune to slip in between them with his shield at the ready. The emblem on his shield glowed pinkish-purple and emits a blast that knocked Neo away from them. While she was on the air, Maira jumped up to her and kicked her in her gut. Neo collided with her back onto the ceiling leaving cracks and fell down. She made a salto and landed on her feet and took a moment to glare at them.

Suddenly, Nora swung her hammer, uttering a grunt, which catched Neo's attention. Neo moved her gaze from Nora to Ren, who was now up in the air and flying toward Neo. She readied her umbrella, but Oscar distracted her by throwing himself to the floor and wrapping his arms around her ankles. She was momentarily surprised but then grinned at Ren before shattering into pieces as he attacked her. Surprised, Ren fell to the floor before rolling and getting up.

Ren: What!?

Nora: Where'd she go!?

Maira: *sniffs around* I can smell her.

Nora: You can smell her!? Are you a bloodhound!?

Maira: Dragons have a very good nose.

Jaune hurried down the hall and looked around the corner. Instead of Neo, he found an Atlas Soldier, who pointed at him.

Guard: Freeze!

Jaune: We gotta move!

Jaune, Nora. Ren fled down the hall. Oscar took a moment to pant in exhaustion before jogging after them. Maira grabbed his wrist to flee faster.