Round two. Fight!
Eight minutes after the first engagement the second engagement starts with air power. Kaga's A5Ms spot two abyssal fighter squadrons above them. They have the energy and numbers advantage so instead of engaging head-on, they dive to the deck. They raced across the ocean's surface towards their fleet to bring AA fire into the mix. As it started to fire the abyssal squadrons divided on the A5Ms. They broke formation and avoided their attack before turning back and the dogfight began.
Abyssal fighters are strange to say the least. They're remarkably short and narrow with practically no wingspan and have a single cannon under their fuselage. Like their ocean-going counterparts they rely on numbers. Their biggest strength is speed and maneuverability and they're proving to be a problem for even Kaga's well-trained pilots. The AA guns struggle to hit their targets their fire highly inaccurate.
As the dogfight rages more players enter the field. Two abyssal torpedo bomber squadrons fly over their fleet heading for the furball. At the same time, a fighter and torpedo bomber squadron launched from Kaga enter the field. Kaga's fighters break off from their escort and dive for the torpedo squadrons. With the abyssal fighters occupied they're without an escort a fact they will regret. They down three planes from one squadron and two from the other before coming back around for another run.
The fight over the fleet still rages. Despite constant AA fire it proves to be ineffective having little effect on the air battle. Although the pilots are outnumbered two to one their superior training and tactics are enough to even the odds. They've downed three abyssal fighters to one of their own. Suddenly they broke off and headed toward their bombers with Kaga's A5Ms hot on their tails.
The other squadron had already destroyed both torpedo bomber squadrons and moved to intercept the remaining abyssal fighters. They changed course again moving to intercept Kaga's bombers. Their tail gunners unloaded damaging one but at the cost of two bombers. The remaining fighters wouldn't get a chance to attack again as Kaga's pilots blew them out of the skies; they fell into the ocean as burning wrecks.
With the way clear the bombers started their run with half the squadron targeting one battleship while the other half targets another. Anti-aircraft fire was so light the pilots didn't know they were taking fire. They dropped their torpedoes and quickly cleared the airspace around the abyssal fleet. The results of their attack came a few seconds later as plumes of water exploded off one of the battleship's port side and it began to sink rapidly. The other one was able to avoid all but one of the torpedoes sustaining minor damage. With their mission complete they headed back toward their home carrier along with a fighter squadron. The one that escorted them in now took up a patrol pattern around the fleet.
With their airstrikes failing the abyssal fleet moved in to engage.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
A thunder of guns sounded the second round of engagement.
The battleships started trading salvos with Fuso and Ise focusing their fire. They're still outnumbered in terms of battleships, although, three on two is better than four on two. Thirty destroyers charge ahead followed by twelve cruisers leaving six destroyers and three cruisers to screen the battleships. Isuzu, Natori, Tenryu, Kinu, and Yura target the destroyers while the heavy cruisers Furutaka, Kako, and Kinugasa target the cruisers.
The abyssals have a more coordinated plan of attack. Half of the assaulting cruisers assist their destroyers while the other half target the cruisers. The battleships don't seem to have that coordination though as they split their fire between Ise, Fuso, and the cruisers. As both fleets closed in their destroyers tempted each other seeing if they could get the other to break formation.
Furutaka kept her eye on the abyssal destroyers as they continued to try and bait an engagement. Their destroyers are not obliging but she doesn't like how they're trying to bait the abyssals as well.
"Destroyers don't try and bait the abyssals! If they stay in escort formation we don't have to worry about torpedoes!"
"Understood ma'am but the same is true for them!"
"I know but these abyssals look different than the ones we've fought before. We need to be cautious."
"Roger that Furutaka."
Her next two salvos helped in driving off an abyssal cruiser and she had more information justifying her statement. Their tactics are better, to a degree, and their formation is more organized. That being said it seems the abyssals still have a mind of their own. Two destroyers break formation and charge they're quickly ripped apart.
"Interesting," she muttered.
"Destroyer squadron eighteen engaging!"
She snapped out of her thoughts, "Delay that I have a plan."
"Ma'am?"
"Miyuki, Shirayuki, Isonami go with squadron eighteen to the end of the battle line and wait for my orders."
"Oh come on! I haven't killed anything in this battle," Shirayuki yelled.
"I think all of us are about to get a chance to kill something Shirayuki," Isonami responded.
"We better!"
"Stop complaining! You have orders carry them out," Furutaka roared.
"YES MA'AM!"
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
Another salvo from Ise and Fuso slammed into their battered target. Its return fire struck Ise the shells leaving shallow gashes and puncture wounds in their wake. With a thirty second reload she took the time to examine their formation. The destroyers are in escort formation off the port side with the heavy cruisers in the lead. The light cruisers are staggered off to the starboard side leaving a gap between the heavy cruisers and herself. This leaves herself and Fuso at the rear of the formation.
The abyssal formation is similar yet different. They've created two battle lines. The one further back has their battleships while the second one has most of their cruisers and destroyers. Their main force is so close to their formation that her secondary guns fired every so often. Most of these rounds missed and the ones that did hit did minor damage at best. They did persuade the abyssals to keep their distance though.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
The next salvo scored seven hits knocking out one of its turrets and cooked off shells for the secondary guns. Multiple explosions ripped across its skin destroying multiple starboard side secondary guns and starting numerous fires. Fuso's salvo knocked out another gun turret and heavily scared its back and left side leaving it bleeding oil steadily as it started falling back. It may not be sunk but it won't be a problem for now. They are now even in terms of battleships, however, Ise has taken multiple hits and while none of them have caused serious damage she's still at a disadvantage compared to the abyssal battleships. With this in mind she and Fuso swap places so the damage taken won't all be on one of them. Two damaged battleships are better than one undamaged battleship.
With a thunder of guns both sides battleships fired upon each other once again. They abyssal battleships split their fire between the two of them while Ise and Fuso focused on one and hit it with everything they had. They scored a combined total of seven hits with Fuso taking three in return.
While the battleships continued to slug it out Kinugasa and Isuzu were in the middle of their own engagements. Their formation had slowly spread out as the battle progressed and now they're closest to the abyssal formation. Despite this only two abyssals seem to be aware of this fact and both are cruisers. Even better one of them is severely out-classed so this small engagement is handily in their favor.
Kinugasa targeted the modern cruiser while Isuzu engaged the older one. It was then that she noted the radically different behavior between them. One attempted to dodge her fire while the other didn't make any attempt to change course or speed making it an easy target. Isuzu had already crippled it in three salvos. She'd knocked out one of its guns, heavily damaged its bridge, and from the short bursts of fire from its funnel, ruined its engines. Despite this, it continued to fight and its ally used it as a distraction to retreat.
Kinugasa started to chase it while Isuzu finished off her target and joined her. Despite landing multiple hits it hasn't taken any meaningful damage and started to return fire. It was surprisingly accurate landing four hits on Isuzu while her own fire landed short. They continued to chase the cruiser which stopped firing after five salvos and began to avoid their fire with the grace of a destroyer. Frustrated, Kinugasa ordered her crew to load faster.
Unknown to her Isuzu had taken some hard hits and was slowly falling behind as the damage caught up to her. To make matters worse she realized just how overextended they are plus her radio is damaged so she can't contact Kinugasa to warn her. With limited options she picked one that would get anyone attention, she fired a shell right past her head.
BOOM!
"What the-!" The shell whistled past her and exploded. BOOM!
She turned shocked to find that Isuzu had shot at her. "What the hell was that for!?"
When she aggressively pointed to port she looked and found what she's pointing out.
"Oh. That is not good."
In her hast to sink her target, she'd lead them past the enemy formation to the point that they're actually behind it. Isuzu slowly sailed over to her, "Do you see the problem?"
"Yes, yes I do. Why did you shot at me though?!"
She jumped back and raised her hands, "S-Sorry it was t-the only way I could get your a-attention!"
"Why didn't you use your radio!?"
"I-Its broke," she meekly answered.
She sighed, "Sorry, just don't shoot at me next time. Are you alright looks like that abyssal got you good."
"A little sore. I'll be fine don't worry." She flashed a reassuring smile.
"Alright. It looks like they don't know we're behind them lets take advantage of that." Isuzu grabbed her shoulder. "Are you crazy!? We'll be killed!"
"No, we won't. We target their battleships we'll be fine."
Isuzu turned pale as a ghost, "WE'RE GOING AFTER THEIR BATTLESHIPS!?"
Kinugasa placed her hands on her shoulders, "Look, they're focused on our battleships and their escorts have moved away now is the time to strike."
Isuzu looked and what she said was true. She took a deep breath and steeled her nerves. "Alright."
"Where are Isuzu and Kinugasa!?"
"Last I saw they were engaging an enemy cruiser!"
"Kinugasa, Isuzu what's your position?"
"Uhhhh we're behind enemy lines."
"How did you get behind their line," Furutaka demanded.
"I chased a cruiser and Isuzu followed me! Don't worry I have a plan!"
"Really, and what is this brilliant plan?"
"We're going to attack their battleships."
It took Furutaka a second to register what she said. "The two of you are going to attack their battleships along with their escorts?"
"Their escorts have moved away from them to get closer to the battle. We can attack without them interfering."
"They're still close enough to respond when they spot you. Wait one. Miyuki do you copy?"
"Loud and clear."
"Kinugasa and Isuzu are behind their line and plan to attack their battleships. I need you to move in and get their escorts' attention."
"Roger that we're engaging."
"Kinugasa, destroyers are moving to get the escorts' attention. Once they do launch your attack."
"Roger that."
"Alright ladies we're going hunting," Miyuki exclaimed.
"About damn time we do something," Shirayuki shouted.
"What's our target," Isonami asked.
"The battleships' escorts."
"We're not attacking them directly?"
"No, Kinugasa and Isuzu are taking care of them. Lets move!"
They formed two staggered lines which allowed them to fire torpedoes without the risk of hitting each other. The abyssals haven't noticed them yet so they get as close as possible before they attack. They have the same number of destroyers but the presence of three cruisers gives the abyssals an advantage in firepower. Furutaka had them covered in this regard having dispatched Tenryu and Yura to occupy the cruiser's attention. With the cruisers out of the equation, for now, they focus on the destroyers.
Shirayuki leads their charge with reckless abandon. She'd been bursting with energy since the battle had begun and now it finally had an out. While the others halted their charge and started to fire she continued on. She didn't care that the battleship's secondaries were firing at her nor did she care that four destroyers were moving to intercept. She had become deaf to everything around her and only cared about one thing, sending one of those battleships to the bottom.
"SHIRAYUKI GET BACK!"
"She can't hear you!"
"The hell do you mean!? Her radio still works!"
"She has been chopping at the bit to fight the abyssals and now that she can that's all she's focusing on!"
"She has tunnel vision?!"
"For a lack of better term yes!"
"We can't just leave her out there she'll be killed!"
"That's not going to happen. Tenryu, Yura I need those cruisers destroyed ASAP."
"We're working on it what's the rush," Tenryu asked.
"Shirayuki has banzai charged the battleships. We're moving in to assist."
"Understood. We'll take care of those cruisers."
Meanwhile, Kinugasa and Isuzu had closed in and launched their torpedoes. They continued on their course and Isuzu engaged the destroyers while Kinugasa attacked the cruisers. Simultaneously Shirayuki, despite taking heavy damage, managed to launch her torpedoes making the second battleship turn hard to port to avoid them. It avoided all of hers and because it turned it also avoided Kinugasa's spread. The lead one didn't notice until it was far too late and Isuzu's spread made short work of it.
Isuzu suddenly found herself staring down a battleship and froze.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
"AHHHHHH!"
"ISUZU!"
She was extremely lucky. None of the shells that hit armed. It left her bloodied, bruised, and shaken but she wasn't ripped apart. Kinugasa stated hammering it with high explosive quickly followed by armor-piercing salvos from Ise and Fuso.
"ISUZU! MOVE!"
"W-What?"
"MOVE FOR FUCKS SAKE!"
She jumped in shock and sprinted away, black smoke pouring from her funnel. It then turned its guns on Kinugasa and fired. She managed to avoid its shells and fell back to friendly lines closely followed by the destroyers who laid smoke to cover them.
"Fall back to the line!" Yura screamed.
"Hold up ladies they're retreating," Ise yelled.
It was true. The abyssal fleet, now numbering eleven cruisers, twenty-six destroyers, and two battleships, was in full retreat.
"That's right, RUN!"
"Calm down lets not go running off. Status report," Ise ordered.
"Minor damage," Fuso reported.
"Tenryu and I are green," Yura said.
"Good to go," Kinugasa stated.
"Squadron eighteen, Isonami and I all have minor to moderate damage. Shirayuki is in no condition to fight," Miyuki reported. Shirayuki's clothes were destroyed and barely covered her. Blood and oil ran down her body and into the ocean where a growing pool formed. Her breathing is shallow and comes in short gasps. It's a miracle she can still stand.
"Miyuki, get her back to base."
"Yes ma'am."
"Isuzu, you alright?"
"I've... b-been b-better," she stuttered.
"Can you fight?"
She took a deep breath and nodded. "J-Just say the word."
"Heads up ladies looks like the abyssals still want to dance," Kako said.
"Looks like they want more. Let's finish this."
A/N
Sorry for the wait. Time got away from me.