Mages Who Fight in Melee Are All Heretics!

"Hey, guys! I think we probably don't need to head to Germany anymore!"

In the cockpit of this Quinjet, the two pilots, after just receiving a message, turned their heads and shouted as loudly as they could toward the cabin, where Agents Coulson and Melinda were resting with their eyes closed, and Annie, who was dozing off while hugging her little bear Tibbers. Right now, they were flying at high altitude and high speed, and the noise inside this military-grade Quinjet was a bit loud.

"Is there some new development?" Coulson was taken aback by the news, furrowed his brow, and looked at the cockpit crew with curiosity.

"That's right! Yes, sir! Agent Natasha just sent a message, oh! And a combat recording too—the fight ended two minutes ago! Captain America and Iron Man have already captured Loki, and they're escorting the prisoner back to headquarters. I suggest we might as well turn around now!" After double-checking the message on the console, the co-pilot replied.

Two minutes ago... Hearing this, Coulson and Melinda exchanged an awkward glance, then simultaneously looked at little Annie, who had just been startled awake and was blinking her big, beautiful eyes with an innocent, curious expression, as if her speaking eyes were saying: What are you looking at?

Well! They could have made it to the fight, and now their plane had already entered German airspace, almost at the destination. But unfortunately, it seemed their schedule had been delayed by Annie—just a little bit off on time!

Sigh... Who could blame Annie for taking over five minutes to change clothes and wash up? It was a good thing Annie wasn't a professional agent, or else she'd definitely have her license revoked and her rank lowered! She was way too unpunctual! In the middle of an urgent combat mission, she still had to wash her face and brush her teeth?!

"Sir, sir? What should we do now?" The co-pilot asked again when Coulson didn't respond.

"You can turn back now. Also, play the combat recording Agent Natasha sent—let us take a look!" Coulson pointed at the display on the cabin wall, signaling them to play the combat footage. Even though the three of them hadn't made it to the fight, they at least needed to understand how the battle went, right?

"Got it, sir!" Receiving the order, the main pilot began maneuvering the plane to turn around, while the co-pilot fiddled for a moment and started playing the newly received information on the cabin display.

Annie, Coulson, and Melinda all looked at the display on the cabin wall. Annie didn't care about the fight; she only wanted to know where the thing she was after was—the one called the Space Stone! Now, she just felt it was a pity that she'd gone to all this trouble and still missed it!

It's all your fault, you annoying Tibbers! Why didn't you wake me up earlier?

While privately scolding Tibbers, Annie turned her attention to the combat recording!

From the footage, she could see: After Black Widow Natasha's Quinjet flew in, she spotted a strange man in the square below, clad in armor, wearing a horned helmet, and holding a long scepter. He was intimidating an entire square full of people into kneeling before him.

Annie guessed, could this weirdo be that evil god called Loki? Then, as the camera panned and zoomed out, Annie also noticed that the edges of the square were filled with the weirdo's clones, surrounding the crowd entirely.

Annie recognized this spell! It was nothing more than Mirror Image or Arcane Illusion. If it were Mirror Image, it might have some of the original's attack power, but if it were Arcane Illusion, it was purely for fooling amateurs.

Those people on TV were such idiots!

Annie had already figured it out: those clones were unstable, flickering on and off—definitely Arcane Illusion! They were just for show, completely useless! They had no attack power at all! The people at the edges of the square could have just run away, but instead, they were scared into huddling together and kneeling in submission? What a bunch of clueless fools!

Annie let out a disdainful snort and kept watching the display. She had no idea what the weirdo was saying to the crowd. The person filming was so irresponsible—they didn't even record the audio? Would it kill you to press the record button? Annie knew that the Quinjet's recording function could capture audio too!

After the weirdo spoke for a while, an old man in the crowd seemed unhappy with what he said. He stood up and started arguing about something, looking quite brave... But the weirdo Loki didn't give him a chance. He raised his scepter, the tip glowed, and a blue arcane bolt shot toward the old man.

That brave old man is dead for sure!

Annie figured that a defenseless Earthling like that couldn't possibly withstand an Arcane Missile! The next scene would probably be him blown to pieces, right? Annie suddenly felt a bit reluctant to watch. Maybe she really should have set out earlier—she might have saved him?

But in the end, the footage didn't show what Annie didn't want to see. At the critical moment, Captain America arrived in time and blocked the blue Arcane Missile with his shield. The missile bounced off his shield and slammed hard into the weirdo Loki's abdomen, knocking him flat on the ground.

Huh? What a magical shield!

Seeing this, Annie's eyes lit up! What material was that little shield made of? Annie knew that all shields could block magic! Of course, that was only if the shield wasn't destroyed after the magic's power was fully released—then it could block it! Otherwise, you were done for! Some enchanted shields could even absorb part of the magic damage, but she had never seen one that could fully reflect magic.

The fight in the video continued. The weirdo Loki, knocked down by his own magic, stood up as if nothing had happened. Then he noticed the Quinjet in the air, raised his hand, and fired another Arcane Missile, but the agile plane dodged it in time.

Bad review! Annie mentally gave the evil god Loki a score! As a mage, shouldn't he at least put up a shield for himself? And after throwing out a spell, he just left it at that? Would it kill him to lock onto the target and guide it a little? Was he that lazy?

And then... And then Annie really wanted to rub her eyes. She wondered if she was still asleep? She couldn't believe what she was seeing on the display! Maybe she was still dreaming?

Look at that evil god called Loki! Look at what he did! After firing two Arcane Missiles, he actually picked up his scepter and started brawling with Captain America! A proper mage throws out two of the simplest Arcane Missiles, then grabs his staff and goes hand-to-hand with a defense-tank warrior? Might as well just switch classes and become a warrior!

Annie really wanted to grab him by the neck and ask him: Are you even a mage? Is this how a mage fights? I know I'm still young, but don't try to fool me!

Look at his style: swinging that scepter with such fierce momentum, so domineering! And in one move, he knocked Captain America's shield flying—nice one! That scepter, which looked pretty decent, was being used like a club, smashing into the ground with sparks flying, looking incredibly fierce and terrifying!

Even though Annie never used a staff, she still felt a pang of sympathy for him! Using a perfectly good scepter like that—might as well swap it for a fire poker! At least you wouldn't feel bad if it broke...

Staring blankly at the display for a while, watching the two still going at it—one throwing punches, the other swinging a staff—Annie suddenly sighed. Well, setting aside allegiances for now, as a fellow mage, a colleague, Annie felt a bit embarrassed for Loki's intelligence!

You're a proper archmage, aren't you? Can't you create some distance? Since you know Arcane Illusion, you must know Blink too, right? Blink first, then throw out some control and curse spells to restrict the opponent, then pick a bunch of high-power spells and blast them. Now that his shield's been knocked away, a few spells would take him down! If a few spells aren't enough, just channel a big one! Why go for hand-to-hand combat?

Annie felt she couldn't watch anymore. That evil god Loki wasn't lacking in power—he was lacking in brains! Look, as soon as the ranged DPS Iron Man showed up, he got caught right away! Serves him right! With all that god-tier gear, but terrible execution, he got wrecked! Playing a mage and going for melee auto-attacks, hitting people with a staff? Totally deserved! Even Tibbers looks down on him!

Annie finally understood. No wonder Loki got caught before she even arrived—it wasn't her being late at all, but the guy being an idiot! So pathetic! It was all his fault! He made her miss her chance to grab the Space Stone. If she'd known, she wouldn't have gotten out of bed!

And! It's all your fault, Tibbers! Why did you trick me into getting up?

"Sir! Another new message! Agent Natasha just replied: The prisoner Loki was taken by someone named Thor. She's requesting backup as soon as possible if we can!"

"Hmph! I'm not going, I'm too sleepy! I'm going back to sleep. Goodnight, everyone, see you tomorrow!" Before Coulson could react, Annie used her teleportation spell for the first time. In a flash of blue arcane light, she and her little bear vanished from the cabin instantly.

That evil god Loki's ridiculous behavior just now reminded her—she was a mage too! Anyway, she knew the spatial coordinates of the seaside house, and since everyone here already knew her background, there was no need to hide anything. So she just teleported straight back! Whoosh, and she was home, way faster than a bumpy plane ride.

What? Go for backup? Annie had heard it! The one who took the prisoner was that guy named Thor, right? He was also part of the Avengers, wasn't he? She wasn't about to get involved in their internal squabbles. Whoever wanted to go could go—she wasn't going. She'd rather go back to sleep!