A Web Of Magic

Magnus quickly ducked behind a tree nearby. Only then did he take a look at his hand. A bullet was stuck halfway through his gold-scaled hand. He was lucky he had a quick reaction and grew some scales. It was different from a traditional bullet and looked like a dart. He also felt something try to enter his bloodstream from the bullet. He quickly pulled the bullet out using magic and healed the wound. A quick [Identify] told him that it was an anesthetic bullet. While his suit gave him protection against external attacks, the pain still gets transferred to his body so he'd rather avoid it.

'Who are these people? Are they related to Jenkins? It shouldn't be, if not why would they let me speak to him? This is a new disguise, no one should have anything against it. It also shouldn't be regular criminals; they wouldn't use anesthetic bullets. Can they see through my disguise somehow? Are they the enemies Aunt Viola spoke about?' many thoughts ran through Magnus's head in an instant. His initial anger turned into cold excitement. He was trying to search for them and here they were offering themselves up to him. As for them not being who he assumed them to be, he'll know once he caught them all wouldn't he?

He quickly cast a spell that he learned at Divination Lv5. As he pointed his wand upwards, an invisible "Arcane Eye" floated upwards to an altitude of 100 ft. That would show him everything that's happening around him. Then he cast "Fumos", the smokescreen spell. It covered a radius of 100 ft. around him. In this terrain filled with trees, that would make it incredibly hard for them to find him, yet he'll be able to see them. Arcane eye isn't affected by the smoke.

As he looked through the Arcane eye, he found his attackers. They were dressed in all black like the muggle special forces. They all held various types of firearms. Magnus didn't see a wand in their hand so there probably wasn't a wizard among them. 'A group of muggles attacking a wizard? Do they know that I'm a wizard? Is this a misunderstanding?' Magnus thought. But what he heard next confirmed his previous conjectures. Magnus's senses when wearing his Flesh-suit are greatly enhanced, he can further enhance them when using partial Beast transformation. That made it easy to hear even from far away.

"Did we get the boy?"

"No, he blocked it somehow. Probably a wizard thing."

"I still can't believe there are wizards."

"Calm down newbie, you'll see stranger things if you stick with us."

"Quiet you fools! Lose the boy and it'll be your heads on the platter. Now quick find him and get this over with. I don't like it here," a growling voice stopped the banter.

'So, they do know who I am? This makes it easy,' Magnus made a decision. There were ten pursuers in total and they were trying to surround the grove where he was in. It's just that the fog slowed them down. The closest even came within 10 ft. to the right of Magnus. Magnus waved his wand towards that man. The nearby tree quickly grew ropes made of bark which caught the man by his throat and pulled him towards it. Before the man could utter a sound, he was bound to the tree tightly with his mouth covered. The only sound was the gun in his hand falling down softly on the grassy ground.

Magnus turned invisible as he moved from his place. He moved fast and his movements were muffled with a spell. Whenever he passed close to an assailant, they would find themselves bound to the trees or the floor. Transfiguration can be very effective when used well as it did not give any visual cue or sound. None of the assailants could detect his movements. Within the span of 10 minutes, 8 of them were caught and subdued easily. The remaining two were fine in the beginning but as they stopped hearing any sounds, they began to get nervous. They were positioned closer to each other and were farther from the others.

"Mark are you there? Mark?"

"John? I'm here. Come closer."

"Mark-"

"John? John-"

The two assailants were also silenced one after the other and were bound to opposite trees facing each other with panicked looks. Magnus took a quick look through the Arcane eye and found no one else remaining. He looked over his focus crystal out of habit and it's a good thing he did. The intensity of the crystal which turned black was only slightly reduced. That meant there was more danger and these 10 people didn't amount to much. He didn't relax his vigilance. Both the smokescreen spell and his invisibility reached their time limit one after the other and faded away. Once the smoke cleared away, Magnus was revealed standing in the clearing. Some of the assailants could be seen tied up in different ways while the others were obscured by the trees.

"Excellent work. I knew the meat-bags were useless against a wizard. You are a talented one fledgling. But that ends here. Today you will-" the voice that came from his right stopped abruptly as Magnus quickly threw a spell. But the direction he cast the spell was behind him and not to the right. His aim proved to be true as a man came into view slowly as the invisibility was lifted off. The man was over 2 meters tall and lean in physique with blonde hair and red eyes. He was dressed in black robes with red designs. He just shrugged off the stunning spell that Magnus threw.

"Good eyesight. But you just ruined my invisibility prop. You are going to pay for that. They told me to only capture you, but I guess losing a limb or two will be just fine as long as you are alive," the man growled while l.i.c.k.i.n.g his lips. That revealed two small fangs that slowly seemed to extend.

"A vampire? You dare to attack a wizard? You do realize it's a trip straight to Azkaban?" Magnus probed.

"And who's going to tell? I���ll be out of the country before they can even find me" the man grinned as his red eyes glowed. He turned into a blur immediately. Magnus ducked out of the way quickly but his face still felt a burning sensation. He touched his cheek to feel three bleeding lines. The vampire licked the traces of blood on his fingernails.

"Ah, such a delicacy. It's been a while since I had a wizard. Regular meat-bags just don't have the flavor I tell you," the vampire grinned showing his fangs.

Magnus didn't reply as he quickly healed his wounds. He quickly cast a resistance spell on himself that gave him physical and bleeding resistance. He instantly cast a spell at the vampire but it missed as the vampire turned into a blurred shadow and dodged. While vampires cannot use magic like the wizards, they have their own gifts. Their speed is unmatched by wizards and they have magic resistance towards lower level spells. Ideas passed at light speed in Magnus's head as the vampire attacked him again.

He couldn't dodge it in time once again and was left with another wound on his body, this time on his back. He waved his wand and the wound quickly vanished. The vampire raised his eyebrows at this but he didn't lose heart. How many times can the boy cast his spells? He maybe disguised as an a.d.u.l.t, but the vampire knew for a fact that it was still a boy underneath. And young wizards do not last long against one of the Blood clan no matter now talented.

Twice more the vampire attacked and twice he scored a wound on Magnus. Magnus neither showed panic nor fear. He just stood his ground. The vampire turned into a blur once again. He grinned with an open mouth as he reached the target. He was going for the neck this time. Sweet blood was just at his fingertips. Just as he neared his target, Magnus instantly bent down and pushed his left hand downwards after a quick gesture with his fingers. Instantly a wave of wind blasted radially outwards with him as the center. It hit the vampire like a telekinetic blast as it threw him outwards a few feet. It didn't do much damage to the vampire as he was very resistant.

Just as the vampire landed on the ground and was ready to sprint forward again, Magnus waved his wand in quick motion. The ground beneath the vampire turned soft and his lower body was quickly submerged. Before he could use his superior physique to leap out, the ground quickly hardened back. Thick ropes bound the hands of the vampire and pinned them the ground backwards. Another set of ropes rose from the grass around him and bound his neck to the ground. The ropes quickly turned into metal with a wave of the wand and put the vampire's struggles to an end. He was bent back with his hands and neck pinned to the ground all the while his lower body was stuck in the ground.

The vampire lay on the ground after struggling futilely. He was confused at the quick turn of events. His previous arrogance was quickly curbed. He heard footsteps come towards him and soon he saw the face of his attacker.

"There's a reason vampires aren't the rulers of the magical world. Now tell me who sent you?" the vampire's eyes met the eyes of his captivator as he gulped nervously. He tried casting his Charm ability but it didn't work on the boy. He shouldn't have come here, but there's no point regretting now.