Kingdom of the Deep by EJ Altbacker

his body curled. Mari had seen Takiza do something similar when she and the rest of Rogue Shiver fought Goblin and his sharks at the Tuna Run. But this energy was different from Takiza’s. Its deep red shade was the color of blood, and she could feel its malicious power growing as it gained intensity.
    Striiker recognized the threat also. “Bull Shark Rush!” he shouted, and his two hundred mariners streaked at the monster.
    The frilled shark flicked its tail and the ball of wicked energy blazed into the lower part of Riptide’s formation. It seared through the ranks, setting any shark it touched on fire as if a volcano had coated it in lava! The heat caused the very ocean it passed through to boil. This scalding water roared upward through the formation killing every sharkkind it touched. In a moment more than eighty mariners were gone.
    Somehow Striiker managed to avoid being sent to the Sparkle Blue. He shouted, “Re-form! Seahorse Circles Down!”
    â€œSee what fun this is?” yelled the thirty-foot monster. For a moment Mari thought the comment was directed at Striiker and the rest of the Riptide mariners.
    But then she saw Velenka! Mari had been right! The mako
was
involved in the previous, mysterious attack in the homewaters. She hovered by the entrance to the passage leading to the prison, her large eyes even wider than normal. “Hokuu, let’s get out of here!” she yelled.
    Velenka seemed frightened, but Mari’s rage at the mako grew. I knew she was evil, Mari thought. And this Hokuu had to be stopped. But the frilled shark was too far away for her small force of ghostfins to make a rush from where they were.
    Snork was close by and read what was in Mari’s eyes. “We have to do something!” the sawfish whispered. Mari nodded and signed in the secret ghostfin language, twitching her tail and sending orders to move closer without giving themselves away. It would take a minute, though.
    Hokuu released another blast of energy, this one an orange, explosive force that blasted Striiker and the Riptide mariners away, clearing a path from the homewaters. Hokuu cackled. “This is such good exercise!”
    Quickeyes and his drove of mariners zoomed in, hoping to catch Hokuu while he laughed at what he had done to Striiker and the main force.
    It was a false hope.
    Faster than any sea snake, the frilled shark turned and faced Quickeyes and his hundred sharkkind. With a tail flick Hokuu released a blinding bolt of electricity that split into several branches. Each of those sizzling zigzags screamed through the water and hit a shark, the bolts passing through it and then another and another until almost every mariner there was struck. Quickeyes spasmed and slammed his jaws shut, breaking his teeth and drawing his own blood. Other sharks broke their spines. Many had their eyes boil away. It was horrible! The scent of burning sharkkind filled the water and its stench caused Mari to gag.
    Striiker and his fins were still being tossed in the incredibly rough currents that the frilled shark was somehow creating. They couldn’t regroup. Onyx gathered his defensive perimeter force and attacked. Hokuu twisted his body again. Another bright globe of energy gathered to destroy Onyx and the sharks with him.
    She had to do something!
    Mari gave the signal. They still weren’t in a very good position, but the time for hovering unseen was over. “Attack!” she yelled. The ghostfins hurtled from their hiding places and formed a tight wedge. If Hokuu turned, he would only see one shark. But this time Hokuu’s attention
was
on Onyx as he formed his powerful killing energy. Mari, Sledge, and Peen slammed into the frilled shark from behind, Sledge taking a chunk of his slender eel body. Snork swam underneath Hokuu and cut him with his long, serrated bill.
    â€œWHAAAT?” screamed Hokuu. “No one touches me!”
    The glowing energy, not fully ready, zipped