Jarek had been sitting inside his cage, calmly waiting for the final piece of the puzzle required for his escape to arrive.
Just as expected, Mir arrived late at night to eat his share.
Jarek waited patiently until Mir finished his 'meals' for the day.
He had observed the vampire trio and knew how much each of them eats.
Thrain eats four, while Luneth and Mir each eat three, making it a total of ten devoured every day.
Once Jarek was sure that Mir had had his third meal, he began the first part of his plan.
'I hope this works.'
"You bastard! Why do you have to do this to us!? What did we ever do to you!?" Jarek shouted with indignation.
His actions successfully drew Mir's attention, who turned to look at him.
"Jarek...?" Eira, who was to his left, trembled as he witnessed Jarek's actions. 'What is he doing?' She wondered in her heart, terrified for what was about to happen to Jarek.
She wasn't the only one who was baffled by Jarek's actions.
'Is he crazy? Does he want to die? Yes, that must be it.' Everyone thought Jarek was walking to his death.
Mir approached Jarek and, in a matter of seconds, was in front of his cage.
Mir's gaze met with Jarek's, which was filled with rage despite the tears flowing down his cheeks.
Jarek looked into his eyes and said, "You are a coward!"
Mir was confused, not expecting that statement out of all things Jarek could have said.
What had he done to be labeled as a coward?
But Jarek was kind enough to point out his deeds.
"You, as a cultivator, how can you behave so cowardly, by hitting me with a sneak attack? Have you no shame? No wonder that Leif guy looks down on you." Jarek finished his words with a look of utter contempt at Mir.
He was, of course, talking nonsense.
Mir had done no such thing, to him at least.
Luneth was the one who did it to shut him up, but he doubted Mir remembered every kidnapping situation when he had to deal with hundreds of kids every month.
If Mir had stopped to think carefully, he would have realized Jarek was spouting nonsense, but that last statement prevented him from noticing this.
And indeed, like Jarek had predicted, Mir's face twisted in rage as he pointed at Jarek. "You... you..."
"Me what? Isn't it true?" Jarek continued. "You, a cultivator, had to resort to a sneak attack to deal with a mortal kid? Aren't you embarrassed? I bet I could easily defeat you if we fight head-on. Considering your past actions, maybe I stand a chance of defeating you blindfolded."
Mir felt his anger reaching its peak.
No one had ever looked down on him to this extent.
How could he tolerate this insult?
"You little bastard! How dare you!?" At that moment, Mir wanted to tear Jarek into pieces.
"Good! Very good! Kid, I'd like to see how you would do that." Mir wouldn't be satisfied with just ending him; he wanted to etch despair into Jarek's soul.
'I'll teach you what true despair is.'
Mir reached into his pocket, took out a key, and opened the cage.
"You know what, kid, since you seem so confident, I'll let you have the first three strikes." As he said so, Mir took a few steps back to give Jarek some space to work with.
"I'll even close my eyes. Let's see what you can do." Mir said confidently, not taking Jarek seriously, something he would come to deeply regret.
As he waited for Jarek's weak attack to land, what he got instead was the feeling of metal colliding with his head as he lost consciousness.
He hadn't expected Jarek to use the unorthodox method he did.
While Mir had kept his eyes closed, Jarek had swung the cage at Mir's head with all his might.
Unfortunately, Mir was a powerful cultivator.
So, while the attack reaped his consciousness, it wasn't powerful enough to end his life, because Jarek, who was a mortal, was the one who swung it.
If it were any cultivator, they might have a chance of killing him.
To deal with this unkillable foe, after searching his body, Jarek threw Mir's body inside the cage and closed it with the key.
He knew that at the very least, Mir wouldn't be able to break out of it.
'First step is a success.'
Everyone who witnessed all of this had their mouths wide open as they looked incredulously at Jarek.
Jarek then released Eira from her cage and locked it.
He then opened another cage and said to the freed boy as he handed the key to him, "Go, open the cages for everyone, and make sure to lock them after freeing them. We don't have much time."
The boy quickly moved to complete this task.
After around one and a half hours, everyone was now free and had gathered around Jarek.
The key was once again in Jarek's hands.
"Everyone, we don't have much time left before they all notice something is amiss. We need to take them by surprise before that. Pick up a cage of your own. It will be your weapon as we fight our way out of here. The rest of the vampires are weaker than the one I just took down, so it won't be difficult to escape if we overwhelm them with numbers. Your fate is in your hands." Jarek spoke as he addressed everyone.
"Let's move. We need to reach the carriages."
Everyone charged towards the direction of the exit.
The first group of vampires they came across was startled by what they saw.
They saw close to a hundred kids running towards them with cages in their hands.
It was a strange sight to behold; one they've never seen before.
'How did they escape? And why are they carrying cages around? No, that's not important, we need to stop them, or we are dead.' One of them thought.
"Capture them, don't let them escape."
He charged at the group, intending to knock them out, only to receive a hit on the head from one of the escapees after knocking out two of them.
He was dazed for a moment, and the rest took advantage of that moment to rain cages on his head.
The rest of the vampires felt beads of sweat flowing down their backs as they looked at the kids covered in blood as if they were monsters.
It didn't take long for them to share the same fate as their comrade.
The kids fought their way outside the mansion until they reached where the carriages were kept.
In sight, there were around twenty carriages, dozens of wagons, each with its own coachman and pair of beasts.
The coachmen didn't have time to react as they were soon surrounded.
Jarek once again addressed everyone as he said, "Group yourselves according to the towns you came from. Make sure that in each carriage, there is someone who keeps an eye on the coachman, so that you can deal with them if they try something. Who here is from Arvenca? Come to my side."
As he said so, nine children moved close to him.
There were six boys and three girls.
As they approached one of the carriages, the coachman, having heard what Jarek had said, was sweating bullets.
Jarek then turned to look at him. "You will cooperate, won't you?"
The coachman nodded his head quickly in response, suppressing his fear.
"Good. Take us to Arvenca town as quickly as possible."