The group was still a bit off from the forest so Villin turned toward the vampire that was set to arrive in less than ten seconds.

He stood his ground and started preparing his spell. He decided to go with ‘Vinea Tenura’ since it was the only spell that might have a tiny chance of success of stalling the vampire for a bit. 

Meanwhile, Gerry was still attacking the vampire constantly. He didn’t seem to have any intention to help them out. Villin cursed, it seemed like despite everything that happened death was still coming for them. And then he felt someone tug the back of his shirt. He turned his head and saw Kayley “Villin, we have to go!”

Villin was just about to say ‘What use is that at this point’ when he noticed something. Rein and Amelia were gone. Somewhat surprised with this finding Villin nodded and ran a few more meters back together with Kayley. Then, suddenly, Villin felt himself pass some sort of magical veil. And the sight before him changed. He was standing less than a meter away from what looked to be an iron car. It looked a lot like a 4x4 and was entirely black.

Both the front and the back doors were open. Villin saw Amelia and Kayley already sitting in the back and knowing they had a vampire behind them that would probably catch up in about five seconds he didn't hesitate to jump through the open door, Kayley, on the other hand, went to sit in the front of the car.

As soon as they were both in the car started moving. The vampire increased his efforts when he saw the group disappearing into thin air but, in the end, it could only move forty miles an hour.

The car got to this speed after about two seconds, leaving the vampire in the dust.

“Don’t worry we’re pretty much safe now. Dad will keep them busy for a while.”

Kayley’s voice broke the tension a bit. As they all relaxed a bit. Villin kept looking through the back window until he could no longer see the vampire. The car drove over the flatlands for a bit until it got to the road where it really started picking up speed. 

The fact that the car was made out of metal shouldn’t really be a surprise for Villin, but the speed certainly was. Kayley’s driving was extremely good, she kept going at a hundred kilometers an hour even in turns, the first time Villin thought he’d be thrown to the side at least but they barely even felt the turn when inside of the car.

After driving for another ten minutes Kayley stopped the car at the side of the road. She turned to face the others and had a complicated expression on her face. “My dad is a… strange man. We used to be one of the few noble families without a bloodline until just before my birth. My dad, who was a member of the council back then, became an exiled mage by coming to the mortal world, breaking the treaty. That’s really all I know of him, I’ve only seen him a couple of times, he taught me a couple of things such as how to drive certain vehicles.” 

“What now?” Villin asked, “And how did he find us?”

Kayley looked at them for a bit “Now we wait, he should come here in a couple of minutes, he might be able to remove the shackles and hide Amelia’s magic power, then we can hopefully head back to the academy.”

Villin simply nodded. He didn’t like this feeling. He didn’t feel in control of the situation at all, hell, he could even tell Kayley was uncertain about what was going on. Nonetheless, they could only wait.

Villin spent this bit of time getting back some of his magic power, luckily he wouldn’t need it. After twenty more minutes had passed Amelia noticed a figure in the sky behind them.

It was Gerry, and he was flying toward them. The group all got out of the car and waited, after a bit the man arrived.

He looked the same as earlier, a youth that was twenty years old wearing casual mortal clothes. He landed onto the ground and without saying a word he pointed his wand toward the box holding Amelia’s hands together. A small azure orb came out of the tip of his wand and hit the shackles, then the orb seemed to melt into the shackles and a moment later they simply fell off of Amelia’s hands. “The only thing that can take those things off easily are spells with anti-magical properties. I suggest you learn some even if you aren’t planning to stay.”

Amelia simply nodded as she cast a simple cleaning spell on her hands. The blood on her face was also gone at this point, she cleaned that when they stepped out of the car, but there was still a clear bloody hole where her eye was. Villin was extremely impressed by how normal she behaved. Other than when they just saved her, she stayed alert and never showed signs of pain, if one didn’t know this had just happened they would probably think she was stable mentally.

After the shackles fell off, Gerry grabbed a ring out of his trouser’s pocket and handed it to her. Amelia didn’t ask anything as she just grabbed it and put it on. “That ring will hide you from them, they won't be able to track you so simply anymore. As long as you stayed a little bit inland and out of the capital you’ll be fine.”

He then grabbed three more rings out of his pocket and Rein, Kayley, and Villin all took one.

“If you four want to get back into The Academy you’ll have to wait for three months. Every four months The Academy showcases their best students from each grade, meet me here again in eighty days and I’ll bring you there.” The twenty-year-old man turned and looked like he was about to leave before he remembered something “Ah right, here take this.”

He gave Kayley a stack of bills “This should be more than enough to stay in a hotel for a while.