The REDS of war

Volume Seven Chapter Thirteen

Jaune raises his sword aimed directly at Neopolitan. "Give up. We've got you outnumbered."

Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren, Oscar Pine and Jaune are standing together in a hallway in Atlas Academy, facing Neopolitan with their weapons drawn. She flicks her umbrella down to make the hidden sword blade protrude from the top, and the others respond by getting ready to fight.

Nora nods at her friends. "All right, then."

Ren shoots at Neo, while Nora fires two grenades from Magnhild. However, Neo opens her umbrella, turns around, and blocks the attacks with her umbrella by resting it over her shoulder. When the smoke clears, she smirks and turns to face them again. Ren runs toward her, firing his guns again, and she blocks the bullets with her umbrella, then runs on and jumps from the wall. Just as Ren begins to aim at her, she comes down from the air and swings her closed umbrella down at him, only for him to block by crossing his guns.

He pushes her away, and she uses her umbrella on the floor to bounce further down the hall. Nora charges at Neo and swings her hammer, but Neo ducks down, scoops Nora up with her open umbrella, and dumps Nora on the floor behind her. Neo then strikes a pose, winking and flashing a crooked grin. Ren fires StormFlower's blades at Neo, who closes her umbrella and casually deflects them with one arm behind her back. The blades plant themselves in the wall behind Neo, and Ren has StormFlower begin retracting the cables to send him flying toward her.

Neo does an exaggerated gasp gesture, smirks and drops to the floor by doing the splits. While on the floor, she flips her umbrella in her grasp. As Ren passes over her, she rises up next to him, hooks one of StormFlower's cables with her umbrella and pulls, causing him to be turned in mid-air by his own weapons. Unable to right himself, Ren slams into the wall.

Oscar charges toward Neo with his cane drawn. She takes him by surprise by thrusting her umbrella between his arm and his side. She then moves her arm up and hooks it under his arm before flipping over him. When her feet return to the floor, she uses the momentum to throw Oscar into the air, causing the Relic of Knowledge to fall off of his belt. Seeing her chance, she thrusts her umbrella toward the Relic, only for Oscar to slip his cane through the Lamp's ring first.

As soon as Oscar lands on the floor, Neo begins stabbing her umbrella's blade at the Relic's ring with her other arm behind her back, while Oscar can only defend himself. With a crooked grin, she swings her blade at him, only for Jaune to slip in between them with his shield at the ready. The emblem on his shield glows pinkish-purple and emits a blast that knocks Neo away from them. She lands on her feet and takes a moment to glare at them.

Suddenly, Nora swings her hammer, uttering a grunt, which catches Neo's attention. Neo moves her gaze from Nora to Ren, who is now up in the air and flying toward Neo. She readies her umbrella, but Oscar distracts her by throwing himself to the floor and wrapping his arms around her ankles. She is momentarily surprised but then grins at Ren before shattering into pieces as he attacks her. Surprised, Ren falls to the floor before rolling and getting up.

"What!?"

Nora looks around. "Where'd she go!?"

Jaune hurries down the hall and looks around the corner. Instead of Neo, he finds an Atlas Soldier, who points at him.

"Freeze!"

Jaune's eyes widen. "We gotta move!"

Jaune, Nora and Ren flee down the hall. Oscar takes a moment to pant in exhaustion before jogging after them.

In the Atlas Medical Facility, Penny Polendina flies through the hole in the wall of Fria's room in an attempt to punch Cinder Fall. However, Cinder catches her fist with her Shadow Hand and then, using the arm's stretching ability, flings her through a nearby pair of double doors. Cinder starts to walk into Fria's room, only to be impeded by Winter Schnee's flock of small Nevermore summons.