Underfoot

Thor was about to call Loki over to help him finish this guy off when he realized that Loki had never followed him at all. He was still standing where he had been, watching the fun.

Loki was smiling, with no intention of helping him. Han hasn't made a move either. What's going on? Are they both planning to betray me?

Before he could think any further, a powerful fist came rushing at him. Thor bit his tongue, and the pain at its tip let him focus. He hastily raised both fists to block. This time he wasn't sent flying, but the tremendous force still drove him back several meters, leaving two deep footprints in the ground.

He reached out and summoned Mjolnir, which came flying from the distance toward the enhanced Dark Elf's back. The Dark Elf sensed it coming and swung his right arm behind him, knocking Mjolnir away.

Mjolnir worked in a strange way. Ordinary people couldn't pick it up, but it could be stopped in flight. Even if they couldn't lift it, they could keep knocking it away and prevent Thor from getting his hammer.

Thor clenched his fists and let out a low shout before charging at the enhanced Dark Elf. Even without his hammer, he would kill this guy with his own hands.

The two immediately clashed in hand-to-hand combat, every punch striking flesh.

Seeing that the enhanced Dark Elf had Thor occupied, Malekith immediately headed toward Han Yu and the others.

"Ah, is there really no escaping this? I'll give him the Aether myself."

Jane seemed somewhat resigned as she watched Malekith approach. Odin's wife, Frigga, had died protecting her before, and she didn't want to see anyone else die for her.

Smack.

A slender hand seized Jane's arm and pulled her back after she had taken only two steps. Then she heard Han Yu chuckle. "Don't rush. I'm here."

Jane turned sharply and saw that the boy, who was a few years younger than her, still wore a faint smile. For some reason, she felt a little reassured. Was it simply because he was an Earthling like her and had stepped forward to speak up for her?

"Give me back what's mine."

In less than a minute, Malekith reached Han Yu and the others. The soldiers beside him raised their laser guns and surrounded the three of them, ready to turn them into sieves at the slightest movement.

When Malekith saw that they made no move, he sneered, thinking that these fools had delivered themselves right to his door. He raised a hand toward Jane, and she rose into the air. Streams of deep crimson energy, red as wine, poured out of her and formed a "water ball" that writhed in midair.

"Aether, my old friend, you've finally returned!"

Looking at the familiar thing before him, Malekith wore an intoxicated, excited expression. He opened his arms, waiting for the Reality Stone to enter his body.

In an instant, Loki and Han Yu, who stood beside Jane, suddenly scattered. The former turned into a Green Lantern shield that protected Jane, while the latter became a netlike object that wrapped around the Reality Stone in midair.

Perhaps sensing danger approaching, the Reality Stone released a powerful surge of energy in an attempt to break through the Green Lantern net. But the net released an even stronger energy, suppressing it.

Without a host, the Reality Stone couldn't unleash its full power.

As the Green Lantern net continued to tighten, the "droplet" of Reality Stone, a meter in radius, transformed into a deep crimson gem the size of a thumb, hovering quietly within the Green Lantern Energy.

Both flew backward. There, golden light moved from top to bottom, revealing the true figures of Han Yu and Loki.

"Brother Han, that was a brilliant idea. I have to hand it to you."

Loki praised Han Yu sincerely. Loki had used his magic to conceal their original positions, while Han Yu had used his Green Lantern Energy to conjure two people, then had Loki use his magic to make them look like the two of them.

They had accompanied Jane this way without any danger. From their perspective, it was like watching a first-person movie, and they had watched at their leisure.

"A small matter, hardly worth mentioning."

Han Yu smiled faintly and said no more.

"No!" Malekith cried as the duck that was already in his grasp flew away. But he had also seen how powerful Han Yu's abilities were, so he immediately said, "Retreat!"

With that, they hurried back, leaving only the enhanced Dark Elf still locked in a brawl with Thor.

"Nice work! Now you should come help me, right?"

Thor was somewhat happy to see the Aether extracted from Jane's body. He was hoping Han Yu and the others would come help him deal with the enhanced Dark Elf, but judging by what they were doing, had they actually sat down right where they were?

Watching Thor fight, Han Yu clicked his tongue and shook his head. After the enhanced Dark Elf knocked his hammer away, Thor had clearly fallen on the back foot and was taking a constant beating.

Han Yu was speechless. What, had he really become the "God of Hammers"? Without his hammer in hand, he couldn't even use his power of lightning?

"Ah, this is all Odin's fault. Why give him something like that for no reason? He'd have been better off giving him an ordinary weapon first and letting him learn to control the power of thunder in his body properly, then giving him the hammer afterward. Look at him now: without his hammer, Thor's become a super soldier instead."

Han Yu's words to himself made Loki burst out laughing beside him. He had never heard anyone describe Thor that way.

Now that he thought about it, it was true. Thor almost always fought with that hammer, and all his attacks came from it. He was rarely seen fighting barehanded with the power of thunder.

Loki looked at Han Yu beside him and asked, "Aren't you his friend? Aren't you going to help him?"

"This is me helping him."

As he spoke, Han Yu raised his hand and summoned Mjolnir from afar. Under Loki's increasingly incredulous gaze, he caught it in his hand and casually hefted it a few times.

"You can actually lift it?!"

Loki spoke in astonishment. He had tried for over a thousand years and had never managed to lift it once. In all of Asgard, only Odin and Thor could lift the hammer.

He had always thought that perhaps if he could lift the hammer one day, it would mean he was qualified to stand as Thor's equal. As he saw it, his status had always been lower than Thor's.

He had invaded Earth to prove that he was capable and shouldn't have to remain beneath Thor.

Han Yu smiled without paying any attention to Loki's astonishment, his eyes fixed on Thor.

Meanwhile, the enhanced Dark Elf had pinned Thor to the ground and was pummeling him, drawing a little blood from his nose and mouth.

He reached out to summon his hammer, only to find that it wouldn't come back no matter what he did. When he finally found an opening, he saw that Han Yu was holding his hammer. That was why he couldn't summon it back.

"Look at you, Thor, Son of Odin. Now you're under my foot. This feels great!"

The enhanced Dark Elf threw back his head and laughed. He had a fragment of the Aether inside him, which was what made him so strong. Although the fragment held less than one ten-thousandth of its energy, it had still made his body stronger than any ordinary person's.

Otherwise, he couldn't have beaten Thor so badly when Thor was without his hammer. That alone showed how terrifying the Reality Stone was.

"Thor, without your hammer, what are you?!"