Loki laughed as best he could with his air supply cut off, then changed shape to a small, quick snake, emerald green with black bands. A snake could easily escape a hold that a man couldn’t hope to, and he cut off the possibility of being caught be a quick grab by turning his shapeshift into a seeming explosion of dozens of identical green-and-black snakes.

He made sure to slither off of Valkyrie and onto the ground, then played a quick snake-based version of the shell game with his duplicates to make sure his real self was lost. Once he was as sure as he could be that Valkyrie was tracking illusions, he disappeared and shifted back to himself under cover of invisibility.

From invisibility and while an opponent was distracted was the best time to strike, so he did, taking advantage of his greater natural size and weight to bear her to the ground and pin her. “You were saying...?”