The Ring leapt behind a pillar of stone that used to be a part of something, but was too defaced to give a hint of its former glory. Two Atlesian Knights were rounding a corner ahead of him, their weapons drawn. His eyes swept the alley past him. The dust was starting to settle in this area, raining from the buildings above. The ideal situation to out these robots were looking him in the face in the form of manhole covers spaced on the ground in front of him.

He rolled out of his cover when the mechanical whirring of the Knights drew nearer, and landed next to the heavy solid-metal disc. His hands got underneath the manhole cover, his arm muscles bulging underneath his thin sleeves, and ripped it from the ground and into the air with a single thrust. The knights beeped and whirred as they recognized a target in their sights, their green illuminescent lights basked the surrounding darkness, throwing emerald reflections from his jacket and the metal in his hands.

The white armoured robots opened fire on him, much quicker than a human could possibly do as the guns were connected to the robot's AI interface, allowing them to see from their guns and not needing to aim down the sights prior. An excellent design spec. in his opinion.

Sparks flew as the bullets pelted the metal disc and the walls of the alley, escaping into the vacancy past him. His silver hair danced in front of his vision with each impact of the bullet on his shield, and the Knights drew closer together. He leaped into the air, his legs likewise achieving inhuman capabilities.

The wind rushed in around him when he peaked above the alley. The metal disc tried to wrench itself from his hands under the gravity, so he let go of it when he was above the Knights. Before it could begin its descent, he placed his feet on top of it and kicked it with tremendous power, all while airborne.

Gunfire of his own erupted from his ankles; from the weapon concealed in his feet. The white robots were just beginning to redirect their guns at his new position.

The wide manhole cover dropped like a bomb onto the supposed heads of the Atlesian Knights, it wailing from its ventilation holes as it plummeted down. He was ejected with momentum, upwards, from the force of his kick.

He heard a satisfying crunch of steel and metal, and electricity breaking lose from the alley below, while he landed onto the roof of the adjacent building, uninjured from that encounter. The gunfire siezed to an end, the weapons dropping to the dusty bricks with a clatter.

Now that The Ring had higher ground, he was able to efficiently gaze at the carnage taking place in Vale. Smoke was rising from more than a dozen spots, and sillhouettes of Grimm where sailing through the sky above, more inwards of the city. There remained several Atlesian Airships in the sky above, he was impartially irritated with his side of the battle, for not overiding the Atlesian Knights yet. That would be a game changer and they haven't even accomplished it yet.

He ran and jumped the building next to the one he was on, doing the same further down until he arrived at a location sufficiently far enough from the Knights he took down.

Although he got the drop on them, quite literally, but they were resilient beings. His boots clanked with the metal grille of the fire escape.

Once he got down, he left the shadow of the building and approached a small but vacant plaza. A lot of the stands and shops were turned and discarded when the people had ran. The Grimm, there now, eyed in his direction. He sighed in disdain toward the minion-like monsters in front of him.

He readied his offensive stance, inching his left foot forward at a slight angle, while taking a generous step back with his right. His feet were planted firmly with his knees bent at the ideal angle with master precision to gain the maximum momentum for his spin. This was going to be a piece of cake.

His posture drooped for a moment, his head remained high and centered, while he aimed at his approaching targets, calculating his course of action: three rather large terrestrial Grimm coming his way about twenty meters off. They were throwing aside the tarps and wood beams from the stands as they bounded at him.

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There was a distinctive hiss that emissioned from his legs, muffled by his thick black and slate-grey pants, as the pressure tapped out on the hydraulics. Mercury Black was an expert when it came to fighting styles revolving around agility and complex kicks such as: Tae-kwon-do, Muay Thai, and a mix with Capoeira. And this was no different.

Clouds overhead shielded the moon. The moolight shining down crept away swiftly, scaling the dreary buildings and the marble fountain at the center, as if it were being chased by a horde of Grimm. Mercury exhaled, releasing the tensions in his core. With a step into a run, Mercury bolted from where he stood and met the group of Grimm with such speed, they didn't have much time to react. They glared their teeth.

Given that Grimm weren't the brightest to begin with, it was a piece of cake for him.

The first shot rang out across this battlefield as Mercury short-hopped and launched a fatal right-footed kick that connected with the face of the right-most Grimm. With an ignition sparked from the force of the kick, his weaponized boot fired a bullet that tore through its head, the momentum carrying Mercury's airborne motion towards the left-most victim.

The air whistled as Mercury's right-knee flew into its neck, breaking it on impact with a deafening crunch that only fueled his increasing adrenaline. Before their corpses could vaporize into ash, he leaned into his momentum, twisting his body with inhuman speed; increased from his robotic legs. Much like the soccer stars of Vacuo, Mercury's dormant left leg came back for its own victim this time, he whipped his left heel back, knocking the last Grimm's head sideways: triggering a round. The shot tore through the final Grimm's head and the bodies had just begun to disentegrate when Mercury finally met the ground in a recovery stance, his hand and legs supporting his clean landing. The monsters' dust was added to the city's.

He gathered himself and dusted the dust from his spotless shiny metal boots, as if they were limited edition sneakers and not boring Atlas tech given to him like hand-me-downs.

Mercury investigated the surrounding junk and buildings for something useful he could bring back to Neo. From the condition she was in, he knew Neo was going to be immobile until he patched up the jagged hole in her back. The most he could do was find something to use as a bandage to stem the blood flow. The tarps, he figured out, were made of a material that's waterproof, not useful for stemming blood flow.

There was a faint whistle growing in the air, magnified by the openess of the plaza, which Mercury's ears picked up very easily. Acting purely on instinct he dove for cover underneath the closest standing building. His past had relentlessy bombarded him with situations in which he had to catch the hiss of flying bullets, arrows and darts, that were directed towards him. Except this time it was different.

The whistle grew exponentially into a low, threatening growl, shaking the buildings, the gravel vibrating on the ground.

Mercury peeked his eyes through the doorless frame. An Atlas airship was descending, more like falling from the sky. It was on fire too. He couldn't judge where it was going to land, but it was in a different direction from Neo, granting her safety. He also noticed he was in some sort of office, the receptionist deck completely abandoned, and in its place was a sweater resting over the chair. He decided that'll work. He took his eyes from the ship and went to grab the fabric.

Mercury pulled out his Scroll and dialed a combination into it after he collected a few things and rummaged through others. Before his call could go through, a shockwave knocked him off balance, and several objects off the desks. A pillar of flame leaped into the sky where the ship had crash landed in the distance, its fiery glow lit up the plaza and the room he was in. The wave threw off his Scroll's connection so he redialed as he walked out of the office and back towards Neo's location.

"C'mon pick up," Mercury mumbled into the Scroll. The dial tone went through without being picked up. The fountain beside him had been knocked over and shattered in the time he had been inside. The water it held spilled and soaked into the dust, cementing the debris.

He redialed and picked up his pace, practically running back the way he came, speeding past dozens of Grimm drawn by the ship's explosion.

The call went through on the third attempt.

"Mercury, what the hell do you need? I'm occupied at the moment," The Gem's irritated voice came in through the speaker. Gunfire also came through but was muffled by clashing of metal. "Cinder's going to have my ass when she finds out you left your position!"

Mercury didn't care about Em's loose threat, as he was wittnesing Atlesian Knights trotting past him, their preexistent illuminescent green lights as seen before, now gleamed brilliant red.

He smiled.