Hulk Scared Witless, a Thirty-Meter Shield Against an Artillery Barrage!

"What did you do to him?"

Steve couldn't help asking.

"Nothing much. Just let him spend an hour in free fall up there."

Ren sounded as casual as if he'd just poured a glass of water.

Half an hour had been enough to leave Loki questioning his entire existence.

Hulk could take a beating, but deep down he was just a reckless child. After falling for a full hour, how could he not be traumatized?

"All right, go clear up the misunderstanding with your big partner." Ren waved a hand. "We need to get out of here."

Steve took a deep breath and shouted his thanks.

Ren had just turned around.

The sky suddenly darkened.

A massive shadow swallowed the entire block.

Boom!

Deafening thunder tore through the clouds and slammed into the back of a hundred-meter-long Leviathan.

Black smoke rose from the charred wound, but the behemoth barely slowed. It kept charging ahead.

Then a second Leviathan, followed by a third, lumbered around the corner of a building.

Overhead, Thor was fleeing wildly with a swarm of warships on his tail.

The alien landing craft packed ferocious firepower.

Their enormous bodies bristled with laser turrets, pouring down blue energy beams in a relentless storm.

Thor had the body of a god, so the lasers wouldn't kill him outright. But even he couldn't endure that ceaseless barrage forever.

Worse, Chitauri soldiers were gathering around him like a swarm of bees. If he hadn't been flying so fast, their concentrated fire would have riddled him with holes.

"Calling on comms! I'm over Third Avenue, and I can't hold out much longer!" Thor roared in frustration. "Where's the big green guy?"

"We hit a little snag. He's on his way!" Steve replied at once.

Ren looked up at the fierce barrage in the sky and nodded approvingly.

Now that was more like it.

Why would landing craft built by an advanced spacefaring civilization be nothing but armored bricks that rammed into buildings?

Heavy energy cannons sweeping the ground made far more sense.

"Hulk, move! Help Thor!"

Steve pointed at the sky and bellowed.

At the order, Hulk looked as though he'd been granted a pardon. He immediately drove his legs into the ground.

Bang!

A crater burst open beneath him.

Hulk shot upward and smashed straight into the side of a nearby high-rise.

Reinforced concrete crumbled in his hands like a biscuit.

He sprang off the outer wall twice, then roared as he hurled himself onto a Leviathan.

"Holy shit. He's a monster of pure muscle!"

Several apprentices stared upward, dumbstruck.

Ren had to agree.

Modern skyscrapers were built far tougher than ordinary steel. Hulk could tear one apart like soft tofu. His raw strength was monstrous.

While everyone watched the spectacle, a low mechanical hum suddenly drowned out the surrounding explosions.

Vmm—!

Ren turned his head.

A Leviathan slowly swung its enormous body around, its terrifying maw aimed at the street below.

The broad road was deserted. Only Ren and a few people in sorcerer's robes stood in the middle of it, even pointing up at the sky.

To the Chitauri commander, they stood out more than a searchlight.

Violent blue energy compressed rapidly within the Leviathan's cavernous maw, its glare painful to look at.

"Senior Brother Ren! That monster's targeting us!"

Carter's voice cracked.

"I'm not blind. I see it."

Ren sighed, his face full of distaste. "They really know how to make trouble for themselves."

The words had barely left his mouth.

Boom!

A devastating pillar of energy as thick as a barrel erupted from the main cannon. It flooded the entire street with blinding blue light.

No wonder even Thor had fled. A blast from a main cannon that powerful would strip a layer of skin off Hulk.

But Ren didn't so much as frown. He raised his right hand without hesitation.

"Rings of Raggadorr!"

Vmm!

A violent surge of magical power rang across the sky.

A Magic Shield blazing with crimson light took shape and swelled in the wind!

Ten meters! Twenty! Thirty!

Like a wall of light three stories high, it sheltered everyone behind it.

The energy pillar slammed into the colossal shield without raising so much as a ripple.

"What the fuck!"

Carter, an old sorcerer who had always prided himself on his composure, nearly popped his eyes out as he swore aloud.

It was absurd beyond belief!

It was one thing for Ren to use wondrous magic no one else had ever seen. But the Rings of Raggadorr were Kamar-Taj's most basic defensive spell. Carter could cast them with his eyes closed.

So who could explain how a basic shield could grow three stories high?!

Staring at the towering magical ring, Carter felt as though his lifetime of magical training had gone to waste.

The apprentice trainees beside him were already beside themselves with excitement, their eyes shining.

"My god! I had no idea the Rings of Raggadorr were this powerful!"

"It's enormous!"

"I'm asking my mentor to teach me when we get back. Then I can look that impressive too!"

Carter's mouth twitched wildly as he listened to their innocent chatter.

Teach them? Like hell!

Even if they trained until they coughed up blood, producing a shield one percent the size of Ren's would make them a force to be reckoned with in Kamar-Taj!

Rumble!

The violent energy pillar exploded.

Nearby buildings more than ten stories tall couldn't withstand the terrifying shockwave. They collapsed in an instant.

Billowing cement dust swallowed half the street.

Yet behind the immense wall of light, not even a breeze got through. An invisible barrier seemed to divide life and death into two separate worlds.

Carter and the apprentices stood like statues. They stared at Ren, forgetting even to blink.

Inside, Carter was swearing up a storm.

He's a monster! This is insane!

How could a basic shield withstand a main cannon's barrage? Even dozens of Masters working together would be battered by firepower like that. Ren had blocked it by casually raising one shield?

Anyone with a shred of common sense knew that the larger a magical shield became, the wider the area it covered and the weaker each part grew.

With the same amount of magical power, a shield dozens of meters wide offered vastly different protection from one only a few dozen centimeters wide.

Carter himself could expand a shield to a few dozen meters at most, even if he gave it everything he had. A few ordinary bullets would then shatter it instantly.

How could Ren make a shield three stories high and still have it be so impossibly tough? Could a living being really cast a spell like that?

Ren paid no attention to the stunned crowd behind him.

"Ding!"

The host's Rings of Raggadorr successfully blocked a devastating attack.

Shield-exclusive talent activated.

Damage from the next attack of the same type will automatically be reduced by 50%.

Ren nodded with satisfaction at the Electronic Voice in his head. That defensive talent was sturdy indeed.

He refocused on the battlefield.

Another massive Leviathan roared in overhead. Armor plates along its belly opened, and dense ranks of alien infantry poured out like dumplings into a pot.

Once they landed, a large force of Chitauri soldiers raised their energy rifles and sprayed the red-and-gold wall of light.

Zzz!

Blue beams struck the shield without making so much as a splash. If a main cannon couldn't break through, a few rifles might as well have been scratching it.