Chapter 13: Chapter 13 – Ambush

Once again, Grayson found himself trudging through the forest leading toward the proving grounds. The bells had woken the prisoners up, and the same process as the first time he had entered the proving grounds played out. Their group arrived at the entrance to the aquadome, and the guard in charge explained the rules to them.

Grayson was feeling nervous, though it wasn’t as bad as the almost sick feeling he had two days ago. Much of that had been because he simply didn’t know what to expect from the proving grounds. It was more fear of the unknown than anything. He was still terrified, but it was a more manageable kind of terror. At least now he had a grasp on what the proving grounds were.

Grayson stole a look at Darren, and was a little disturbed to find that the scarred man was already staring at him. When he noticed Grayson look at him, a malicious grin bloomed on his face. Grayson met his eyes, and winked at the man. Darren looked surprised for a moment, before the grin disappeared off his face, and it was replaced by a thunderous expression.

Grayson smiled at that before looking away. He knew he had just made the man incredibly angry, but he was counting on it. He needed those four men to be as hell-bent on killing him as possible. The angrier they were, the more rash their decisions would become, and the less chance they would be able to notice any traps he set for them. Honestly, Grayson wasn’t sure if he needed to help them with it. They had been giving him increasingly more venomous looks over the past two days.

The guard wrapped up his speech, and the prisoners were all herded into the aquadome. When Grayson passed through the gap in the wall, he felt the heaviness of the proving grounds settle on him. He started to wonder what caused the feeling, but banished the thought moments later. Right now, he needed to focus on his plan.

He made his way purposefully towards the closest kelp forest, and wasn’t surprised in the least when he noticed his four enemies right on his heels. Fortunately for Grayson, they wouldn’t be able to make a move until they were out of sight of the guards. Which would allow Grayson to reach the kelp forest before being killed.

Darren and his lackeys noticed where Grayson was headed, and he heard an enraged shout from behind him. Turning back, Grayson saw that the four men were running at him. It seemed like they didn’t want him to disappear on them like he had two days earlier.

Grayson grimaced at the sight. He was hoping he would be able to enter the kelp without much difficulty, but it appeared that Darren and the thugs wanted to grab him before he could escape. Their plan was probably to drag him into the kelp and kill him there, just out of sight of the guards.

Gritting his teeth, Grayson began to run, hating every moment of it. Not only was he still sore from his workout two days ago, but the last time he had moved at this speed, some kind of fish had nearly swallowed him. It couldn’t be helped. It was this, or get grabbed by his pursuers.

Luckily, no dangers appeared, and Grayson plunged into the kelp forest, quickly quieting his breath and softening his footsteps. Moments later, the men following him plunged into the forest.

He heard a scream of rage.

“Did you see where he went this time?” Darren’s voice asked, sounding out not too far away.

“No,” Another voice replied. “We won't catch him just wandering around. Let’s search for the pearl, and maybe we’ll stumble across him while we’re looking for it.”

There was a long pause before Darren finally spoke again, his voice barely under control. “Fine. Let’s go, but this ends by tonight, no matter what happens.”

Grayson noticed small ripples in the kelp as the men left it to go around. It seemed like they didn’t want to risk running into the darters. Grayson didn’t blame them. Letting out a sigh, Grayson began to follow the four men. The first part of his plan had succeeded, now he just needed a good deal of luck.

They were relatively easy to follow. The three men outside of Darren were actually quite talkative. They swapped stories about near death encounters and some of the stranger things they had seen in the aquadome. It was actually some good information that Grayson hadn’t been expecting. It would come in handy in the future, and he certainly wasn’t going to complain about learning more about the proving grounds.

Every once in a while, Grayson would peek out of the kelp, trying to see anything that might help him ambush them. Nothing immediately presented itself as a good opportunity, so Grayson quietly bided his time. He felt uncomfortable walking through the kelp for so long, but he couldn’t risk leaving the stuff. The four men were carefully scanning for threats, and would often check to see if anything was coming at them from behind. He would be spotted immediately if he left the greenery. He just had to hope he didn’t run into the darters.

A few minutes later and Grayson was getting nervous. This kelp forest he was in wasn’t going to last forever, and he still hadn’t seen a good opportunity to attack. The group of men he was trailing had even rounded the kelp, moving along its edge, but they were likely to leave it soon to head toward the proving ground’s center. He wouldn’t be able to follow them out in the open, and if he missed out on this opportunity, he didn’t know what they would do when they got back to the compound if they failed to kill him once again. From Darren’s actions two days ago, it was likely they would try something regardless of the consequences.

Poking his head out of the kelp, Grayson noticed the four men he was following had stopped moving. He was confused for a moment before his eyes lit up in excitement. A large swarm of jellyfish, just like the one had seen his first time in the aquadome, was moving through their path forward. This was exactly what he needed. The four men noticed the swarm as well, and they stopped a moment to decided what to do.

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From what Grayson could hear, they intended to let the jellyfish go by before heading onward, rather than risking moving forward. It was the smart choice, and it was the choice Grayson probably should have made when he had been confronted with the option.

Rolling his shoulders, Grayson took in a deep breath. He couldn’t have asked for a better situation. He waited for the jellyfish to get closer and soon the swarm was passing by, but Grayson couldn’t get himself to move. If he committed here, there was a good chance he would die. Not only that, but he wasn’t sure if he could do it. If he could purposefully go and try to kill another person. He had done it two days ago, but was being chased at the time, and it just felt different. This time, he was going out of his way to try to take these men’s lives.

That line of thinking was cut off when, once again, the swarm moved deceptively quickly, and the men looked like they might start to back away from the swarm when its edges grew too close to their position. Gritting his teeth, Grayson knew he couldn’t wait any longer. If he did, he would lose this chance, and he was sure that he would never get a better opportunity.

He began to run, bursting out of the kelp and dashing toward the men. They weren’t far away, and he was on them in seconds. They all noticed him quickly, but were so surprised by his appearance that it didn’t matter.

Grayson charged toward a pair of the men who stood closer to him. He wanted to deal with Darren first, but the scarred man was standing farther away from the kelp forest, and Grayson couldn’t afford to waste even half a second to target him specifically.

Rather than try anything fancy, Grayson simply threw his body at the two men. He crashed into them with all the force he could muster, and both of them were pushed back, but to Grayson’s dismay, it wasn’t as much as he would have hoped. One man was windmilling his arms to keep from falling into the jellyfish, while the other had stumbled, but stabilized himself.

He was really hoping to take out two of them with the ambush, but it looked like he might not get any. That was, until the windmilling man lost his battle to stay upright. Knowing he was about to fall to his death, he reached out to the only thing he could to try and stop his fall. He grabbed the other prisoner who had managed to steady his footing, but it didn’t do any good. He had reached out too late, and the only thing he did was ensure that they both toppled into the swarm, their bodies beginning to twitch and spasm as soon as they hit the tentacles.

Relief surged through Grayson’s entire being at the turn of events. The momentum from his tackle had mostly been soaked up from the other two men, but he still ended up on the ground closer to the jellyfish than he would have liked. After seeing what the tentacles did, he had no desire to share the dead men’s fate.

Without further ado, he jumped up, and span around looking for the final two prisoners. His heart sank when he saw that Darren had positioned himself between Grayson and the Kelp. The plan had been to take out as many of them he could and jump back into the kelp and try to repeat the process, but it appeared that the first thing Darren had done was try to cut off that escape route. It seemed like letting Grayson escape into the kelp twice was too many times for him. The final remaining prisoner was attempting to box Grayson in from the other direction as the two of them slowly closed in, rage written all over their features.

“You’re going to die in agony for this, you Valintian bastard.” Darren said in a cold, voice that was somehow far more terrifying than all of his shouts and screams.

Rather than reply, Grayson took off, running through the space between the two men before they could box him in any further. Darren began running as well, and Grayson was frustrated to see he was making sure to stay in between Grayson and the kelp.

There was no way he would be able to get past him to its safety. Instead, he started looking out for anything dangerous he could possibly use to shake his pursuers, but he didn’t see anything, and with the two men starting out so close to him, he wouldn’t last long. They had always been faster than him, and with them starting so close to him, he didn’t have much time. The only thing nearby was a large rock jutting out of the ground.

He desperately scanned the space as quickly as possible, but he had already passed by here when following the four men, and he hadn’t noticed anything then, it was unlikely something moved into the area so quickly.

That was when he noticed the rock was moving. He hadn’t noticed earlier because the movement was subtle. The rock appeared to be slowly rising out of the sand. Gritting his teeth, Grayson shifted his direction to head toward the rock. The movement the rock was making wasn’t much, but it was something.

Grayson dashed over, trying to see how the thing might be able to help him. Nothing became immediately apparent, and now he was stuck.

His pursuers once again had him boxed in, but they were standing closer this time around, and there was no way he would be able to escape. He turned around, preparing to fight. He didn’t believe for a second he could win, but he was going to try.

“I was thinking of the best way to dispose of you,” Darren said as he slowly closed in, a cruel smile on his face once more. “It seems to me that a fitting end would be to break your arms and legs, then leave you in the kelp to make sure the darters eat you alive. What do you think about that Grant.”

“That sounds like an excellent idea.” The other man said, sounding almost gleeful at the suggestion.

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