Marvel: Hunter

Loki made up his mind again.

Abandoning the Chitauri soldier beneath his feet, he immediately leaped toward a nearby building.

Unfortunately, the meteorite's speed was far too fast.

Loki had barely jumped away, scepter in hand, when the meteorite struck the Chitauri. The explosion's shockwave instantly blew him off course, smashing him through the glass and sending him headfirst into the bar on the top floor of Stark Tower.

The impact knocked him unconscious, and the scepter slipped from his grasp, rolling to the side.

A familiar feeling lingered in his mind.

Before blacking out, Loki thought the whole situation felt oddly repetitive.

In just a few minutes—Loki had been blasted once, Natasha had been blasted once, and now Loki was blasted again.

It was déjà vu in the worst way.

Poor Loki—blown up twice in mere minutes. The first time left him injured from the blast; the second time sent him headfirst into a wall and unconscious.

Miserable. Truly miserable.

Aside from Loki—

The moment Blaine activated the magic circle, he used telepathy to convey a message to the Avengers:

'Get out immediately, or hide deep inside the building.'

The meteorite flames were primarily splash and burn damage; the explosive force itself wasn't particularly high—about the equivalent of five grenades combined—so they couldn't level a building.

The best defense was to take cover in the basement.

Tony stared wide-eyed at the purple pentagram magic circle in the sky.

This…

Wasn't this the kind of magic circle you saw in novels, anime, or fantasy films?!

It was instantly recognizable.

Pentagrams like this appeared in plenty of fantasy stories—whether in novels or animation—and even if you'd never read or watched them, the symbol was widely known.

Just like Tony.

He stood frozen.

Oh, hell.

This Mr. Hunter can do magic too?

Is there anything he can't do?!

Even while dodging, Tony grumbled inwardly.

The others had similar reactions, already planning to avoid the area.

Except for the Hulk, of course.

Hulk wasn't afraid of any of it. In fact, he grew angry and tried to leap toward the sky to "smash" the pentagram magic circle.

Unfortunately, the magic circle wasn't a physical object. Even if Hulk could reach it, he couldn't disrupt it.

So Hulk vented his rage on the unfortunate Chitauri instead.

Within a minute, nearly all the remaining Chitauri on the ground were wiped out—only one or two stragglers were left, dodging the meteorite flames.

A faint smile formed at the corner of Blaine's mouth, the five-pointed star pattern in his eyes flickering.

That was a satisfying round of clearing.

The "Copy Eye" was truly useful.

It might not be as instantaneous as Gali's, but it didn't take long to summon the pentagram magic circle, and it didn't get in the way.

Of course, the meteorite shower hadn't covered all of Manhattan as it might have.

That was intentional.

Blaine had enough power to make the magic circle cover the entire borough, but doing so would weaken the meteorite flames, making them far less lethal—enough to wound Chitauri, but not necessarily kill them.

Against ordinary people, it would be another matter entirely. A meteorite flame blanketing all of Manhattan could easily burn the city to the ground, leaving only the Avengers alive.

Instead, this meteorite shower was fully condensed.

Sizes varied, but even the smallest could instantly kill a Chitauri.

The larger ones—three meters across—could burn through ten Chitauri stacked together.

Condensation was the key.

Blaine hadn't aimed to set surrounding buildings on fire, but there was no avoiding it.

This wasn't a video game—you couldn't selectively disable environmental damage.

Even Stark Tower had suffered significant damage, with several floors ablaze.

And no, he didn't use "Frozen Thousand Miles." It was too troublesome. That ice wasn't ordinary—normal flames couldn't melt it. And he certainly wasn't going to create a meteorite flame in the middle of an ice field like some kind of garden feature.

If meteorite flames were going to be unleashed, they would burn things. Better to burn them from the start than cause secondary damage later.

It should be noted that "Frozen Thousand Miles" ice was unlike ordinary ice, just as the flames in the meteorites were unlike ordinary fire.

Like a storm or tornado, these flames couldn't be put out by wind or weather—they could only grow.

In an ordinary world, without Marvel's unpredictabilities, such flames could easily turn into a raging inferno consuming an entire district.

But Blaine had already anticipated that.

Greedy though he might be, he was still a Bounty Hunter who handled his work thoroughly.

The pentagram magic circle slowly faded.

The area around Stark Tower was in ruins.

Hurt the enemy a thousand, lose eight hundred? Not exactly—if the Chitauri weren't killed, the whole planet would fall. A few destroyed buildings were a small price to pay.

"It's raining from the sky!"

Blaine didn't pause, immediately casting another large-scale spell.

This one was different from the meteorite strike.

Though also a large-scale technique, "Rain from the Sky" was attuned to the forces of nature.

No pentagram magic circle appeared.

Instead, in the previously clear sky, a massive cluster of dark clouds gathered.

In just three seconds, the clouds thickened, darkening the sky.

Clatter—

A single raindrop fell.

It was the signal.

The clouds reached their limit and burst, releasing a torrential downpour.

The stubborn fires were completely extinguished.

The meteorite flames had cleared the field; the rain finished the job.

Two large-scale spells had set the stage for bringing this massive battle to an end.

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