With careful steps and on silent soles Patris and Avan crept from one shadow to the next, always careful to use any cover and to stay out of sight of the vampire guards.

A quick gesture to Patris and an understanding nod back, and Avan crept on alone, by now almost crawling on the ground to take advantage of the cover of the prison cages. These were on a small elevation and not directly on the floor, for reasons Avan could not readily comprehend, which is why he was able to use just under thirty centimeters of height of the cages as cover.

When Avan arrived at the two women's cage and the two guards had just passed by with their rounds, he glanced into the cage and saw them both asleep with Jen's head on Dani's lap and Dani herself dozing with her back against the bars.

"Dani!" Avan whispered, trying to get the exhausted young woman's attention without attracting the vampires. But there was no response.

With a sigh, Avan looked around on the floor in front of the cell and picked up a small pebble. With a deft throw and another whisper of "Dani!", but this time a little louder, the small stone landed on the side of Dani's thigh and she finally woke up sleepily. A confused look at the place where the pebble had hit her, and then she remembered the second thing that had woken her up. Dani looked around for the voice, and looked Avan straight in the eye, a tired smile on her lips.

A nod from her told him that she had seen him, and Avan waited.

Dani gently shook Jen awake, and she looked around sleepily and with tousled hair, uncertainly, while she ran her dirty hands over her face and rubbed her eyes. "Hmmmm...?" Came an indistinct but questioning tone, without Jen's mouth moving. A quick nod from Dani in Avan's direction and Jen looked around in confusion until her gaze fell on him. A smile like a brilliant sunrise blossomed on the young healer's face and her eyes lit up as she whispered something to her friend, never once taking her eyes off Avan.

Both of them looked around for the vampire guards and then carefully, without hurting themselves on the untreated wood of the cell floor, crawled towards Avan.

They positioned themselves with their backs, both side by side, to Avan at the bars. "Well, you guys? Slept in and ready to get out of here?" Avan whispered to their backs, earning a momentary silence. If looks could kill, Avan would have dropped dead when he saw the murderous look Dani briefly gave him over her shoulder.

"Yes, you joker.... What's the plan?" Asked the young huntress as she took two deep breaths in and out.

Avan refrained from making any more unfunny comments and explained the situation to them. When it came to the part where they both questioned how he was going to get them out of the cage without a key, Avan sent his still almost invisible celestial wire ropes hovering behind him to the lock of the cage door, and a soft hiss later there was a barely audible click and the door swung open an inch.

"Any questions?"

This time Jen glanced at him over her shoulder, but unlike Dani's murderous look, this facial expression had only gratitude and even a few moist eyes looking at him gratefully. "Yes... let's get rid of the guards and then check on the other prisoners.... And get out of here."

All three waited again for the next patrol's turn, while Avan gave Patris the agreed signal and he crept on to distract the other two vampire guards at the right moment.

Avan himself squeezed into the mud just so under the cage, as the cells themselves stood on various logs, and as soon as the guards had passed the three hissing in their language, he quickly crawled out and the two women carefully opened the cell door.

[Vampire Guard - 198]

[Vampire Guard - 211]

Two more meters... and another meter until Avan was within reach of the first vampire guard, when suddenly a telltale squeak was heard behind him. The ears of the two guards twitched, and abruptly, with practiced movements, they spun around fluidly, their spears already in their hands for the attack. Just as they looked in disbelief at the two young women stepping out through the quietly squeaking and open prison door, Avan seized the last opportunity to attack from the moment of surprise.

He leapt forward to bring the two guards within his reach, and his waiting forms attacked.

One guard was instantly dismembered and killed, but the other had seen his forward movement, negating the double damage bonus for sneak attacks. One arm fell severed to the ground, but with a practiced backward movement and a brief blur, and the higher level vampire guard stood a meter away out of reach. * A movement skill!* Avan cursed inwardly.

Quickly, so as not to make unnecessary fighting noises, Avan jumped to his feet and rushed toward the vampire. The vampire, still visibly shocked, tried to understand what had just happened, and had only been able to react so quickly thanks to his combat experience.

Avan relied on Patris and the agreed-upon distraction. The warrior was to pretend that he was staggering powerlessly along the wall on the other side of the cells, while his short sword was tucked away in his waistband at the back.

With only one focused thought, namely to annihilate the enemy in front of him as quickly as possible, Avan sprinted forward toward the vampire, who stared at him with wide eyes. One step and several hisses later, and the vampire guard that had just escaped also fell to the ground in pieces, but this time with much messier cuts and a lot of strangulation. Holding his breath, Avan turned to the two women, who both looked guilty at the mistake. Avan just shrugged his shoulders, since he hadn't thought of it either. *As always, I can only think of one thing. The plan goes off without a plan.

The three rushed between the other cages, waking up many of the remaining female inmates, who followed the group with wide eyes.

"I don't know! Where am I...?" They heard from some distance from Patris, who was staring at the two vampire guards with his hands up and his eyes filled with fear, his back to the wall.

The two stood with drawn spears and held the young warrior in check, while they communicated with their hissing sounds among themselves.

Abruptly, both fell silent, when suddenly another kind of hiss joined the conversation. And both fell to the ground, dismembered and neatly cut into pieces.

Patris, who had just looked like a frightened and anxious bunny, stood there with relaxed shoulders and pulled a pout. "Of course you're having all the fun, while I have to play bait here. When we get out of here, I need to have a serious talk with you, Avan!" He said, playfully upset, until his gaze landed on his girlfriend and everything was forgotten.

The four hugged, especially Dani and Patris, while Jen buried her head in Avan's chest and shed a few tears for Linob. Avan himself gently and soothingly ran his hand over the young healer's head and remained silent, just being there for her.

When everyone had calmed down and Jen withdrew, slightly ashamed but grateful, the group took care of the rest of the captured women and girls. There were only female prisoners in the cells, and according to the various stories and thank-yous of the freedmen, this was common practice.

Ten women and four daughters were freed, and after some hurry and urging from Avan, after a few minutes they ran single file up the stairs to the wall, following Avan.

He himself, much to everyone's surprise and silent outcry, simply walked out over the brush of the wall, and instead of falling down as everyone expected, he slowly floated down while quietly and insistently giving orders before disappearing. "Two at a time! Just jump, I'll catch you at the bottom with magic!" A short yelp from Jen startled everyone, but two seconds later she also floated down the wall outside right after Avan.

"You could have at least warned me!" She complained to him down below, while holding her pounding heart with one hand and running her other hand over her hair in agitation.

Avan looked up, and then at her. "No time. We have to move fast. Sorry, Jen."

As if he had flipped a switch in her, she suddenly smiled back at him, nodding in understanding. "It's okay... I just got scared.... But I trust you." And looked up as well, where a woman with her daughter stood trembling and uncertain at the top of the parapet, looking down.

*If the wall weren't so high, or if I still had my entire sphere of influence at my disposal, we'd all be down there by now, I guess...*

With an encouraging wave of his hand to the two on top of the wall, Avan waited and held his Celestial Mana in a nebula form ready to defy gravity and cushion the two.

A whisper at the top of the wall, and the two finally jumped, hand in hand, while a soft yelp rang out as they stepped into the bottomless pit. For Avan, however, it was remarkable to see how bravely and otherwise silently the two completed the jump, and with some mental effort, successfully cushioned them at the bottom.

The two safely hit the ground below, and fell into each other's arms as they stepped aside to make way for the next.

So it went on smoothly, and fortunately without the alarm being raised or anything else going wrong, and once again everyone stood relieved and grateful at the bottom in front of the wall. Many had thanked Avan again and again and had approached him, but he had only dismissed them with a nod and a slight smile.

Now, on the right side of the cave, looking into the massive cavern from the cave entrance, the path led toward the crystal lake. Fortunately, they did not have to worry about the guards on their side of the wall, since no one could see them as they had to cover a few hundred meters over open grassy terrain.

With the last steps, the fugitives climbed a small hill, and all of them stood frozen at the sight before them.

The lake in front of them, which was fed by the blue waterfall in the ceiling, lay breathtakingly beautiful in front of them and only a light spray of water hitting the surface of the lake sent waves around. The water of the lake glowed a magical fluorescent blue and was otherwise completely smooth as glass. At the shore, the grass turned into white sand, which reached deep into the lake and disappeared into the depths.

"Stunning, hum?" Avan blurted out as he stood frozen for a few seconds, along with everyone else.

Except for the rush of the waterfall, there were no sounds to be heard. Avan let his gaze wander across the lake, watching the blue glitter and glow of the water in amazement. *I wonder if the vampires drink this and that's why they glisten so disgustingly. Whereby... They drink blood... Maybe they bathe in it? Would at least somehow logically explain why the bloody hell these vampires glitter like a decorated christmas tree.* It shot through his head.

As his gaze followed the waterfall up into the ceiling, and back down again, he suddenly noticed something out of the corner of his eye that had peeked out for a fraction of a second in the spray of the water masses crashing down below.

"Is THAT where the dungeon core is?!" He muttered in disbelief, and even Jen, Patris and Dani at his side followed his gaze and briefly spotted the same round object at the bottom of the lake, just below the crashing waterfall.

Following an intuition, but more of an instinct than knowing why, Avan took a step toward the lake. Shaking his head to clear it for a moment, he turned to his friends. "I need to take a closer look.... Please make sure everyone else is moving along safely, I'll rejoin you in a minute, okay?"

And without waiting for a reply, Avan left his teammates standing there with their mouths slightly agape.