"How are we doing?" Dan asked Keith, he swallowed hard before continuing, "And how fast do you think we are going?"

  It was the second part he was most worried about really, he wasn't sure how fast they were going, but one thing he knew for sure, a cruise ship should never be able to reach that speed, or hold it.

  "I think we are doing good, and we should be going around 100 to 105 knots, at least," Keith answered after discussing with Freddie for a while, "How is the Voyager doing, though? She should know her body best."

  "Having the time of her life." Dan laughed as he shook his head. "I'm sure she would be going Wheee if she could."

  It was hard for Dan to keep the seriousness of the situation in mind with the amount of happiness and excitement the Voyager was sending his way. Even the huge stingrays catching up to them from time to time weren't able to get her to take the situation seriously, she just watched them cutting through the water at that breakneck speed with interest and excitement.

  Not that her outlook on the matter was shared by everyone, especially their escorts. Dan slipped into control over the Voyager's auras, watching as the ship to their Port had just been caught up to by one of those huge stingrays, they were the only ones able to catch up to them after all. Dan was intentionally not thinking about the huge patch of red closing the distance between them.

  The stingray tried the trick it used on them, using its spikes on the ship, but as those spikes flew through the air at it, they were thrown aside by a strong wind that came out of nowhere. Dan didn't think that the wind was their only way to deal with those, he saw some of the spikes passing through it before and there seemed to be a barrier of some kind on the ship, stopping the spikes in mid-air.

  Then came the retaliation, the first that hit, as always, was a few bolts of lightning from the perfect blue sky. That was usually enough to drop those monsters, a few hits from the lightning and they would stop their chase, just start twitching as they fell back. In the rare occasions when another attack was needed, like when there were way more monsters than just one or two, some of the sailors would start throwing heavy-looking harpoons from the deck, those harpoons didn't have anything attached to them, but they still returned to their owners after each throw. Even with all his buffs, Dan wasn't able to follow their trajectories, he was sure that they weren't that far from the speed of a bullet.

  Dan hadn't seen the Navy's ships use their cannons at all, and they were there, their gleaming surfaces shining on both sides of each ship. The lead ship even had a huge cannon on what seemed to be a rotating platform at its bow. Dan didn't like to think about the Voyager's chances with that one. He also wasn't stupid enough to believe that what they were seeing was all they had, they most likely were keeping their cards hidden in case their cooperation went south.

  Due to the breathtaking speed they were moving at, Dan knew that they weren't going to take long before starting to see their target, the Kraken. He didn't want to think of whether their plan was going to work or not, because he felt that that would put him in quite the frame of mind, but he had to consider what to do when they succeeded, what comes after that?

  There were two possibilities he saw presented to them due to their location, the first was to continue south after pulling their escape plan. After moving south for a while they would then make their way to the Eastern Ocean, the one brought up by Freddie before, the place where no strong winds existed to push vessels.

  Their second option was to head deeper into the Imperial Ocean, making their way to the Western continent and into the Dynasty, or at least, just move further in the ocean to give that impression before turning around. Again, that trip was another that would lead through an unknown ocean towards another of the world's superpowers.

  Both options had their disadvantages and advantages and Dan didn't know which to take, especially with the fuel still a huge problem that needed dealing with.

  Dan knew that there was a third option, which was remaining with the Empire's Navy ships, but it wasn't worth considering, they weren't strong enough to protect themselves. He felt that if it came to that, they would be forced to disembark and who knows what their fate was going to be from that point onwards, he didn't want to risk it yet.

  Dan sighed as he decided to act depending on how the situation at hand would be then.

  20 or so minutes after that, the Voyager sent Dan footage from one of the long-range cameras on the bow. Even through it, he only saw a small dot in the distance. With an instinctive feeling that it was their target, Dan told everyone on the bridge what he had seen.

  "INCOMING!" Or he tried, before a shout came from one of the Navy's ships.

  Dan didn't even have to do anything, he felt himself tilting to the side that he almost fell as the Voyager turned to port at the same speed she had been going at. Usually, such a change of course would need time and distance to show effect, but with the Voyager skipping at more than 100 knots over the water, such a course change, no matter how small, will show a fast and obvious change in direction.

  Before Dan could even link with the auras to see what had come at them, the sound of water exploding came from their starboard.

  "Sticky Reefs is awakening even further," Quinn's voice sounded again, "That was it just now, it released one of its spikes at us. It's still not fully operational, we shouldn't expect many of those."

  Dan remembered the thousands of tails he saw at the distance before and he hurriedly stopped himself from going any further into that. The idea of all those tails shooting at them at the same time, their spikes covering the sky and hiding the sun, wasn't something he wanted to experience.

  "Keep an eye on them," he said, "We will try to avoid them as they come, but keep us updated."

  "We will do," Quinn said, then continued with a hint of hesitation to his voice, "Is your ship okay? Can you do other manoeuvres like the one just now?"

  Dan focused on the connection between him and the Voyager, wanting to ask her if she was alright, if the sudden turn was stressing her propellers and rudder. The excitement he was met with gave him the answer to his question, she almost felt like an adrenaline junkie getting a taste of a new addictive activity for the first time.

  "She's alright," Dan forced himself to say without anything showing in his voice, "She can take it easily."

  "....Okay." Quinn took a while to answer.

  They moved like that for 20 or 30 minutes, every couple of minutes or so one of those huge spikes would come flying, Dan managed to catch a glimpse of one of them and saw that it was at least 30 meters long. Quinn had his people keep an eye on the sky though, so whenever one of those was released, they would know and would have enough time to avoid them.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  It was still close, with some of them coming a bit too close for comfort. Dan had his suspicions that the Voyager was doing it on purpose and talked to her about it after Quinn asked if they could maybe avoid them earlier. She, of course, sent that she was doing her best, Dan intentionally ignored the huge sense of guilt she was feeling as she sent that. After that, no other spike came that close ever again.

  Finally, the Kraken was close enough for them to see it clearly, and for it to notice them. It started waving its arms around angrily and screeching. Dan would have wondered how it was making that sound if he didn't have much more important things to care about. The most important part of their plan was about to start, they were about to play the Navy ships.

  Dan wasn't an idiot, he knew that even if they were to survive Sticky Reefs and their plan with the Kraken worked, they would still find themselves under the control of the Navy who were still escorting them, they needed a way to deal with that first.

  "Okay, we are within reach of it," Quinn suddenly sounded after they were less than 5 minutes away from the monster, "Try to change your course while still keeping Sticky Reefs's path pointing to the Kraken."

  "Unfortunately," Dan calmed his heart as he said what he had rehearsed, "We can't do that. There's still a chance that Sticky Reefs would ignore the Kraken and keep coming after us, so we will continue as is."

  "What do you mean, continue as is?" Quinn asked after a second.

  "We will head straight to the Kraken," Dan answered without any hesitation.

  "That's madness," Quinn said, his voice now severe, "You will destroy us."

  "We will survive," Dan corrected, making sure to stress the we in his sentence.

  "You've aimed for this since the beginning didn't you?" Quinn finally asked. At that point, they were less than 2 minutes away from the Kraken.

  "Just taking care of our own." Dan shrugged even though the other party wouldn't see it. "What's your choice then? Do you take your chances with us, gambling your crew's lives, or are you making the obvious rational choice?"

  "Good luck out there, the Voyager from Earth," Quinn finally said, "Hope we meet under better circumstances next time."

  "Same to you," Dan said, sighing in relief as he cut the connection.

  With that, he could feel the skill that had been enveloping the Voyager burst like a bubble. It didn't disappear entirely though, he could feel it seep into the Voyager, helping keep her stabilised till she slowed down, he was happy to see that the Swarmers were still under its effect too.

  "Okay, guys!" he started, "You know what to do, we have 10 minutes at most with our current speed, make sure to make the best of it."

  They had already done the math, at their current speed, even without their own propellers doing anything, their momentum would push them along for around half an hour and for 30 to 40 km. They hoped that with their propellers helping, they would be able to keep their speed if even for a little more.

  "Voyager," he contacted his Bonded Ship, "Call upon those dark tentacles, I will try to activate as much of that dark aura as possible too, let's make ourselves appear as a bad target. Also, start changing course, avoid the Kraken by a bit and continue moving further behind it."

  Okay! she answered, sending with it determination and resolve.

  "Good girl," he said as he patted the wall.

  Dan connected to the auras all around as he tried his best to bring as much of the dark oppressive aura under his control and diffuse it all over the Voyager, trying to make themselves as threatening as possible.

  Dan wasn't an idiot, he knew that the dark oppressive aura was most likely why most creatures feared the Voyager and didn't try getting close to her, he hoped that by making themselves so big and threatening while acting to avoid the Kraken, it wouldn't choose to go after them, especially with the obviously huge threat right behind.

  Feeling the Voyager change courses again, Dan controlled himself to remain standing straight as he focused on his part of the plan, while at the same time, he looked on at what was happening on the outside. The first sight he was met with was the Voyager's dark foreboding maw-filled tentacles waving threateningly in the air. The sight was extremely scary, and looking at the huge Kraken ahead of them, it seemed to share the same thought.

  The monster was screeching and waving its tentacles at them too, but it wasn't moving to attack, just trying to cover something behind its body.

  Seeing that part of their plan succeeding, Dan would have cheered if not controlling that much of the aura was pushing him to his limit.

  "EVADE! INCOMING!" a familiar voice was suddenly heard.

  Again, Dan went through the now familiar feeling for the Voyager avoiding the spikes falling from the sky. Looking to where they had been just a few seconds ago, he saw 5 to 6 of those huge spikes hit that location. That had been the most they got at any time.

  With a possibility flashing through his mind, Dan hurriedly shouted to the Voyager as he let go of his control over the dark aura,

  "Voyager, dismiss Aura Appendages, stop using the dark aura, hide it!"

  Due to her being under the effect of the aura, the Voyager took a while to do what he had just told her, but she eventually did to Dan's relief.

  "Try to mask it as best as you can," he continued, "Don't let even a bit of it leave you."

  Dan had just thought of a possibility, what if the Sticky Reefs was after the dark aura? It shooting the biggest volley of spikes after the Voyager started broadcasting that aura to anyone who could feel it was too much of a coincidence after all.

  "Head deeper to the Ocean, get us as far as possible from here," he said.

  They weren't attacked again after that, no spikes were thrown at them and neither were those huge stingrays chasing in their wake. From what Dan could see, they were instead focusing on the Kraken, who was putting up quite the fight, taking many of them down, but after Sticky Reefs arrived it knew its end was near. Dan saw the Kraken's tentacles start waving in the air, throwing small, from his point of view, round things as far as it could.

  One of them fell not that far away and Dan had Sam use his Swarmers to bring it. Not that they had time to see what it was, they weren't stopping for something like that, Sam just had a Swarmer drag the thing with it as they moved.

  Their speed started falling lower and lower, finally, it dropped to their maximum normal speed, around 40 knots and they continued with that, going deeper into the ocean.

  Only after moving like that for another hour without noticing anything behind them, not Sticky Reefs nor any of its stingrays, did Dan allow himself to relax. They did it, they survived.

  "Everyone," he spoke into the speaker, "I'm happy to say that we are safe from danger, we did it!"

  Looking at the cheers and celebrations all around on the bridge, Dan joined on with them. The last few hours had easily been the worst situation they had found themselves in so far.

  After the bridge calmed down a bit, Dan watched in curiosity as Keith came to him, a weird confused expression on her face.

  "What is it, Keith?" he asked.

  "I just noticed something in our readers," she said slowly, "Our fuel..."

  "What is it?" Dan asked worriedly. He wondered if they had used too much of it during their escape, and they were left at critical levels.

  "It's more than it was before," Keith finally said, her confusion even stronger.

  "What?" Dan thought he heard her wrong.