Dan just remained there on the ground, clutching his head. Everything was hurting, his mind felt as if it was going to split and he found himself closing his eyes hard. He knew that things weren't done yet, they still had a lot to deal with, but unfortunately, he could barely even speak at the moment, he just wanted to lie down and weather it.

  While he was still feeling like hell, Dan felt hands holding him by the arm as he was led to one of the chairs on the bridge.

  "Old Raily," Robert's voice sounded from the side. It sounded hollow and messy to his ears. "As soon as you're all in and the tenders are tethered and in their place, update me. Over."

  "Understood. Over." Old Raily answered.

  "Also, you know what you have to do with the guards," Robert added, "Use them to keep everyone in line and make sure that there are no problems. Over."

  Dan didn't focus on what Old Raily said, but he calmed down at knowing that even if he was down due to the pain he was feeling, many people could take his place and lead the Voyager to the best possible outcome.

  "Fleta," Dan heard Robert's voice again, except that he seemed to be using the speakers instead of the walkie-talkie, "You're needed at the bridge, please head there."

  Dan felt relief once he heard his words, he knew from past experiences that Fleta's healing was effective on him when he pushed himself too much controlling the auras, and he would be lying to say that he wasn't looking forward to her arriving fast.

  Not long after that, Fleta reached the bridge and Dan was glad that he had his eyes closed due to the pain, because he knew that she would have a heavy expression as she healed him.

  As she put her hand on his head and he felt that gentle stream of healing power passing through his mind, spreading throughout his body, Dan couldn't help but let out a breath of relief. The pain receded bit by bit till it fell to a manageable amount, it didn't disappear entirely, but he guessed that might have needed him to rest, have a warm meal, and maybe even sleep for a bit.

  "Thanks," he said as he cracked his eyes open, being met by Fleta's cold frown, as expected.

  "You're still not that well," she said, "You need to rest after this."

  Seeing her just shake her head as she let him be after that, Dan smiled wearily as he looked around the bridge, meeting his crew's eyes and seeing the mix of worry and relief after finally seeing him a bit better. He felt warmth filling his heart as he noticed just how concerned they seemed to be.

  "All of us are in," Old Raily's voice sounded through the walkie-talkie, "Arnold and Ricky are with the tenders, they are going to have them be on the Voyager soon, they will contact you then. Over."

  Robert replied to the old veteran before looking at Dan. Dan understood that he was waiting for him to give orders about what to do next. After thinking about it for a bit, Dan gathered his thoughts as he finally said:

  "Head to the eastern cliff wall, we don't have much fuel left, right? Let's have the Voyager consume all the mana crystals left there. After all, we don't know if the Harvesters are going to take all the crystals on the cliff, who knows, the mana crystals might even be the reason why they seem to be hellbent on attacking the island."

  Robert and the others nodded, knowing what to do.

  They did have the stash that they moved to the Voyager the night before -along with the metal ores- but they weren't going to consume those with the huge amount of mana crystals just sitting there for anyone to take.

  Not long after, they got the clear from both Arnold and Ricky, telling them that the tenders were in place and that they were ready to move.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Not wasting any time, Robert called in the bridge as soon as they got the update:

  "Turn us to the eastern cliff wall, no time to waste!"

  Dan had also been talking to Voyager as they waited for the update from the two pilots, and he was happy to know that other than some tiredness from overexerting herself, Voyager was fine. It seemed that he had handled most of the backlash over what had happened, not that he knew what that had been, it seemed that Voyager had burned most of her fuel for an increase in the distance of her protective area. Or maybe.. he raised an eyebrow as an idea came to mind; she hadn't burned her fuel, but the mana she had taken in.

  A question about the amount of fuel they had to Keith told him all he needed to know, the amount of fuel they had left after Voyager's stunt was just a bit less than they had before she took in all that mana, which meant that she had most likely truly burned the mana.

  Watching the Voyager send her Aura Appendages at the boxes on the cliff as if a starving man finally finding something to eat, Dan couldn't help but marvel at the scene in front of him. She was going through the boxes so fast that it wasn't even funny. He had thought that she had been fast the last time, but he just realised how wrong he had been.

  Soon, nothing was left on the cliff but boxes full of dead useless rocks, the result of Voyager sucking the crystals dry of all the mana in them. For some reason, William seemed quite interested in those and even had Dan get him a box to study.

  "What now?" Dan was dragged back from his thoughts as he looked at his side, at the man sitting next to him.

  "What do we do?" Marcus continued asking.

  Dan didn't even need to think much before an answer introduced itself to him. And from the look Marcus gave, the man must have had the same idea as him.

  "We will return to our previous spot and kill as many as we can of them," he said, "We have nothing holding us back anymore, we can just focus on dealing with them and getting more levels."

  Dan wasn't going to miss this chance, and if he was being honest, he found himself holding a grudge against those bugs, he felt that killing more of them might help resolve that. They were nothing but beasts that kept coming at whatever they came across, till there was nothing to attack and everything was dead. He didn't want to think about what would happen if they were to come across some other island like this, or even an innocent ship, dealing as much of a blow to them while they could seemed like the right choice no matter what.

  Dan almost smiled as he felt Voyager too get fired up, as if she was looking forward to dealing with those pesky bugs.

  Marcus then had Robert lead the Voyager to their previous stop as Dan closed his eyes for a quick rest. Even though Fleta had healed him, and he felt even better after the Voyager consumed the mana crystals, he was still tired, especially with what he knew was coming, he needed all the rest he could muster.

  They soon were in their original location, the Harvesters still throwing themselves at the Voyager and trying to retreat as soon as they found themselves inside her protective circle.

  At first, Voyager took control of the hunt, she shrank her aura as much as she could, enough to bring its borders within the range of her Aura Appendages and used those to smack the bugs.

  Dan used around half an hour to rest while the Voyager and some of the guards hunted the water striders before he felt good enough to join in with the fight. They weren't holding all the bugs back, many of them bypassed the Voyager and headed to the island behind them. Dan noticed most of them heading to the caves at the back, returning with mana crystals.

  With the moments of rest the others brought for him, Dan finally took control over the auras as he focused on killing every Harvester that got within their range. He didn't know how long he would be able to hold on, as he could still feel the ache from before pulsing from time to time, but he was going to do all he could and hold on for as long as he could.

  In the end, Dan was able to hold on for a little more than two hours, his mind almost splitting at the end. Honestly, if not for him noticing something off about the hive, he might have forced himself to continue, just asking Fleta to hit him with another round of healing.

  That wasn't entirely due to the hate he felt towards the bugs, it was mainly due to how much he had been advancing. The last time they had fought against the Harvesters they weren't as numerous as they were at the moment, so even after hours, Dan only got one level. This time though, it only took him two hours to get three levels, putting him right at level 19.

  He hadn't gone through them yet though, mainly because of the headache he was suffering from, and how he felt that he wouldn't be able to make the best of choices in that state. And of course, all thoughts about his level-ups were thrown out of the window once he noticed how weird the hive was acting.

  Far away, Dan saw through the cameras how the area around the hive seemed to be boiling, with bubbles rising all around it. Suddenly getting reminded of Sticky Reefs, Dan updated everyone on the bridge on what he had just noticed before deciding on a course of action. He didn't want to risk suffering the rage of an awakening Behemoth.

  "Everyone," He called through the speakers, "Please secure yourselves tight, we will be accelerating soon, and it's going to have quite the kick, be careful."

  After that, he waited for 2 minutes, gave one last warning through the speakers before permitting Voyager to activate Boost, flying through the water at 3 times her regular speed.

  Their journey to the dynasty started again.