“The Saga of Tanya the Evil, Vol. 3: The Finest Hour.”:
The other three promptly take up their guns against the enemy mage who has lurched forward and collapsed from the shock of the gunshots.
I’m a mage, too, so I know how they work. Mages are tougher than they look, and it’s too optimistic to think you can down one with just a handful of bullets.
A live mage is like a hand grenade with the safety pin removed. Until they’ve stopped breathing, you can’t relax. If they have even the tiniest chance, they’re liable to blow themselves up as a last resort.
Sometimes mages die too late, but they can never die too early. And because Tanya pounded that lesson into her subordinates, they swiftly deprive the enemy mage of the chance to counterattack.