A Spell Called "Drawing Circles to Curse You"

After dinner, while Melinda was taking Annie out shopping, Coulson quickly used the emergency equipment in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s dedicated SUV to report to Nick Fury. However, he noticed that the Director's face on the comm video didn't look too pleased at the moment.

At that moment, Director Nick Fury was sitting in his bathtub with a sour expression, his dark upper body and head covered in foam, his one remaining good eye glaring sharply at the communicator.

"Coulson, you know what? Lately, I've been very dissatisfied with your performance... very dissatisfied!"

Nick Fury had finally squeezed in time for a bath after work, relaxing comfortably in the tub, when who would have thought the emergency communicator would go off? By the time he grabbed it without even bothering to put on clothes, he found it was that bastard Coulson again!

This bastard! Was he deliberately trying to ruin his day? Or had something particularly urgent happened? Had that little girl burned down the city? Or blown up the Earth? Why else would he use the emergency comm?

"Uh, Director! There are some things I'd like to report to you. Without your approval, I'm not sure how to handle them." Coulson wiped a bit of cold sweat from his forehead, knowing full well that the Director's anger was on the verge of erupting.

"Speak!"

Nick Fury decided not to waste any more words with this bastard. Rage had already clouded his mind. If this wasn't something important, he'd make sure Coulson paid for it!

"Ah, well... it's like this. Just after dinner, we suggested to Annie that she should go to school, so she can integrate normally into life on Earth. She seemed quite willing, but of course, this needs your approval first!"

"Fine! I approve. But! If any uncontrollable incidents occur, that's on you. That's it."

Snap! Nick Fury slammed the communicator shut, then stood up from the tub with a dark face!

He no longer had any mood for soaking! He was growing more and more annoyed with Coulson. What trivial matters did he have to come and consult him about? And why did it always have to happen right when he was off duty?

Wait—Nick Fury was just about to reach for a towel when he suddenly froze...

Had Coulson just said he wanted to send that little girl Annie to school? And he had agreed? Had he done a risk assessment? What if... what if that little girl suddenly lost control, hurt someone, or destroyed the school?

Nick Fury quickly walked back to the comm device, reaching out to redial the number, but then stopped.

He thought it over again. Since he had already given his word, to maintain the authority of a decisive and wise Director, maybe he shouldn't go back on his decision? Besides, he had already said that if anything went wrong, it was Coulson's responsibility. So be it! What did he care if that little girl burned down the school? The Director was a busy man!

"..." Coulson stared at the screen showing the disconnected call, momentarily at a loss for words. He had prepared a whole stack of assessment reports and hadn't even gotten a word in before the Director agreed?

"What's wrong?" Melinda, who had just returned from shopping with Annie, tossed several large and small shopping bags into the car, looking curiously at Coulson. Most of the items were clothes and daily necessities for Annie.

"I just reported to the Director. He agreed to let Annie go to school..."

"That's good! Come on, Annie, hurry, get in the car!" Melinda slid into the driver's seat, ignoring Coulson in the back, and directly opened the passenger door, calling for Annie to get in! As for the rule about not letting children sit in the front seat, she had completely forgotten! This was a S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicle—even if the police had ten times the guts, would they dare to pull them over?

"Wow!! The ocean! The beach! Tibbers! Let's go play!"

Stepping out of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s special vehicle, Annie was thrilled at the sight of the silver-white beach and the endless blue sea. She dashed out of the car, kicked off her shoes, and ran straight onto the sand! This was her first time at the seaside.

(Tibbers did not reply to his master Annie. Let him come out and go into the sea to play? Don't even think about it! He was a Shadow Bear, born with fire, naturally incompatible with water. There was no way he was coming out to play in the sea with this little girl. No way!)

"Whoa~! A beach house? Looks like the Director really spared no expense."

Pulling the car into the open garage, Melinda and Coulson got out. She leaned against the car door with her arms crossed, watching Annie frolic on the beach in the distance while sizing up the villa before them.

This was a seaside villa on the outskirts of New York. A three-story wooden structure with a red roof and white walls, complete with a backyard garden, a swimming pool, a three-car garage, and a large private beach. Oh! And a small private dock on the sand with a yacht moored there!

"In fact, five miles of beach in every direction belong to it." Coulson pocketed the car keys and stood beside Melinda.

"Such corrupt bureaucrats!" Melinda muttered discontentedly.

"At least we're the ones enjoying it now, aren't we?" Coulson grinned smugly. Only now did he feel that this temporary babysitting job wasn't so bad after all.

"I feel like we're just riding on Annie's coattails," Melinda said, a bit annoyed by Coulson's attitude.

"Is there a difference?" Coulson was about to open the villa's door when he turned back to ask.

Melinda shook her head helplessly at Coulson, then turned to call out to Annie, who was still running wild on the beach. "Annie! Come back! Come see your new home! It's going to get dark soon!"

"Oh~! Coming~!" Annie scooped up a handful of seawater and tasted it. Ptooey! Salty, bitter, and astringent! She had originally planned to go play in the sea, but then she remembered she didn't know how to swim. Forget it. She'd go check out her new home for now!

She was quite satisfied with this place. After all, in the Voodoo Lands, aside from swamps, toxic mists, wild beasts, and all kinds of flying and crawling insects, there wasn't much fun to be had.

As Annie and the other two were about to enter through the villa's front door, the entire space suddenly twisted. The door wouldn't budge no matter how hard they pushed. Looking up, they saw another identical beach villa in the sky above, but upside down! It was as if a giant mirror hung in the sky, reflecting the villa, the beach, and the sea.

"Annie! Please don't mess around with strange magic like this!" Melinda and Coulson instinctively assumed Annie was up to her tricks.

"It wasn't me!!" Annie shot them an annoyed glare!

Annie would never recklessly use Mirror Space magic like that. Sure, she knew how, but it was very dangerous! Without a sufficiently deep mastery of spatial magic, casually using such dangerous spells could easily get you lost in the Mirror Space, never to return to the real material world!

In the Voodoo Lands, those long-bearded old men only used Mirror Space when conducting certain dangerous magic or alchemical experiments, to prevent those terrifying experiments from causing irreversible damage to the material world.

This situation clearly meant some other mage had targeted Annie, but their technique was too crude and reckless! It made Annie very unhappy! How dare they casually use such a dangerous spell on her? Annie decided she needed to teach them a lesson.

So, she raised her finger, gathered her magic power, and lightly tapped the air. A ripple of magical energy spread out like water rings. Counter-spell: Break Mirror! Lock Space!

As the visible wave of magic dissipated, the entire mirrored space shattered like broken glass and faded away. The world returned to the blue-sky, white-cloud seaside scene.

"It was them!"

Annie pointed toward the road outside the villa. Five figures stood there, wearing hooded robes. Their faces were hidden in the shadows of their hoods, their features unclear. They all wore similar outfits and held wooden sticks of unknown purpose in their hands?

Annie had just sensed magical fluctuations coming from them, though compared to her, it was very, very weak! Roughly equivalent to the apprentice level in those gray organizations? Since when did a bunch of apprentices get so bold? Daring to use Mirror Space so recklessly?

Without a word, Melinda and Coulson turned, drew their pistols, and aimed them at the five figures on the road.

"Who are you? Stop right there, or we'll shoot!"

"Heh heh!"

The man at the front of the opposing group didn't stop, merely letting out a light laugh. At the same time, two hooded figures stepped out from beside him, flicking wooden rods in their hands that transformed into whips blazing with fiery light. As the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents stared dumbfounded, a single flick of those whips coiled around the guns in Coulson and Melinda's hands and yanked them away.

"Oh, damn it!"

Coulson stepped back, clutching his wrist—clearly dislocated. Melinda's arm was torn open with a bloody gash, but she stepped forward instead, drawing a collapsible baton from her waist and glaring hatefully at the approaching figures.

Anne frowned as she watched the five strange men still striding toward them. Tibbers told her these people meant her harm! But little bear Tibbers had no intention of coming out—after all, these people were far too weak, weak to the point where Anne could burn them all to a crisp with a single finger!

However, this was the doorstep of Anne's new home, and she really liked it here. She'd have to think carefully about what magic to use against them without burning anything. Generally speaking, Anne's best and most-used moves against enemies were small fireballs, big fireballs, and really big fireballs—did she even have anything else? Oh dear! Anne felt it was really annoying to fight right at her own front door! She wanted to just blast them all to bits and burn them up, but she was afraid of ruining these pretty flowers and plants!

"Take them down!" The man at the front pulled back his hood as he spoke, revealing his face. Only then did Coulson and the others see that he was a middle-aged black man they didn't recognize.

The moment his words fell, his four subordinates fanned out to flank them from both sides, flicking their rods into glowing whips that lashed toward Anne and the other two, apparently intending to capture them alive.

"Hmph!" Anne let out a clear snort. With a wave of her small hand, a translucent barrier of flame encircled her, Coulson, and Melinda together! The four whips struck the barrier and bounced off.

Seeing their attack fail, the black leader stepped forward, spreading one hand while tracing circles in the air with the other toward Anne and her group. The four who had attacked first saw this and retracted their whips back into rod form, stowing them on their backs, then spread out around Anne and the three of them, mimicking their leader by tracing circles at the magical barrier.

Huh?

Anne was stunned! What were they doing? They were about to fight, and now they were drawing circles at her? Were they trying to curse her with circles? It looked pretty impressive! Was this some new kind of curse spell? She was kind of curious... Should she wait and see?

Just as Anne was wondering, she saw that each of them had finished drawing five circles, and then they all jumped into them at once, instantly appearing inside Anne's magical barrier. Two of them lunged at Coulson; caught off guard, he was kicked in the lower back and fell flat on the ground, quickly subdued by the two!

The other two each stomped on the backs of Melinda's calves, forcing her to her knees, then twisted her arms behind her back. Meanwhile, the black leader appeared behind Anne at the same time, his right hand chopping down toward the back of her neck—clearly trying to knock her out.

"Anne hates you!"

Sensing the movement behind her, Anne clenched her small hand into a fist, and flames erupted from her body. The fire then burst outward in a violent, scorching shockwave that sent all five attackers flying into the air. Melinda and Coulson, however—one lying on the ground, the other kneeling—were untouched by the blast.

Watching the five men lose their balance midair from the shockwave, Anne didn't stop. She reached out her right hand and grabbed toward them: five ropes of flame materialized out of thin air, binding them all instantly! Then, with another wave of her hand, she slammed the bound group onto the beach, face-first into the sand.

Having dealt with them so easily, Anne curled her lip in disdain.

They were clearly mages—weak ones at that—but why were they fighting like melee warriors? The mages in this world were so strange!

And! Their teleportation spell actually required drawing circles to open a spatial passage? That had really startled her at first! She'd been so curious, but the result was this! What about the circle-drawing curse she'd been promised?

If you wanted short-range teleportation, why not just use an instant blink? Why bother drawing circles?

Little Anne declared that if it came to a real fight, she'd have plenty of time to burn them a hundred times over before they finished drawing their circles! Oh no—at least a thousand times!

"Hey, Director? We might need some backup here..." Coulson, having just gotten up, pulled out his phone again and dialed S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury.