Read Online The Battle of Riptide by EJ Altbacker - Free Book Online Page B

patrol didn’t even pursue after absolutely mauling Goblin’s forces. The tattooed mariners hadn’t been surprised for more than an instant. Their defensive formations and lightning-quick counterattacks easily won the battle. Ten Goblin Shiver sharkkind had been killed, with just six getting back to safety.
    If only Goblin hadn’t made it back, Velenka thought. But he had and insisted on getting ready for the
father of all battles
, as he called it. The situation was hopeless.
    â€œWhere are we going?” Goblin asked.
    â€œHydenseek,” she answered. Hydenseek was an area inside Goblin Shiver territory just off their homewaters where big fish hunted the small fish that gathered in and around a thick field of blue and green-greenie.
    â€œPfaf!” he snorted. “If I wanted seaweed, I’d order it at Slaggernacks. Let’s hunt the open waters.”
    â€œYou go if you want.” Velenka gave him a smile and a friendly swish of her tail. Encouraging him to go was taking a gamble, but she didn’t want to reveal that she had an agenda, so she acted nonchalant. If Goblin left right now, Velenka would have to come up with a different plan. As it was, she’d waited two nerve-jangling days for everything to click into place. Indi might come for them tomorrow, so she had to act today!
    Thankfully, the great white flicked his crescent tail in annoyance but followed. Velenka led him into Hydenseek where the greenie grew denser and denser.
    â€œSo, you might as well start,” Goblin said.
    â€œStart what?” Velenka asked.
    â€œTalking me out of what I’m planning,” Goblin grumbled.
    The last time she’d tried to do that, Velenka thought the angry great white would send her to the Sparkle Blue. “I’m done with that,” she said. “Swim your current. I know I won’t change your mind.”
    â€œFinally!” He laughed. “I’ve worn you down.” He snapped up a fat mackerel that was too slow in recognizing the danger Goblin represented.
    Velenka wasn’t going to end up like that mackerel. “Something like that,” she told him as she angled in a slightly different direction.
    â€œWhere are you going?” he asked. “The greenie’s too thick there.”
    â€œI think this way is going to be lucky for me,” she replied. “But if you’re scared, I’ll meet you later.”
    The great white followed, of course. He was so predictable.
    It was only a few tail strokes later that she heard Goblin grunt in pain. Velenka turned and saw he didn’t realize what was happening. Finally, the great white recognized the blue-ringed octo hanging on to his tail, bending it back onto itself.
    â€œCan you believe this?” he said. “The little flipper is attacking me!
Me
!”
    Velenka remained silent as the octo hung onto Goblin’s tail, injecting him with its poisons.
    â€œKrillfaced coward!” Goblin shouted. He slammed his tail against the nearest rock. One octo, even a blue-ringed octo, wasn’t enough to kill most full-grown sharks. Certainly not one as big as Goblin. No, it would take more than that.
    So Velenka had arranged for more.
    A dozen stonefish floated up from their hiding places in the moss-covered rocks below where they had been waiting for days. The toxic dwellers stung Goblin on his belly and by the bends of his fins.
    Goblin screamed in frustration as the stonefish kept low and underneath him. He mashed a few with his serrated, triangle teeth. He received a huge sting in the gums when he scored one bite. “Oww!” he yelped. “This is why I never come here!”
    Velenka realized she should have been saying encouraging things. Or acted scared for him. Velenka was doing neither—because she was the one behind the attack.
    And with one look into her black eyes, Goblin knew it, too.
    â€œTraitor!” he shouted. The great white darted forward, but