"Everyone," Dan shouted to the people at the stern. The different creatures were only a few minutes away from reaching the Voyager, it was the best time to activate his skill, "Get as close to me as possible, everyone needs to be within 10 meters of me!"

  People were a bit confused about what he asked of them, but they still obliged. Dan didn't miss how most of them seemed to be more than just a little bit stressed. A few were clearly out of it, looking around in fear from time to time. Others were barely keeping themselves from looking back every few seconds, the approaching danger a constant fear on their minds.

  Once he made sure that everyone was within the range of his skill, Dan willed Calming Aura to activate. Feeling the switch flip on, Dan focused his gaze on the people around him. Like magic, which it might very well have been, the stress, mounting panic and barely hidden fear got washed away from their faces as calm and determination took their place.

  "There, done," he said as he nodded at them, "Now go do your best, and don't worry, we will survive this!"

  "Offensive teams, take your positions!" Marcus shouted as people started moving all around to their designated positions. Dan felt that Marcus seemed to be turning into someone else as he directed the people there. His short build radiated an intensity that was impossible to overlook or ignore, he was the conductor of this night.

  Dan watched as more than twenty people made a line beyond the railings of the stern at the man's words. 20 of the whole group gathered there had weapons on them, 10 AKMs and 10 handguns, the whole armoury of the Voyager, other than some stun and smoke grenades.

  The rest were a mix between those who had offensive abilities they thought would be of help, or those who were support.

  By that point, Dan had already deactivated Enshrouding Fog. He felt that the skill wasn't of much help at the moment, it might even confuse his people, so he just turned it off without much thought. In its place, they had turned the light at the stern on, aiming to get as much lighting on the water as they could.

  "Weapons holders!" Marcus continued shouting as he moved slowly behind the line, "Remember! Don't waste bullets. Make sure your weapons are on single shots and only take shots that you are 80% sure gonna land!"

  "Supports!" Marcus shouted at the remaining few, "You understand your skills best! Use them when you feel they are needed the most, I trust you to make your decisions well."

  "Arnold." He then turned to the man standing on his own at what appeared to be a rotating platform that held a huge round speaker of some kind, "Wait for them to be as close as possible before firing! Let's hope it's going to affect them somehow."

  Arnold was one of the 3 remaining deckhands on the ship. At the moment, he was the one manning the LRAD on the stern. From what Dan heard, he had a skill that strengthened his eyesight.

  All in all, the Voyager had two LRADs, one on the right side of the stern and the other on the left side of the bow. Both of them were on rotating platforms and together they basically covered the entire surroundings of the Voyager.

  "Everyone, be ready," Keith's voice suddenly sounded from the speakers. She and Freddie had been giving them updates as time passed, "They are on us!"

  "You heard the woman!" Marcus shouted as he aimed his AKM down, "Fire at will!"

  Bang!

  Just a few seconds after his words fell, someone shot their handgun, their shot working as the sign for the others to start their own attacks.

  Bang! Bang! Bang!

  Shot after shot sounded in the dark night. Dan felt happy when he noticed that they hadn't lost their cool and forgotten Marcus's words. The shots sounded focused and driven, not just confused panicked shots.

  "STRENGTHEN FIRE." What felt like a murmur yet a shout suddenly sounded from behind the first line of attackers.

  Dan instinctively looked towards the source of the shout, just to notice the lazy-looking Natalie standing there, the words she just uttered floating just in front of her like a bright red hologram. The words then enlarged before exploding into bright red dust that fell on everyone.

  Dan felt its impact in his soul and he knew that if he had a weapon on hand at that moment, his shots would be stronger than they usually were. He had no idea what Class Freddie's little sister chose, but it seemed powerful.

  Dan wasn't even done with his amazement at what he had just seen when someone else caught his eye. Right next to Natalie, also among the support group, a tall sickly-looking man lifted his hand as a blue light manifested a line atop it. The blue line of light soon started branching from the middle to the top, and each branch also branched into many other branches.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  The man was Morty, Ricky's twin brother and a professor of some branch in math if Dan remembered right.

  Morty did nothing else, he just stood there holding what seemed like an upside-down continually branching family tree. Dan didn't know what the man was doing, but he doubted it was nothing.

  A familiar voice was heard soon too. It wasn't that loud, nor was it overbearing, but it still felt as if it was always there, like an undercurrent below all the chaos going around.

  Dan glanced at the source and saw Diana standing there with the supports as she sang. There was no music but it still felt as if it was the best thing Dan had ever heard. As the woman sang, Dan felt his resolve rise and his determination strengthen.

  Dan was moving even while he had an eye on the situation. He fell back as he hadn't asked for a weapon nor did he have an offensive ability to help with. That didn't mean that he could do nothing though, he had his plan too.

  "Let's start, big girl!" he said aloud as he patted the wall behind him, and as expected he felt more than saw the auras seeping everywhere before condensing around him in a thick cocoon.

  He had already connected with the Voyager before and managed to get across what he needed from her, it took a bit of work, but he did it eventually. This time, unlike all the other times before, Dan didn't share the full senses of the Voyager, instead, he only asked for one thing. The ability to control the dark oppressive aura.

  Bringing the dark aura under his control in the way he wanted took some trial and error. The hardest part was getting the Voyager to understand what he wanted. Fortunately, once that part was done, things moved fast.

  Dan watched as the dark aura went wherever he wanted it to through nothing but his thoughts. Weirdly enough, it didn't feel that out of the ordinary to him, it almost felt instinctive.

  With the sounds of gunfire, shouts and the occasional magic attack as a backdrop, Dan moved to a secluded location on the stern as he looked down. The place where they were was quite high and it was already night, yet Dan still saw the mass of moving creatures below. Maybe it was because he was connected to the Voyager or some other thing, but he noticed that his eyesight was quite clear and he was able to see them clearly. What he saw made him take a step back.

  The creatures below weren't alive, they were rotting! Some of them even had places where no flesh was left, just bones showing. Yet they were still throwing themselves at the Voyager mindlessly, as if bringing her down was their last wish before crossing to the other side.

  Dan brought his breathing under control again as he moved closer to the railings, he looked further away behind them, at what he supposed looked like a floating ghostly light above the water,

  Just what are you...

  He looked down. This time looking beyond just the horrifying visages of the monsters, he tried to see what was actually happening.

  Dan noticed that even though the bullets being shot weren't normal and instead had a red glow similar to the one Natalie's skill had, they weren't doing as much damage to the monsters as the pure magical attacks.

  Dan brought it all under control as he started directing the dark aura all around them. The bit of dark aura that cocooned him wasn't the only one that was in the stern. To his senses, it felt like a dark gloomy cloud was covering the sky. It didn't feel as heavy or agitated as it was when the Behemoth appeared, but it was close. It felt undirected though, just floating there aimlessly, he hoped he would be able to change that.

  Seeing how everyone was focusing on the undead monsters that were still trying to get under the Voyager due to their vantage point, he decided to focus on those. He directed the wave of dark aura right under him, and it rushed down like an avalanche.

  Even though he had tried to only keep his control over the dark aura so as not to tax his mind, Dan noticed that he still had some sort of sense through it. The first thing that he noticed was the surface of the Voyager's body. There were only some light scratches and dents there, that sight calmed his nerves down a bit as it seemed that the monsters weren't able to do much damage to the Voyager, but that relief soon turned to horror as he noticed the monsters change their course and start throwing themselves at the propellers. The steel body of the ship might be able to take it, but expecting the propellers to take hit after hit wasn't wise.

  His horror only grew once he realised that as the bodies got destroyed by the propellers, the aura of rot and decay on the monsters seemed to seep out and attach itself to the propellers! Through their connection, he could even feel a bit of a sting from the Voyager, as if that energy was eating at her.

  Without second thoughts, Dan focused all the dark aura on the place where they were concentrated the most. The aura, feeling his panic and anger, seemed to come to life as it bounced on the undead monsters relentlessly, as if biting and tearing them apart. It even seemed to be consuming the aura of decay that seeped from them. That calmed Dan down a bit as that stopped it from hurting the Voyager.

  The aura seemed to awaken the more it attacked the undead monsters, it seemed to be attacking something essential in them, ripping it right out of their bodies. The monsters that were targeted by the aura floated to the surface, unmoving and fully dead.

  Such an outcome was out of his expectations, the most he had hoped for was that the concentrated aura would be able to scare them away, or in the best case scenario, hurt them like how it attacked the mark that noble left.

  Dan didn't have time to feel happy about that, the more the dark aura seemed to awaken, the harder he found it to control it, a splitting headache started mounting as he struggled to bring it under control. In his focused hurting state, he felt the Voyager making herself known again as she seemed to be helping him keep everything under control.

  "INCOMING!" Marcus's voice sounded, almost drowning all the other noise.

  His shout was followed by the muffled thuds of things hitting the deck and the sound of loud splashing.

  Dan split a bit of his attention to see what was happening, just for his heart to skip a beat. On the deck, he noticed many 2 meter long spikes sticking out. He only calmed down once he noticed that there seemed to be no injuries.

  "ARNOLD! TARGET WHERE THE SPIKES CAME FROM!" Marcus shouted again.

  Dan was standing quite close to the LRAD, and he could feel the air vibrate around him as Arnold rotated the platform the acoustic weapon was put on and aimed it at a specific point in the ocean. He also saw a few shining bolts flying to the same general area, it seemed that Nulara decided to target those monsters too.

  "Don't panic!" Old Raily's voice cut through the chaos, "Shoot with purpose! Don't waste your shots!"

  Feeling that his main priority should be keeping the propellers safe, Dan focused again on his mission, trusting that his crew would deal with the other problems.

  "Pirates in sight!" Freddie's voice sounded through the speakers just as Dan was finding it harder and harder to hold on, "Just a couple more minutes!"