Chapter 50

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Eyes were the window to the soul, which was why mind magic almost always needed eye contact. With enough practice, however, it was possible to use it without eye contact.

Extending his mind in the direction of the threat, Ethan made sure to be very careful in not being too invasive, keeping sure that he was close enough to read the basic intent but not so much that they could detect it.

The person was good, but amid shocked and curious people, this person stood out like a star in the darkness. The killing intent had been quickly hidden, but the lack of emotion was just as obvious.

Ethan pretended that all of his attention was on the scene ahead, but his wand had already slipped into his hand, and he had formed a telekinetic link with the dagger hidden in his sleeve. He was ready for battle.

He was not listening to what his mother and the man were saying anymore, but he could still hear that as the man's voice got louder, the assassin in the dark suddenly acted.

Already expecting it, Ethan turned around instantly; a plan had already formed in his mind. He would first make a wall using Transfiguration, in case they were about to use the Killing Curse, and Miyuki would follow with a deadly attack. Even if that wasn't enough to take care of the assassin, by then his parents would have been alerted.

As he turned around, however, Ethan realised he had underestimated his parents.

In the time it took Ethan to turn around, Henry appeared next to the assassin and grabbed him by the wrist, forcing his wand down. The assassin tried to do something, but he only got to twitch when Henry suddenly tore his arm off its socket.

As blood sprayed, the crowd ran away, screaming in shock, while the masked assassin cried out in pain. Ethan had always known his father to be a smiling man, as even in grave moments, he would only show seriousness.

Yet now, as his bloody hand grabbed the assassin by the neck, his face was terrifyingly cold, and his eyes seemed to have turned into two black holes that led into the abyss.

His mind still spread out; Ethan felt his father's mind bulldoze its way through the assassin's mind, and although Ethan was tempted to peek in too, it wasn't a good idea to invade a mind with another person.

Still, Ethan felt the assassin try to put up defences, but with the shock of losing an arm, his mind had been weakened, although that probably didn't matter much. Everything Ethan had learned about the mind arts came from his father, and he was still far from surpassing the master.

Be it in terms of skills or pure mental strength, Henry outclassed everyone Ethan had ever met, with the close exceptions of Dumbledore and Snape. And even for those two, it was mostly that Ethan hadn't dared to probe them.

Ethan doubted Henry was better than Dumbledore, but he might be better than Snape. At least in terms of mental strength.

Ethan then looked at Tracey, whose face had turned pale at the sight of the bloody spectacle, and placed a hand on her shoulder. He felt her flinch under his touch, but she met his eyes and muttered, "I'm fine."

To Ethan, it sounded like she was trying to convince herself as much as she was trying to convince him. So he kept his hand on her shoulder and added, "Sorry about this. That probably wasn't what you thought this vacation would look like."

Tracey shook her head strongly, her voice steadfast. "No, I'm fine. Really. You warned me about this. I just- It was the first time I saw- this."

Ethan couldn't help but smile, seeing how she was trying to sound brave. The smile was quickly wiped off, however, as Ethan looked at the 'security', who looked too scared to do anything. His mother was still facing the old man, who stood frozen.

Anyone with a keen eye would notice that he was not frozen by shock, however, as chains of faint blue symbols crawled up his legs. Quickly, they reached his chest, stopping right under his neck.

Ethan's father was good; his mastery of Apparition, coupled with his powerful magic, thorough knowledge of spells, experience, and mastery of his mind, made him a fearsome duellist and quite possibly one of the strongest in the world. However, it was hard to call him 'the best' or 'the strongest' because the world was big, and even techniques that may appear to be invincible would have a counter.

If duellists, or even more simply magical fighters, around the world had to be classified into tiers or ranks, Henry would certainly belong to the highest rank, along with the likes of Flitwick, Snape, and other such wizards. Even the absolute strongest, which would be Dumbledore, Gellert Grindelwald, and Voldemort, would at most be half a rank above him.

Although Ethan doubted his father would be able to defeat one of those three, he did not believe he would be helpless in front of them were they to fight. He would at least be able to hold his own for a while.

But when it came to Runes, Ethan could say that his mother was the best in the world without the shadow of a doubt, because if the same system of ranking were to be used for Rune Masters, Helene was at least two or three ranks above the second best.

That was because she had invented an entirely new way of using Runes that had never been seen before, or at least it wasn't recorded. Most people looked down on Ancient Runes because it was a vast subject that was extremely complicated to get proficient in and countless times harder to master. Actually, one might consider that no one had managed to master it, but that was another subject.

The real problem with Runes was the rather lacklustre power behind it. Although engraving an object with runes was a good way of giving it an enchantment, or 'effect', the truth was that the same could be done with much more ease through a Charm. After all, despite their immense flexibility, Runic Enchantments more often than not replicated the effects of Charms.

Of course, it had some advantages, one of which was that an 'effect' applied through runes worked differently than an 'effect' applied through a Charm, meaning that it couldn't be modified or destroyed the same way.

Still, that was hardly worth the immense effort needed to become at least slightly proficient in the subject, so it remained a largely unexplored subject in many areas of the world, Britain included.

As for Helene, she was like 500 years ahead of her time, and she had passed it down to Ethan. Where others worked to master a single language, she had Ethan learn ALL the fundamental runic languages that existed and taught him to use them to understand what they evolved into, effectively giving him a foundation like no one else.

The true revolutionary aspect of Helene's rune mastery was, of course, her ability to use them without mediums, of course. It went against everything Ethan had ever learned about runes, yet she was somehow capable of using runes in combat.

One thing to understand was that regular Rune Masters usually took days to complete one enchantment, and that was through carving the runes physically into their objects with magical ink. Helene was capable of doing the same thing in a matter of seconds and without any physical interaction.

"Stop!"

Ethan, along with his family and Tracey, turned to look at the one who shouted. It was a woman who looked to be about the same age as Ethan's parents, although that was a bigger approximation than for a muggle, as magical people aged slower.

Ethan's parents were in their fifties, and they were both closer to sixty than fifty, yet they looked like they were in their thirties.

Surprisingly, Helene and Henry did stop, as they both let go of their target. The assassin plumped down to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut; his mind was probably a ravaged mess by now.

As for the old man, the moment the rune chains disappeared from his body, he screamed out in terrible agony. Those runes his mother used did not only make for a paralysing effect, Ethan realised.