Authors Note: Just a bit of extra content that I have lying around. Technically, this isn't in any way related to Heart of Steel, but the interpretation of Kancolle Yamato here is in-line with the one found in the main story. This was originally posted in a Spacebattles "vs debate", which if you're unfamiliar with the forum, is a place where nerds like myself argue over which fictional character would win in a fight. This little snippet is basically my guess at how a throwdown between the anthropomorphization of Japan's greatest battleship and the world's most famous giant red fire drake would go.
Yamato v. Smaug
A great winged beast that spewed flames from its maw. It was her next opponent in this twisted fight for survival that amounted to nothing more than a mere "game" to some higher being.
It was a proud creature, Yamato could tell that much. The dragon stood hunched low to the ground, it's massive wings folded around its scaly body as if ready to pounce. It's chest and mouth glowed with an intense heat that illuminated the arena with a dull orange light. Yamato looked into the beast's cold reptilian eyes. It had the eyes of a killer.
Suddenly, the chains that held both of them on opposite sides of the arena vanished. The beast let out a magnificent roar, its muscles rippling under its scaly hide.
Yamato huffed. If it was a show they wanted, it was a show they'd get.
~o~
This was the Great Smaug's next opponent? A normal human female without so much as a sword, a bow, or a even single piece of metal armor on to protect her delicate mortal flesh. Instead, she had some strange contraption strapped to her back. She looked even weaker than that giant human monstrosity that he had just burnt to a crisp in his last deathmatch. Smaug felt his lips curl into a smile, baring his teeth. This would be slaughter. This would be fun.
~o~
Load Type 91 Armor Piercing shells
Yamato felt a series of clicks and whirs resonate through her body as the miniaturized battleship shells were forced into the breech of her massive naval cannons.
Before she could fire, however, the winged beast opened its great maw, revealing the roaring furnace within. The flames rushed forth like a river, swallowing Yamato in a blinding sea of roiling magenta flame. Yamato felt the intense heat manifest itself as a strong tingling sensation on the surface of her skin, but nothing more. She weathered the beast's deadly breath weapon with nary a burn. Without warning, the flames vanished, revealing a very startled looking dragon. The beast puffed out its chest for another shot of hellfire, but Yamato didn't give it the chance. She fired.
~o~
No mortal being could resist a shot of his dragonfire, so how was she still alive, much less unhurt? It must be some kind of magical ward put upon her by a great wizard. Yes, that had to be it. Wards only worked once though. He looked down on the human, whose clothes were now only burnt tatters of cinderized cloth. Smaug felt the flames bubble up from within his gut and prepared to incinerate this pesky human with a second bath of flesh-stripping flame. Smaug noticed that the series of long pointy tubes mounted by the human were slowly rotating to point towards him.
How curious… thought Smaug.
The last thing Smaug saw before he was reduced to a giant pile of blenderized scale, flesh, and bone was the ballistic tip of a 1.5 ton armor piercing shell coming right at him.