The Last Emprex

by EJ Altbacker

Hokuu tail spiked two mariners who came up from the seabed. It was lucky he had been twisting from the previous attack or he wouldn’t have seen them and would have been struck right in his wounded belly. Hokuu moved fifty yards away with a burst of shar-kata. Again, two hammerheads came at him from below as if they had been waiting there!

  These were no ordinary sharks.

  Hokuu gathered what power he had left and fast-swam out of there. He stopped a mile away from the raging battle, checking the seabed first this time, and then looking at his injury. It was deep. But with dark-kata, Hokuu could heal himself good as new and gain the valuable power that he needed for revenge. He would need to steal life force.

  A lot of it.

  With a ripple of his wounded body, he moved himself forward.

  This hurt and Hokuu’s anger grew.

  He would find his life force donors as soon as possible.

  And after that he would see to Grimkahn, Takiza, Gray, and all the others.

  Hokuu would see to them all!

  CHAPTER 13

  THEY WOULDN’T LAST MUCH LONGER, THOUGHT Striiker as he grit his teeth in frustration. His mariners were holding their shape beautifully. There wasn’t a fin out of place. They were tearing through the frilled sharks in their path with a raking Topside Rip attack on the blocky jurassic formation. Even in the midst of the chaotic battle, he was so proud of them. With any luck Grinder’s crew was doing the same amount of damage.

  The problem was that the frilled sharks were too fast.

  While splitting their mega-armada into two separate armadas had caught the jurassics by surprise, the frilled sharks were only confused for a second. After that they launched themselves upward and struck at the underside of Striiker’s mariners.

  Even without Grimkahn in the thick of it, they couldn’t win a snout-to-snout brawl. Striiker allowed himself the barest smile as he remembered Gray streaking past the mosasaur king and giving him the tail slap to end all tail slaps. It didn’t injure Grimkahn, though.

  No, it was better than that. It insulted the king in front of his mariners.

  But Striiker couldn’t think about that now. Dividing their armada had given them thirty seconds of relief with the mosasaurs stuck in the middle of the horde’s own block formation. Now, the beasts were getting into the action both above and below. They emerged through the chaos. One snapped up two entire mariners off to Striiker’s left, near his diamondhead position. The frills were lethal enough but the mosasaurs were too much. Striiker had to get his mariners away from this brawl.

  “Seahorse Circles, down and to the right!” Olph the battle dolph clicked out the command as Striiker prodded his mariners. “Come on, we aren’t here to see the sights! Move it! Move it! Move it!”

  Riptide executed the maneuver flawlessly. Below them, Grinder heard and ordered the mirror image command so their two groups could re-form. Both Riptide and Hammer forces turned sharply, and the sides of their armadas fit together as they smashed into the side of the jurassic force. It was beautiful. Now the mosasaurs were jumbled and out of position at the top and bottom of their block formation. They could only watch as Riptide United tore into the frills in the middle of their formation.

  “Long time no see!” yelled Grinder as they blasted the enemy in front of them. “Thought you were taking a break!”

  In a one-on-one fight, a frilled shark would almost always win against even the largest mariner. But when there were twenty trained sharkkind mauling each frill at once, well, that was a jelly of a different color. Still, they would be eaten if they didn’t withdraw.

  “We gotta go!” Striiker told the hammerhead. “Let’s break!”

  Grinder gave a tail slash, meaning he understood. The hammerhead opened his mouth to give the command when disaster struck in the form of Grimkahn. The mosasaur burst into the battle and snapped his massive jaws onto the hammerhead leader.

  Blood streamed from Grinder’s mouth. He locked eyes with Striiker and gasped, “Don’t give up,” before being swallowed whole.

  “NOOO!” shouted Striiker. He was devastated, but there was no time to grieve.

  The other half of Grimkahn’s force had arrived on the scene.

  If they succeeded in joining the fight, Riptide United would be compacted and eaten alive.

  “Attack!” Grimkahn roared. “Crush them!”

  The other half of the jurassic horde roared straight at their tails.

  There was nothing that Striiker could do to get his mariners away.

  Gray saw that Striiker and Grinder had been preparing to swim away before the rest of the jurassics got into the fight. Grimkahn changed everything by killing Grinder and wading into the center of the melee. In the frenzy the subcommanders couldn’t get Grinder’s mariners ordered. And Grimkahn was big enough to occupy a hundred sharkkind by himself as he ripped and struck with clawed flippers, his huge tail, and crushing jaws. If the other half of the mosasaurs and frilled sharks enveloped their formation, none of the mariners would escape.

  They needed a miracle.

  And they got one.

  “ATTAAACK!” cried Xander as he led the Indi-AuzyAuzy armada of one thousand mariners straight into the jurassics fighting with Striiker. The force with which they plowed into the mosasaurs and frilled sharks moved the horde’s entire block formation a hundred yards to the side.

  Most importantly, Striiker had space to maneuver. “TRIPLE TAIL TURNS UP—AND OVER!” he bellowed.

  It was a risky move, but the Riptide mariners went over the top of the jurassic horde’s block formation before the other part of the horde could smash them to paste. The mosasaurs had switched position from the middle to the top and bottom, then to the middle again. They screeched in dismay as Striiker and his mariners evaded them once more.

  The jurassics and frilled sharks became confused.

  They were taking much heavier losses than they were used to and being attacked by nearly three thousand sharkkind that weren’t swimming away like everyone else. The horde didn’t break but experienced a moment of panicked uncertainty when they fouled each other’s movements. This small hesitation gave Striiker the seconds he needed to get the mariners together and out of there.

  “SWIM ON!” Striiker yelled to Xander.

  The hammerhead gave a fin signal to show he had heard. The Riptide United force—that’s what it was now—streamed past the disorganized half of the jurassic horde they had just fought as the rest of Grimkhan’s monsters got there, but it was too late.

  But Grimkahn had only one thing on his mind—Gray. “You can swim, but you can’t hide!” he yelled, battering his way from the melee and toward Gray. Gray waited and then moved himself with shar-kata as the monster struck. He could have swum away, but the longer he kept the mosasaur king busy, the more time Striiker and the others would have to flee.

  Besides, now was the time to put all his training to use. Perhaps Hokuu had been faking when he attacked the mosasaur king. Gray would find out for sure. He gathered all the energy he could and fired a great bolt of power. It hit near the spot where Hokuu had injured Grimkahn with his tail strike but didn’t do any more damage.

  The mosasaur king wasn’t even slowed. “That tickles!” he said.

  Gray gathered power once more and released it with a whoosh. The bolt was strong—maybe not as powerful as Hokuu or Takiza’s—but it had force.

  And again, it did nothing to stop Grimkahn.

  His heart sank.

  Shar-kata energy didn’t work against Grimkahn!

  In fact, he probably couldn’t hurt any of the mosasaurs using shar-kata.

  This was a disaster. His practice with Takiza meant nothing.

  And worse yet, Gray felt himself weakening from all he had done today. Striiker and the mariners were well on their way now. Gray swam away from his battle using the last of his energy.

 
; Grimkahn yelled after him. “WE’RE COMING FOR YOU, SEAZAREIN! THERE’S NOWHERE TO HIDE!”

  The mosasaur king had his scent and would come for the kill.

  With some difficulty Gray caught up with Striiker and the rest of his friends using nothing but regular power. He tried to call the sparkles but failed and had to do it the old fashioned and very tiring way. By the time he got there, his head was spinning with fatigue. But he had no trouble finding them. Their formation was streaming so much blood that a noseless turtle could have tracked them.

  Once he got there, Gray struggled with the twenty-five tail stroke per minute pace that Striiker had ordered.

  They had to get to Fathomir. It was the only place where they wouldn’t be overwhelmed.

  “Fathomir,” he said. He repeated it with each tail stroke until it sounded like nothing at all. “Fathomir, Fathomir, Fathomir . . . ”

  The rest of his strength drained away.

  Soon the armada was outpacing him.

  “Fathomir, Fathomir, Fathomir . . . ”

  Then everything got dark.

  It seemed early for the sun to set.

  “Fathomir, Fathomir, Fathomir . . . ”

  What time was it? Gray didn’t know.

  “Fathomir, Fathomir, Fathomir . . . ”

  CHAPTER 14

  GRAY CAME TO HIS SENSES AND KNEW HE was moving—but he wasn’t swimming. He looked around and saw he was jammed in with the injured mariners and being pushed. The cold current slapped him across the face and everything came rushing back. The clash between their armada and the jurassic horde, the death, Grimkahn’s invulnerability to shar-kata, the memory of swimming away . . .

  And then Gray had passed out!

  Takiza, behind them and helping a group of injured mariners with his shar-kata power, saw he was awake. “You totally drained yourself. You may have even tapped into your life force again.” The betta shook his head. “Haven’t I told you never to overexert yourself?”

  “No,” Gray said as he freed himself from the bubble Takiza had created, which enclosed the wounded sharks so they could be pushed. Gray ached from the tip of his snout to the end of his tail. “You always tell me I don’t put enough effort into your lessons.”

  “I will allow you the rudeness of disagreeing with me because you did passably well in the fight,” the betta said.

  “Oh, thank Tyro you’re all right!” exclaimed Leilani when she saw Gray next to Takiza. The spinner shark brushed against his flank. “We were so worried.”

  Barkley broke off from swimming with the other ghostfins. “Good to see you up and around,” his dogfish friend said in an easy manner.

  But Barkley also seemed very relieved.

  Just how close was I to swimming the Sparkle Blue? Gray wondered.

  “Hey, Gray!” yelled Striiker from his diamondhead position in the middle of the massive formation, which also included Tydal’s Indi mariners. He gave Gray a quick fins up. “I knew you were only taking a nap! Now get back to work ordering us around!” The great white gave him a toothy grin.

  Gray snorted. It was pretty funny.

  “Where’s Shear?” Gray asked. “Is he—”

  “I’m here,” the tiger finja said. The guardian commander and his finja were in their positions with Shear above his dorsal fin. Gray was really out of it and hadn’t even noticed.

  “You were guarding me while I was being pushed like a lumpfish by Takiza?”

  “Yes,” Shear answered. “For once you didn’t complain. It was bliss.”

  Barkley snorted and then everyone laughed.

  “If you are done amusing yourselves, perhaps you should formulate a plan of action,” Takiza said. Gray noticed that there was a rip in one of his gauzy fins when he shook it back and forth in the annoyed way he often did. “We are being followed.”

  Gray threw off his weariness and the cloudy thinking that came with it. “Please tell me we’re headed toward Fathomir.”

  Striiker joined them. “Sure thing. You kept saying it over and over before you took your nap.” The great white looked deep into Gray’s eyes. “You’re not gonna do that again, right?”

  “I’m all rested, Striiker,” Gray said. “No need to worry.”

  “Please,” the great white snorted, giving him a cracking slap to the belly. “Like I’d worry about you.” But then he became serious. “Everyone else does, though. The mariners mope if you’re not a hundred percent. It’s super annoying.”

  “Shear!” Gray said, poking the tiger in the belly. “How close is Grimkahn? Are they all following?”

  “Yes, he and the entire horde,” Shear answered.

  “What’s our lead time?” Gray asked

  “They would catch us in fifteen minutes if we stop dead in the water.”

  That wasn’t enough time for Gray’s taste. Not at all.

  “I need to get a message to Fathomir,” Gray said. “I’ll be back.”

  “You will not!” Takiza exclaimed. “You must not exhaust yourself again so soon after losing consciousness. You could easily do it again on a shar-kata aided swim and kill yourself by smashing into something.”

  Shear, Barkley, Striiker, and even Leilani all volunteered to go. Shear reminded Gray that he was a prehistore finja with tremendous endurance. Barkley said he could fast-swim with his ghostfins. Leilani wanted to do it because she was a spinner and they were naturally fast. Striiker couldn’t leave the armada but he had a few scouts that were race champions.

  But Gray knew that none of them was the fastest.

  He or Takiza were.

  And he couldn’t do it.

  Gray looked to Takiza and noticed the betta was laboring. When he looked closer he saw that Takiza had more than one tear in his fins. When the betta moved to the side it revealed an ugly wound in his flank.

  “What are you looking at?” Takiza asked crossly. “Now is not the time to stare with loving respect at your master. Actually, in your case, it is never that time.”

  “You’re hurt,” Gray said in wonder. He had seen Takiza do incredibly dangerous things and come away without a scratch. He also remained uninjured when Hokuu—who had trained him—tried to kill him again and again. But now . . . “You’re injured because of me.”

  “Nonsense!” Takiza huffed. “Do not blame yourself. It was not you who attacked me, was it?”

  “No,” Gray said, his eyes welling up. The thought of Takiza hurt made his heart heavy. “But I did hover there like a chowderhead so you had to shove me out of the way.”

  “Stop being ridiculous and deal with the problems we face!” Takiza commanded. “I believe the mariners that can swim faster should increase their pace.”

  Striiker nodded. “That’s a great idea. We won’t be bumping flanks getting into the Fathomir caverns like we would if we got there the same time.” The great white swam off, yelling orders.

  “Takiza,” Gray said. “I need you to go ahead and make sure my mom and all the shiver sharks are inside. I’ll take over here.”

  The betta shook his head. “You are too tired to use shar-kata to push the injured.”

  “And I won’t,” Gray said. “I’ll swim with them. But I’m going to be the last one inside Fathomir. No one gets left behind.”

  After a moment Takiza nodded. “It will do me good to stretch my fins.” And with that the betta disappeared in a stream of bubbles.

  “ALL RIGHT EVERYONE!” Gray said, amplifying his voice. Even using this much energy felt like a weight was being pressed onto his heart. He couldn’t do it for long. “I KNOW YOU’RE HURTING BUT WE HAVE TO GO FASTER! LET’S SWIM!”

  The group sped up. A few of the injured sharkkind began bleeding more. They would have to push through it. Everyone would. Gray let himself fall into a deep concentration. He didn’t want to dwell on how tired he was, or the danger beh
ind them, so he focused on swimming and thinking of a plan to defeat Grimkahn and Hokuu.

  And just where was Hokuu?

  CHAPTER 15

  ONE DAY LATER GRAY WAS SWIMMING mechanically, deep in concentration. The injured sharkkind had rallied so they were still with him. He was weary but could not rest even a moment. If Gray showed weakness, their entire effort would be wasted. He felt one of Shear’s finja swim up and report to the tiger captain as they did from time to time.

  “Seazarein, I would speak with you,” Shear said in a low voice.

  “I hear you,” Gray answered.

  “Half the frills, about five hundred, have separated from the horde and increased their pace. At their present rate they’ll catch us within the hour if we do not speed up.”

  More than two-thirds of their forces had gone ahead to Fathomir but Gray’s insides turned to ice. If the frills caught them, hundreds of sharkkind, including the wounded mariners, would be sent to the Sparkle Blue. But to go faster? Everyone was hurting so much already.

  “Leilani!” Gray shouted.

  “I’m here,” she answered from behind. She had been swimming with him all this time and hadn’t said a word.

  “I need you to go ahead and tell Fathomir we’re trailing frills,” he said. “And make sure Striiker knows the situation before you leave.” She gave him a quick bob of her snout and left. Gray hated when Leilani did that. She was his friend and it was too formal. “Shear, spread the word. Increase our speed to fifty strokes per minute. We have to win this race.”

  “I assume you won’t leave the wounded for any reason.”

  “You assumed right,” Gray answered. “I enter Fathomir last.” The big tiger nodded. Soon Gray heard the change in the dolphins’ pacing clicks. There was a groan from those swimming in the formation.

  Striiker’s voice boomed. “COME ON!” he roared. “YOU’RE NOT ON A LAZY REEF SWIM! MOVE YOUR TAILS!” Soon the mariners were a good quarter mile ahead. Gray didn’t think this was a bad thing but did feel a twinge of regret that Striiker wouldn’t be by his flank if there was a fight.