The spikes the Voyager threw at the monsters were almost as fast as when they were thrown by the stingrays. Still, none of them hit.

  It wasn't to say that the Voyager's aim was bad, most of the spikes she threw were true, heading straight to the stingrays, but those monsters waved their wings and a jet of water rose from their side and dropped the spikes from mid air.

  Dan tried to mobilise the auras that were under his control but they didn't extend much, they barely reached 60 meters away from the Voyager. As Dan looked on, trying to find a way to turn the situation around, he noticed the stingrays preparing for another volley. He was about to shout in warning when a change happened, the unmistakable sound of the LRADs sounded as the acoustic weapons aimed at the two monsters.

  Since the first time they caught up to them, Dan watched as the stingrays froze in their chase for a split second and fell back a bit, at the same time, the sound of heavy riflefire sounded, followed by more spikes being thrown by the Voyager at the two monsters.

  The LRADs seemed to be effective as the monsters were clearly feeling disoriented, but it wasn't enough though. After the first few spikes hit them, they seemed to force themselves to move as they soon waved their wings, bringing even more water to hover above them; cloaking them from the unbuffed bullets and some of the LRADs' effects.

  "Voyager, make sure to protect those on the LRADs, the guards too," Dan told his Bonded Ship.

  He feared that those monsters would try to focus their spikes on those doing the most damage to them. Dan got no reply from the Voyager, she seemed to be getting angrier and angrier. Just as he was wondering if she had even heard him, he noticed her bringing two of her aura appendages down, closer to the guards in case she needed to protect them.

  That turn of events finally had Dan take a look at what was happening with the guards, and he noticed something weird. Almost all the guards and supports were focused on starboard, the Voyager's right side, while on port, only one person stood there, it was Old Raily. The Mended Veteran was standing there with his AKM in his hand and a deep frown on his face. Dan wondered what was happening with the man, but eventually, he decided that he didn't have the time to care about it.

  Letting a breath of relief after seeing that the guards were somehow safe, Dan again focused on the battlefield. He was trying to think of a plan that would help with the situation when he noticed something. The monsters were hugging the borders of the Voyager's aura, as if they wanted to get closer but they couldn't bring themselves to.

  "Voyager!" Dan shouted as he finally had an idea, "Shrink your aura, as much as you can!"

  Again, the Voyager took a bit to listen to him, but he soon noticed the aura shrinking down, and with it, the stingrays getting closer and closer.

  "Keith, tell Sam to hold on," Dan instructed Keith, "Tell him that a chance is coming, let him move his Swarmers to the stingray on port."

  Not waiting for a reply from her, he watched as the protective aura shrank further and further, finally, it reached the 60-meter mark.

  "Voyager, catch the one at the starboard," he told his Bonded Ship who must have understood what he was aiming for, "I will take the one at port."

  He then turned to his first officer as he said,

  "Keith, in 30 seconds, tell Sam to have his Swarmers come at the stingray on port from its left, pushing it towards us."

  "Understood!" she replied.

  Counting the time on the big watch on the bridge, Dan waited for the moment he had called for to come.

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  "NOW!" he shouted as he controlled the dark oppressive aura towards the stingray on port.

  At the same time, he saw it flinch towards them as if spooked by something on its left, trying to avoid it. It all happened in a split second, the oppressive aura latched onto the stingray as if it were a starving wolf finding a defenceless prey.

  The aura stuck to the monster; Dan had feared that the stingray would get out of his grasp fast, after all the aura under his control wasn't tangible like the aura appendages controlled by the Voyager. He needn't worry though, as the aura turned bloodthirsty, the familiar pressure and fight for control he felt from it the first time against those undead reared its head.

  Dan tried to see how the Voyager was doing, just to notice that she had deployed 6 of her tentacles for wrestling the stingray on her side. Something else caught his attention though, it was how 3 of those tentacles were an otherworldly black, an abyssal darkness that seemed to be the result of true void and emptiness. Those 3 tentacles were full of mouths that seemed, no matter how impossible it was, to lead to an even darker darkness.

  Even through the connection between them, Dan felt how hard the Voyager was fighting with those 3 tentacles to get them under control as they twisted around the stingray, biting and tearing into it. Weirdly enough, those mouths' bites left no physical damage, but Dan could still feel something passing through the tentacles and back into the Voyager.

  The stingray on his side wasn't doing much better either, other than the dark aura under his control sucking it dry and the Swarmers eating it alive, Dan noticed that at some point in time, an unknown group of people had appeared on the deck next to Old Raily.

  That group of people had on army getup and gear and were shooting at the monster with their weapons. He even watched in shock and bewilderment as an RPG missile flew through the air and hit the monster on its side in a big explosion.

  A closer look at the group of people showed them to be a wavering like mirages and some of them were already disappearing, but looking at the damage they had put the stingray through, Dan thought that they did more than enough.

  The stingrays were twisting and turning as they tried to get off their grips, but they had no hope of achieving that. Dan even noted how the Voyager used her metallic aura appendages to start cutting the tails of the stingray she caught as it was trying to shoot more of those spikes. Fortunately for him, he didn't need to do any of that, the Swarmers and RPG had destroyed those quickly.

  Soon, both the stingrays stopped moving and Dan found himself relaxing.

  "They are dead!" Keith's voice sounded through the speaker, and Dan found himself relaxing, they did it!

  Dan cut the feed from the auras, focusing on his own senses as he looked at the people on the bridge jumping and hugging. He smiled as he couldn't help but be pulled into the festival feeling.

  Suddenly, he felt something though, through their connection, the Voyager was still tense and angry, something was wrong.

  "Big girl, are you alright?" he asked.

  Dan knew that part of the problem had to do with the dark oppressive aura, it affected her, especially when using it for her Aura Appendages. She was easier to agitate and easier to turn angry.

  The Voyager calmed down a bit at Dan's question, he could feel her relax somehow but it still wasn't enough, she wasn't back to normal. Dan's heart skipped a beat as he realised that the aura wasn't the only thing to blame for that, she was still in full alert, something out there was still putting her on edge.

  "What is it, big girl? What's off?" he asked, hoping that he was just being paranoid.

  Feeling the sight in front of him disappear as the Voyager showed him the feed from one of the stern's cameras, Dan realised how fucked they truly were.

  Further behind them, so far that it was beyond the range of Keith's 4 nautical miles sense, he could see at least 40 or 50 of the giant stingrays they had just been fighting moving around. They weren't heading towards them exactly, but they were circling the whole of Sticky Reefs and it wouldn't take them long before heading towards their direction.

  Suddenly, Dan froze as he sensed something through the connection between him and the Voyager. Most of the anger she had been feeling at that point disappeared, leaving behind only one emotion, it was fear.

  "Cap-Captain," Keith suddenly called him, a horror to her voice.

  "Yes, I know," he said weakly, "There are more of them out there."

  "No, it's not that," Keith said, her voice even shakier.

  Only then did Dan notice that the bridge was silent, no trace of the previous celebration could be found.

  "The-the Sticky Reefs, the whole area," Keith finally managed to say, "It's turning red."