"Any signs of their flagship yet?" Howl asked after they had followed the weird boats for a while.

  "Nothing, yet," his first mate said, checking his skill

  Howl frowned, he knew that his first mate's detection skill wasn't the best out there, it was what they had though, so they couldn't complain. He had hoped that they would have seen the supposed flagship by now though.

  He was happy when he saw the weird boats go deeper into the ocean and not keep to the shore, as that would give them the chance to take them. But while waiting for their main ship to appear, they saw nothing, it was as if those boats were just heading to the open ocean for no reason, it was so weird.

  The whole situation was weird. He had seen how those boats were up close, the people that came down from them too, they were like nothing he had ever seen. He wouldn't lie, at that point, he felt fear and the idea of going after them never came to his mind, but the coming development changed that. He couldn't believe his eyes as he watched carriage after carriage drop cargo at the docks.

  It was an extremely fat sheep, and it was extremely tempting. He knew that it was a risk, and he hadn't even decided on it for real, but he wasn't going to give up on that possibility without trying his luck; those materials were worth a ton of money. So he gathered those of his crew who were with him in the black market and returned to his flagship.

  He kinda worried about what his sponsor would think of this, but he hoped he would understand, chances like these were rare. His sponsor was the reason why he got invited to that black market at all. He was extremely nervous when he got there and saw that despite how famous, or infamous more likely, he was in the Alliance, he was probably one of the weakest and least influential people in the black market.

  He could expect it somehow, considering who introduced and recommended him to the place. This felt like a place for someone of that standing, he almost felt insignificant amidst the people there. He grimaced as that thought flashed through his mind.

  He thought they would get their answers about whether the boats were an easy or bad target after following them for a while, but that didn't happen. They had been following them for ages without any indication of where they were going or which crew they were part of. It was a headache, Howl didn't want to risk it, he knew that people who could get into the black market weren't simple, he didn't want to awaken the sleeping Swarmers.

  Taking all that into account, they went for the next best thing, gaining slowly on the boats, being just a bit faster than them but not catching up so fast. That would give them the chance to study their choices if things turned south. That had been quite a while before though, and nothing was happening at all.

  "One of them is picking up speed," his first mate suddenly updated after a while of nothing. "It's leaving the other two behind. It's not that much faster though, I doubt we would lose it."

  "Do you think that they noticed us?" he asked with a frown, that shouldn't have been the case, but you never know.

  "Might be." The first mate shrugged and Howl found himself grinding his teeth. "Why though? Are they just abandoning the other boats like that? Or maybe they hope to get the attention of their flagship, warn them about us and have it help?"

  That was what he had guessed to be the case too, but they had no proof.

  "Raise the current speed, and keep an eye on that one," he commanded after thinking about it for a while, "As soon as you notice anything weird on their side, tell me."

  They needed to make their move soon if they were going to make an attack. They couldn't just keep on going like this.

  "The Dark Lady and her accompanying ship," a voice suddenly sounded just as Howl was about to have his crew start preparing for a takeover. "We ask you to turn around and leave, if you continue coming after our vessels, we will take it as a show of hostility and respond accordingly."

  Howl felt the air around him freeze, he didn't know where that voice had come from, it wasn't loud in the sense of someone shouting, but it still felt loud and he swore he even felt his body vibrating lightly from it, it was quite the weird experience.

  "Do you feel them?" he growled at his first mate.

  "I-I don't know where they are," his first mate answered in distress.

  Howl cursed loudly. Not for the first time, he wished he had someone with better detection skills, people with those were rare, and worth their weight in gold, rarely would someone like that turn to piracy. Even if they did, many better crews would open their doors for them, nothing he would give them would compare.

  "How far are those damned weird boats?" He ignored the matter of the weird ship's location as he focused more on the boats. "How long would it take us to get to them?"

  "If we employ all our buffs and everything else," the first mate thought for a few seconds before answering, "We would reach them in less than 10 minutes."

  "And you are sure that those who contacted us aren't anywhere nearby?" he asked again.

  "I'm sure," the first mate replied seriously, "They are at least 5 nautical miles away from us."

  Howl grumbled as he fell into deep thought, he had to study their chances of having a quick hit at the boats. The other party were strong, he did not doubt that, but he was betting on the fact that they wouldn't be able to reach them fast, that they could hit those weird boats, tether them and retreat before the other party made it to them.

  He had trust in his ships, they were made for speed after all, many a time did they ditch pursuit, leaving them in the wind.

  "We move in 20 seconds!" he suddenly shouted as he made up his mind, his words being sent to the captain of his other ship as much as his crew there, "Prepare your skills!"

  A series of cheers and shouts sounded as people began casting their buffs and other skills.

  He himself activated Favourable Winds, having strong winds start pushing the sails of his ship, pushing it to the limits of what it could handle. The sudden change of speed made some of the crew almost lose their footing, but fortunately, nothing came of it.

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  He noticed his first mate next to him look ahead in deep focus and concentration, towards where those weird boats were. He knew which skill he was going to cast, Destination. It was a skill that let him mark a location within a limited area and till they reached it, the ship would move on its own. It was a good skill that allowed the crew to be free to do whatever was needed.

  Howl smiled as he watched his men prepare themselves for a hunt. Some of them were getting their weapons ready, others brought out the hooked chains and sat in position. Those were one of their main tools, as soon as they caught up to their target they would hook them, linking them to their ship.

  The chains were specially made for situations like these, they were linked to the body of the Dark Lady, the chance of those small boats getting free was simply impossible.

  Howl felt his blood pumping, the time leading to confrontations was one of his favourites! The anticipation and the thrill filled him all over as they closed in on their target. The wind pushing them from behind as they closed in on their prey only made it better.

  When they were just 2 to 3 minutes away from their target, Howl, who happened to be looking in his direction, noticed his first mate freezing in his place while he was running around in high spirits just a second ago.

  "We are under attack!" He didn't even have the chance to ask his first mate what was happening when he felt the captain of their second ship contacting him through a skill. "OH GOD! IT'S SWARMERS!"

  Howl thought he had heard wrong, he must have, Swarmers just weren't anywhere near those parts. His heart skipped a beat as he considered how unusual the timing was, they were threatened to turn back, and as soon as they decided to ignore that, one of their ships got attacked.

  He discarded that thought, it was Impossible to tame Swarmers, they were one of the few monsters that even Ocean Dwellers couldn't control, they were literally a force of nature that only tolerated their own kind, everything else was an enemy. There had even been accounts about huge swarms attacking Behemoths, Howl didn't know how accurate those accounts were, but just the fact that someone could hear such a thing and take it as a real possibility made it truly scary.

  "Retreat!" he shouted through his skill. Whatever the real reason for Swarmers attacking the ship, their priority would remain the same. "Do your best to retreat, head to shore!"

  At the same time, he turned to his first mate, trying to get the man to answer him why the fuck he wasn't doing anything, when the man turned to him as he shouted,

  "A huge shape is heading at us at an astonishing speed, it just entered the range of my skill!"

  Howl felt like the world was falling, these events in quick succession were so out of the blue that he thought he might be having a nightmare.

  "Cancel Destination!" he growled at his first mate, "And what do you mean a huge shape? What is it? Speak goddamn it!"

  "Turn us around!" Without even waiting for the man to reply, he shouted at his crewmen to start working on getting them away. He didn't know what they were against, but he wasn't going to stay there and find out.

  At the same time, he willed the direction of Favourable Winds to shift slightly, helping his men with changing the direction of their ship. Having it start turning starboard in a wide arc

  "It's a ship," only then did his first mate start speaking, "I-I think? It's big, really big. But it's under some type of stealth-type ability. At the speed they are going, they won't take long before reaching us."

  Howl cursed as the reality of their situation hit him. He couldn't just sit there and wait for their doom though, they needed to do something!

  "Cannoneers!" he shouted, "Take your positions. Towards port!"

  With the way the ship was turning, it wouldn't take long before their port was facing the coming threat straight away, which would be their chance to give them a volley of cannonballs.

  All the Cannoneers he had were people who had skills that affected their cannons, it was either the strength of their projectiles, the speed of their reloading, the accuracy of their shots or some other thing. They were one of his proudest achievements. Rarely did a crew as small as his have as many as he had of them, only big pirate crews or the navies had them. And at that point, all the Cannoneers of his fleet were split between the two ships he had. The ones on the Dark Lady were more than enough to man all the cannons on the port.

  "How are you doing?" he asked his second captain through his skill. He hoped they were dealing with just one or two Swarmers, which would give them a chance to survive.

  "WE WON'T MAKE IT!" There was a desperation and craziness to the voice that sounded in his mind. "WE ARE ALMOST UNDER!"

  We've lost a ship.

  That sentence flashed through his mind. It hadn't even been 3 to 4 minutes, he couldn't believe that just in that short amount of time, they had lost a ship already.

  "Captain, they are in our sight!" the head of the Cannoneers said.

  Howl looked to his left, where he expected the ship to be, what he saw made his heart turn cold. A huge mass of fog was barely seen under the faint moonlight, heading towards them as if hungry for their souls.

  He didn't know why, but just laying eyes on it made him feel as if he was looking at a Behemoth, even though he never met one, but he guessed that was how he would feel if he had ever did, he couldn't imagine a deeper dread than the one he was feeling at that moment.

  "Fi-Fire at will!" For the first time since this all started, he stuttered.

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  Ten booms sounded out as a huge cloud of white covered their line of sight for a few seconds. It wasn't enough to stop Howl's vision though, he watched the projectiles keenly as they went in a perfect arc towards their target. A twitching smile forced its way on his face as he watched them hit their target.

  -Or should have hit their target. Just as they were about to pass through the thick fog, he saw it stir and roll while a sight that made him question his eyes happened.

  The fog didn't just stir on its own, it felt more like a hand waving through a cloud of smoke, except that the hand in this situation was invisible and there were many more than just one. Worse even, those invisible hands were put in front of the mass of fog.

  Howl watched as the cannonballs hit an invisible wall, some of them changed their directions, some of them paused before falling into the water, while just one or two passed through. Their momentum was depleted though, and they just fell weakly into the water after passing the invisible barrier.

  It was as if an impermeable shield was put between the approaching monstrosity and the cannonballs.

  "RELOAD! GET THOSE CANNONS FIRING!" Howl felt fear, he felt that his life might be coming to an end soon. "AND YOU! TURN US FASTER, GET US OUT OF HERE!"

  "The Swarmers are on us!" one of his men shouted, making Howl's soul threaten to leave his body out of fear.

  He ran to starboard, where the Swarmers were, opened his mouth and released a deep deafening roar. It churned the water, making him feel as if they might have a chance after all. Once the water calmed down a tiny bit more, he noticed that the monstrosities seemed to have had no care for his attack, shining in a deep blood red as they continued attacking his ship.

  As his mind was about to break and he felt that he was looking death in the eyes, he noticed the Swarmers turning around and leaving, he almost cheered when the thought about how weird such a thing was passed through his mind. With a foreboding feeling, he looked once again at the huge mass of fog, just to notice how it was about to reach them.

  He wondered how such a huge thing was moving that fast, and just what the fuck was it? It would only be a few minutes before it reached them with the speed it was going at.

  Just as it was almost on them, Howl noticed the fog stir again, this time they were too close to each other for him not to see clearly. There truly were invisible arms or tentacles inside that fog, they were coming right at them.

  The sound of the Dark Lady's breaking wood was the last thing he heard.