The Last Emprex Read online

  It was the Sparkle Blue.

  He saw the dim shapes of sharkkind swimming between colorful flashes.

  Were some of the sharks calling to him?

  They were!

  Gray wanted to swim over to them, but then . . . he got stronger. The dimness and colorful lights receded. He began to feel refreshed. Gray’s body, his soul, latched onto the power and soaked it in. He realized it could only be coming from one place.

  Or more accurately, one fin.

  Takiza.

  The foolish betta was draining his life force and pouring it into Gray to keep him alive.

  Sure enough he found the betta floating above his snout. “I never said I wouldn’t help. Now, what are you waiting for?”

  Nothing!

  Gray blasted through the final foot of rock, vaporizing it. He shot forward into the open water, breathing deep of the cold current, which tasted so sweet it made him want to laugh and cry all at once. He moved to the side as Striiker and Xander led their mariners through the gap.

  “MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!” shouted the great white.

  Gray turned to speak to Takiza, but the betta was gone in the mad rush of nineteen battle fins of mariners pouring from the Fathomir mountainside.

  Jaunt couldn’t believe it when the mountainside disappeared in a flash of brightness and Gray swam out.

  He was literally shining with power!

  Jaunt had hidden her battle fins in the golden greenie field on one side of Fathomir. After they returned from Trank’s and saw with their own eyes how Gray and his forces were trapped, their hopes had dimmed. How could they possibly get them out? She, Barkley, Salamanca, and Aleeyoot were in the middle of a heated argument when Gray had made his own way.

  She rushed up and nudged him on the flank. She had to dodge because, thinking he was being attacked, Gray almost tail slapped her into the next week. But he regained his senses quickly and was getting stronger every minute.

  “Glad to see you, ya big beauty!” she told him.

  “Me too, Jaunt,” Gray replied. “But let’s save the group rubs until later.”

  Jaunt gave Gray a fin flick. “What do you need me to do?”

  “Join your mariners to our formation,” Gray said.

  “We can’t sort everyone in time! We’ll do more harm than good.”

  Gray shook his head and pointed at Striiker, busily giving orders. “No sorting. We’re using each armada like a battle fin, so really you’ll be a separate unit. You can break off before first contact with you leading your group.”

  Jaunt nodded. “That’s different, all right. On my way!” She yelled to her subcommanders, “Shake those tails, Golden Rush! We got us a scrumble to win!”

  There was a cheer from her mariners. They were itching for the chance to fight Grimkahn on more even terms. Striiker put her mariners on top of the formation. Jaunt was getting everything ready as best she could when she caught sight of the jurassic horde.

  It was all of them, and they blackened the waters as they came around the mountainside.

  Hokuu watched the scene unfold before his eyes. He had felt the shar-kata being used and moved to get a better view when the breach in the mountainside appeared. The amount of energy necessary to do this was immense. Gray would be drained.

  Now was the time to strike!

  But Hokuu didn’t see Takiza, and his old Nulo had to be somewhere close.

  No, Hokuu wouldn’t rush in.

  And he didn’t have to.

  The mountain had rumbled as Gray burned his way through it. Frilled shark scouts were alerted and reported to Grimkahn. The mosasaur king and his mighty horde weren’t caught completely by surprise. Even now they were swimming at the Riptide mariners who still needed time to get into formation.

  The battle waters would run red with blood!

  Hokuu would let Grimkahn and Gray fight it out.

  That way there would be only one enemy left.

  One weakened enemy that would be ripe for the taking.

  All he had to do was wait.

  And I’ll get to watch one heck of a fight, he thought.

  What could be better? Hokuu settled in to enjoy the carnage.

  CHAPTER 24

  GRAY TOOK A POSITION UNDERNEATH Striiker. It would be foolish to lead the attack himself. He wasn’t in this for personal glory. He wanted to win. And their best chance was with Striiker directing the battle from the diamondhead. But that didn’t mean he would let the great white and the other mariners fight without him.

  Grimkahn’s roar tore through the water with an almost physical force. The jurassic horde lumbered forward, set in their massive block formation.

  It was a fearsome sight.

  “Steady on in the ranks!” Striiker shouted. “Increase speed to twenty-five!”

  Olph the battle dolph clicked out the order. Jaunt’s AuzyAuzy mariners were massed on top of their force’s rectangle shape. Riptide United occupied the center and Xander commanded the bottom AuzyAuzy and Indi Shiver sharkkind.

  Gray was missing the adrenaline surge that coursed through him before a battle. It must have been due to all the energy he expended freeing them from Fathomir.

  Thankfully he felt fine otherwise.

  Good thing I’m still pretty big, he thought.

  “KILL THEM ALL!” shouted Grimkahn. “NO MERCY!”

  “RAMMING SPEED!” answered Striiker.

  The two gigantic formations sped toward each other.

  Less than twenty tail strokes away, Striiker cried, “Split!”

  Instantly, the three armadas followed the individual instructions of Jaunt, Striiker, and Xander. The battle dolphins above each commander used a burst of click-razz at the sharkkind in those armadas.

  Jaunt took her mariners, swung to the side, and dove downward.

  Striiker led Gray and Riptide to the right.

  And Xander’s forces shot straight up and out of the immediate fight.

  But Grimkahn was also prepared.

  His own horde split into two halves. One went snout-to-snout with Jaunt’s forces and the other went after Riptide. In less than a second Gray found himself in the fight of his life. He couldn’t see anything as red, red blood clouded the water. Their force had planned to only strike glancing blows against the horde after splitting their mega-armada but Grimkahn’s maneuver had complicated that.

  And they were taking so many casualties!

  But while Grimkahn had done some training, the horde wasn’t nearly as good at formation fighting as they were.

  And we have three armadas, Gray thought.

  A moment later Xander’s force blasted into Grimkahn’s monsters from above, executing a Reverse Spinner Strikes. Xander had brilliantly split his own armada into two halves to hit each section of the divided jurassic horde from the top. The mariners were told they would not be able to take out the mosasaurs while the frills protected them, so every sharkkind went after the frilled shark in its path.

  The fighting was chaos and fury with sharkkind, frills, and giant mosasaurs striking every which way in close combat. So many mariners spiraled from the battle on their way to the Sparkle Blue it felt like Gray was breathing blood instead of water.

  If it weren’t for Xander’s attack from above, they would have lost in the first minute. But still, Riptide and Jaunt’s forces were stuck fast in close combat and couldn’t free themselves even with Xander’s disruptive attack.

  They were being eaten alive and couldn’t break away!

  Inside Fathomir’s back cavern Tydal rammed a frilled shark in the gills. This didn’t slow it much, but the blow did create a distraction so that one of the less wounded mariners could bite it in the gills. There were at least ten of the horrors in the cavern. Tydal had hoped—foolishly—that Grimkahn’s forces wouldn’t come after the young, o
ld, and wounded after Gray left with the armada.

  But, no. It seemed he wanted to feast on everyone.

  Sandy and Onyx had been able to evacuate half of the shiver sharks before the attackers struck. An entire group of fifty shiver sharkkind was sent to the Sparkle Blue when frills descended on them. Whole families were mauled, young and old.

  Tydal had created a small unit of the least wounded mariners before their fighting sharks had left for the main battle. But all had injuries severe enough to keep them from fighting with the armada. Gray couldn’t spare a single healthy shark to remain inside Fathomir.

  “Fight!” he yelled to the mariners at his flanks. “Fight for your lives!”

  The frilled sharks whipsawed through the water like greenie in a rough current. Their attacks were deadly, especially their barbed tails, which struck home time and time again.

  Tydal tried to bite one the beasts in the flank and was tail slapped so hard he was thrown out of the battle. He was an epaulette shark and not very fierce, but everyone was needed. The only reason they weren’t dead already was because the hole Gray created was plugged by mariners who knew how to stay in formation and fight.

  But those weakened and wounded sharks were being sent to the Sparkle Blue at a terrifying rate. The enemy moved forward, biting and slashing their way through the Fathomir defenders. The attackers were picking up speed and pushing everyone backward. If the frills got out of the tunnel and into the larger cavern where they could use their agility to its fullest, Tydal and everyone else were finished.

  “Stop them!” shouted Tydal. “Don’t let them inside!”

  Then in one disastrous swoop ten of their wounded mariners got sent to the Sparkle Blue.

  The defensive line crumbled.

  The monsters were going to get inside and kill everyone.

  Suddenly someone shouted “Chaaarge!” and there was the sound of a hundred fins racing madly above Tydal.

  He turned as Gray’s little brother and sister—Riprap and Ebbie were their names, he remembered—streaked over his head leading a mass of pups straight at the frills.

  “No!” Tydal cried, but it was too late.

  The young sharks drove into the thick of the battle. It surprised the frilled sharks long enough that the wounded mariners were able to score many mortal hits.

  The tide had turned!

  With one last rush the pups and mariners drove the frills from the cavern.

  “I told you we could do it!” cried Riprap.

  “No!” countered Ebbie. “I told you!”

  The older mariners reorganized and put themselves in a strong defensive line.

  They were safe for now.

  But what of the battle outside?

  “We are out of time!” shouted Salamanca. “They are dying out there!” The big marlin pointed with his bill at the seething melee. Snork watched the battle waters with horror. Until this point Aleeyoot had wanted them to wait. But time was running out for his friends and everyone else.

  “I guess we have no choice,” said the narwhal. “I was hoping for a distraction so we could single out the mosasaurs without having to fight our way through the frilled sharks.”

  “No matter! All these monsters need killing!” said Salamanca.

  Aleeyoot nodded his long and straight tusk. “You’re right.”

  The narwhal turned to give the order but Snork saw something in the distance. “Wait! Over there!” Unseen by those in the fight, a triangular mass swam toward the battle. “Sharkkind!” he said.

  But then Snork noticed that some of them were too big to be sharks.

  “Monsters are swimming with them!” said Salamanca as he and Aleeyoot peered into the distance.

  Snork froze. If it was more frilled sharks, they would lose for sure.

  But they weren’t allies of Grimkahn and the jurassics. They were orcas!

  “That’s Tik-Tun and the orcas of Icingholme Shiver,” Snork said, excited. “They’ve come to help!”

  Aleeyoot tapped Salamanca. “Perfect. They’ll strike from behind and create that distraction.”

  Salamanca poked Aleeyoot in a friendly way and grinned. “And we come from below, no? Slaying the mosasaurs as you proposed, my most excellent narwhal friend.”

  “I’m the only narwhal you know, Salamanca.”

  “It still counts,” the marlin answered. “We go!”

  A shouted order later and Snork was streaming with the other bladefish into the battle waters. They stayed low in the tall greenie, keeping hidden as long as they could. Through the waving golden kelp, Snork saw the sharkkind and orcas rip into the jurassic formation. This added at least another thousand sharks and two hundred orcas to the raging battle. The fighting was so frenzied Snork didn’t see how any of them would live through it.

  The mosasaurs were too big to be taken down by mariner bite. A shark’s jaws just weren’t large enough to do mortal damage. But bladefish had pointy weapons that could reach something vital if they were clever.

  And Snork was proud that every bladefish he had met was very clever.

  “Stay close, oh mighty Snork!” said Salamanca. “Today you become a legend!” The giant marlin wasn’t afraid at all. He was eager.

  Snork wished he was half as brave, because he was scared out of his mind.

  “Keep low!” shouted Aleeyoot. “Wait until we’re right under them!” Though shouting wasn’t a smart thing to do if you wanted to remain hidden, the sounds of the battle above were deafening and masked the noise they made.

  Snork did his best to keep up but it seemed that everyone was faster. By far, most of the bladefish were marlins, spearfish, sailfish, and swordfish—all known for their speed. The halfbeaks and needlefish were smaller but also whipped through the water with ease. Even Aleeyoot managed to be at the front of the pack and he was a narwhal. Snork was the only sawfish. He kept his eyes straight ahead and swam with all his might.

  Then the order came. “Now!” said Aleeyoot, and their entire group ripped a turn straight up that caused the fish Snork had eaten a day ago to slap from one side to the other inside his belly.

  After four tail strokes, Snork entered the battle.

  It was horrible.

  Blood was everywhere and caused him to gag.

  Sharks were torn apart, some even swallowed whole by the mosasaurs.

  Salamanca weaved through them like a madfin, shouting things like, “Have at you, monster! Today is your last!” and “You are as ugly as you are unskilled!”

  The big blue marlin didn’t slow as he chopped his way through three frilled sharks and found a mosasaur flipper. He sliced it clean off. Then he did a fancy pirouette and chopped another one, sending the prehistore monster careening away in agony. Snork was caught underneath the mosasaur’s bulk for a moment. He managed to swim free before it crashed into the seabed, crushing an unlucky frill underneath it.

  Another frilled shark reared in front of Snork. He blocked a tail strike and then slashed at its neck. It wasn’t a good cut, but blood spurted everywhere and Snork moved past as the creature thrashed in its death agony.

  With his long tusk, Aleeyoot was as deadly as Salamanca. He didn’t yell like the blue marlin, but the frilled sharks must have sensed he was dangerous and tried to avoid him. Any of them in range of his nine-foot horn was sent to the Sparkle Blue. He then evaded the snap of a mosasaur before diving underneath the giant. When the mosasaur opened its crocodile mouth to try again, Aleeyoot cut its lower jaw off.

  Two frills attacked Aleeyoot from behind, and Salamanca—lightning fast—cut them both in half. “That makes four times Salamanca has saved your life!” he said, waggling his bill triumphantly.

  “It was one attack!” disagreed Aleeyoot as he skewered another frill with his tusk.

  “There were two enemies to be slain!”

 
Aleeyoot sent another frilled shark to the Sparkle Blue. “No way!”

  “Let us agree to disagree!” shouted Salamanca. “But I am right! Four!”

  Snork fought another frilled shark, this one coming forward with a series of tail attacks. Though the noise of battle all around him was riotous, he heard the high-pitched whine of the spike passing by his ear as if it were the only sound in the ocean. If he survived this battle, he doubted he would ever forget it. Three more times the frilled shark shot his tail at him and three times Snork blocked until he landed a counter, sending the frill sinking to the seabed.

  “GIVE THEM NOTHING!” he heard Striiker yell in his booming voice from twenty feet away.

  Striiker was there! His friend was alive!

  But a mosasaur had gotten above him and the great white didn’t see the danger. Even the dolphin that usually protected Striiker’s dorsal was occupied, ramming another frill that Striiker was fighting with his blunt snout.

  Snork accelerated as fast as he could.

  It came down to a matter of an inch.

  Striiker would have been bitten in half, but Snork pierced the huge mosasaur’s eye with his blade as he reared back to bite. With a twist Snork pulled his blade free and the monster sank without a sound. The great white stared in shock as the mosasaur slipped from view. “Glad you could join the party, pal!” he told Snork.

  He and Striiker fought, flank to flank.

  Snork still didn’t see how any of them would survive the day.

  CHAPTER 25

  BARKLEY HAD HOPED TO JOIN JAUNT’S AUZYAUZY mariners for the battle but was turned away because Velenka was with him. AuzyAuzy didn’t like the mako since she had swum with Finnivus when his armada destroyed their homewaters. Salamanca and Aleeyoot hadn’t let Barkley set out with the bladefins because they thought it was suicide for him. Barkley had to admit that to thrust himself in the middle of a melee without a sharp snout as a close-quarter weapon probably wasn’t his best idea ever. So he and Velenka were lurking on the edges of the battle waters deep in the greenie looking for Hokuu.