"Tch. Why'd she have to take that blue bitch away from me," Airfield Princess complained, throwing a dissatisfied glance in the direction of Kaga and the Aircraft Carrier Princess. "Eh, whatever. Guess I'll just finish up here quickly and then go over there and sink her."
"Don't you think you're being a little too cocky?" Akagi asked with a smirk. "There are thirteen of us against one of you. You may have more planes than we do, but we're ship girls, not warships. You're about to have the shit beaten out of you… Again."
The Airfield Princess made a show of yawning. "As if insignificant rats like you could ever pose a threat to me. Looks like I'll have to put you in your place after all."
The sinister, glowing red gaze of the Princess momentarily shook Akagi's resolve, but she then remembered Kaga's words to her.
That's right… Kaga is placing her trust in me… And so is the Admiral.
To be honest, Akagi was not a fan of Admiral Drake when she first met him. He seemed cold, too serious, and even slightly arrogant, and Akagi was still sore from being the flagship of the losing side in the most decisive battle in the Pacific Theater. However, after she had spent some time in his fleet, she recognized that he wasn't as bad as she had thought, especially because of Kaga. Ever since Drake had took over command of their fleet, Akagi had watched Kaga grow from a quiet, almost background character into a confident leader, and she had Admiral Drake to thank for that. Kaga was the type of person who only spoke when spoken to and who tended to avoid other people if possible, but when she was made flagship of the fleet, that changed. Now, Kaga had someone other than her adopted sister and adopted mother who acknowledged her strength, and just by Kaga's atmosphere when she was around the Admiral, Akagi could see that he was having a good effect on her.
For their sake… I will not lose!
"You do have a plan, right? She looks sorta pissed off now…" Zuikaku whispered to Akagi, sailing up beside her.
"We'll figure something out," Akagi said.
"That's not very reassuring, but yeah, I guess you're not wrong," Zuikaku grinned. "There's no way I'm letting Kaga and Shoukaku show us up!"
"Akagi, be warned, it looks like the enemy is launching her planes," Graf Zeppelin cautioned.
Spilling out of the Airfield Princess' beast's jaw were a multitude of white, circular Abyssal aircraft with sharp teeth. Akagi wondered why the aircraft weren't taking off (or more like rolling off) from the runways built into the Airfield Princess' rigging, but she figured that those runways must mainly be for launching high-altitude, long-distance operations, like the raid the Airfield Princess did against their base.
"Dio mio, those are a lot of planes," Aquila observed worriedly.
Saratoga looked up at the sky, her hand shielding her eyes from the sun. "I don't think we have nearly enough aircraft to counter that, even with all thirteen of us…"
"Well, we've still got anti-air fire, don't we?" Intrepid said. "No point in simply giving up."
Akagi joined the rest of the carriers in staring up at the sky, where Abyssal aircraft continued to climb upwards. The Airfield Princess appeared to be taking her time in organizing her air force, but it was evident that her planes far outnumbered theirs. Akagi could order all of the ship girls to send fighters up to counter the enemy air power, but she knew it would just result in all their planes being destroyed. There was no defeating this Princess in a straight air battle, not after they had already lost so many planes.
Frustrated, Akagi chose another approach. She drew an arrow from her quiver and strung her bow with it, her practiced hands going through the motions with speed and fluidity. Then, she aimed at the Airfield Princess and released it. The arrow shot through the air, not even bothering to transform into a plane. Surprised by the sudden attack, the Airfield Princess only barely managed to dodge it.
"The hell?" she wondered as the arrow whizzed past her head.
"Charge!" Akagi ordered, pointing towards the Abyssal. She then sped off, sailing straight for the enemy as she notched another arrow.
The rest of the carriers stared at her dumbly. It appeared insane at first. Their flagship had simply ignored the huge airstrike looming overhead, did not launch any of her own planes, and then just rushed the enemy head on. However, they soon recognized that Akagi was attempting to swarm the Airfield Princess with sheer numbers. Just like the Airfield Princess wanted to blot out the ship girls' air power with quantity, so could the ship girls smack down the Princess in CQC with their own superior numbers.
"All right! Let's do this!" Zuikaku shouted in excitement as she followed Akagi.
The remaining carriers shared worried looks before sailing after the two. They all had their weapons raised, and the sound of gunshots or arrows whizzing by filled the ocean air. Confronted with a wall of projectiles heading straight towards her, the Airfield Princess simply could not dodge them all, and she was pelted with arrows and bullets. Though the projectiles were stronger than their human-made counterparts, they were still not as powerful as planes, and so they only left minor cuts and scrapes on the Princess, but they did damage nonetheless.
"Augh! You fucking -"
The Airfield Princess' sentence was cut short as Akagi finally arrived within striking distance. The red carrier snarled at her opponent and reached out to grab her. The Airfield Princess, expecting a punch or a kick rather than a grab, failed to move properly, allowing Akagi to latch onto a fistful of white hair.
She's so heavy! Akagi realized. She had tried to do a throwing maneuver and toss the Abyssal onto the ground, but the weight of the Princess was more than she anticipated, causing her to merely tug the Princess forward a bit.
The Airfield Princess shrieked in pain and swung her hips to the right, smacking Akagi's legs with the tips of her airstrips and tripping her. Akagi lost her balance and splashed onto the surface of the sea, but Zuikaku's arrival allowed her enough time to get to her feet again. The twintailed carrier took a different approach, grabbing an arrow out of her quiver and manually stabbing it at the Abyssal.
Whether by luck or by skill, Zuikaku managed to drive her arrow right into the eye of the Airfield Princess. The Abyssal screamed again, this time much more shrilly, panic painting her tone. Bright, glowing red blood burst outward from the wound, and Zuikaku roared as she jerked her arrow back, completely tearing out the Abyssal's eyeball. Still screaming, the Airfield Princess' beast jaw began glowing red, prompting Zuikaku to sail out of its reach. The other carriers noticed this as well and moved out if its direct path.
Unfortunately, that was not all they had to deal with. Zuikaku's devastating blow had caused the Airfield Princess' planes to stop forming up, and the Princess instead just had them rain down upon the ship girl fleet, however haphazardly the attack was. Though normally an uncoordinated bombing run would be easy for the anti-air gunners and opposition fighter planes to control, the sheer number of Abyssal bombers in the sky made it nearly impossible to avoid being hit. The white dive bombers fell like rain, and the torpedo bombers and fighters also flew downwards, shooting at the ship girls with red bullets and torpedoes.
"Fuck! There's too many!" Intrepid cursed as she raised her rifle in front of her face, allowing the weapon to tank a hit from a dive bomber.
"Ngh! I've been hit," Graf Zeppelin groaned, clutching at her shoulder which was doused in red and was quickly staining the rest of her uniform.
Amagi simply went flying, crying out as a torpedo exploded beneath her and tossed her about on the surface of the ocean like a skipping stone. Her sister, Unryuu, tried to make her way over to Amagi's unconscious form, but two dive bombers hit her from both sides, a flurry of smoke obscuring her as she then fell onto the water's surface and began slowly sinking.
"Zuikaku, go pull Amagi out! Graf, make sure Unryuu doesn't sink!" Akagi called out.
Zuikaku, who was uninjured and the closest, sped off immediately. Graf Zeppelin winced as she dragged Unryuu out of the water with her good arm. The white-haired carrier was also either unconscious or dead, and black soot and dark burn marks covered her body. She at least had not sunk, so it would be possible to revive her if they got out of the area in time… Though by the way things were going, that might not be a possibility.
Akagi turned to the Airfield Princess, who was scowling as she clutched her eye socket.
"You bitch…" Akagi growled predatorily.
However, before she could rush the Princess again, a torpedo bomber suddenly dropped out of the sky and in front of her. Akagi's anti-air guns shot it down fairly quickly, but not before it dropped its torpedo spread into the water only a very short distance away from her. The only thing Akagi could do at that point was try and jump over it, which she actually managed to do. But when she was in midair, leaping over the projectile and watching it pass under her, she felt something heavy hit her in the gut and then explode, and she flew backwards. Her back slammed on the surface of the ocean, and she hacked up blood as she tried to orient herself. She attempted to sit up, but her abdominal muscles protested so severely that she instead just looked down at her stomach, which had nearly been blown open. Frowning deeply, her golden eyes trailed back over to the Airfield Princess, who was smirking victoriously. The large cannon atop her beast's jaw was smoking, indicating it had recently been fired.
How careless of me, Akagi thought, grimacing in pain. She was still floating on her back so she wasn't in any danger of sinking yet, but it was only a matter of time before a plane or something dropped a bomb on her and finished her for good.
Two firm hands lifted Akagi from her armpits, uprighting the damaged carrier and supporting her as she stood. Akagi bit her lip as her stomach wound cried out at the action, and she turned her head a bit to see Souryuu behind her.
"Can you stand?" Souryuu asked.
"Y-yeah, I think so," Akagi managed, her legs wobbling slightly as Souryuu let go of her.
Hiryuu then sailed over. "Akagi, I sent Graf Zeppelin and Katsuragi back with the bodies of Unryuu and Amagi. None of them is in any shape to fight, so I hope that's all right with you."
"Uh, yes, that's fine," Akagi said. Souryuu was focused on anti-air fire, but she was still nearby.
"Zuikaku is rallying the remaining carriers for an anti-air attack, and all of us except for you have launched our last planes," Hiryuu continued. "It should thin out the ranks of the Princess' air force, but it's not going to make a significant difference. We need to take her out for good, and we need to do it now."
"You mean in close combat?"
Hiryuu nodded. "Zuikaku was able to severely damage her earlier with CQC, and we also beat her last time with CQC. It's probably our best chance. I'd say you, Souryuu, and I go, but if you can't because of your injury, then we'll go ourselves."
"No. I'll go," Akagi assured them firmly.
Despite her wounded state, she was still entrusted with the flagship position for this battle. She would not be left out of the fight.
"Rear Admiral."
Drake turned away from the radar screen to see Lieutenant Commander Longfellow, her expression sullen.
"We've received reports that USS Oliver Wolcott has been sunk," she informed him.
"Another one?"
That was the second Signature-class destroyer that had been lost so far in the fight. In addition to that, Germany had also lost a destroyer, Japan had lost a heavy cruiser, Russia had lost all three of its light cruisers present, and a Chinese battleship had to turn back and leave the fight due to taking too much damage. All in all, the human fleet was taking far more losses than initially predicted. Apparently the ship girl charge into the center of the Abyssal formation had failed, and so the Abyssals were able to start shelling the human fleet and even approach their frontlines. Luckily Drake was still in the back with the rest of the aircraft carriers, but it was only a matter of time before the Abyssals broke through.
About a half hour earlier, the USS John Adams had sunk with all hands, meaning that Vice Admiral Eliot, who had been in command of the American destroyers and had been using that vessel as his flagship, was now dead. With no commander left to lead them, the destroyers had just been told to report to Drake as their new commanding officer. Drake guessed that he had been chosen because his own carrier fleet was essentially toothless now, which meant that he had nothing left to do. Drake was annoyed by this decision because his ship girls still needed someone to lead them even if they were mostly just caught up holding off the Princesses, but he couldn't just tell high command to fuck off, so now he was stuck with both jobs.
Drake went back to studying the radar screen. Human-made destroyers were big enough to reliably make out on the radar even from this distance, so he was able to see their movements. He could not, however, see the Abyssals very well, but thankfully the camera feed from the destroyers provided him with that view, which was pulled up on another screen beside the radar.
"Why aren't our Tomahawks doing anything?" Drake asked Longfellow, though he was pretty sure he already knew the answer to that.
"I don't know. It looks like the Abyssals are either avoiding them or shooting them down," Longfellow replied, her eyes slowly being filled with hopelessness. "W-what are we supposed to do, sir? They're all going to die out there…"
"Well, we can't pull them back because then that would just allow the Abyssals to come even closer, which would result in all of us, including those of us on these carriers, being sunk," he said, rubbing his chin in thought.
"Maybe we should assist them? As in, send out planes from our carrier?" Longfellow suggested.
Drake spared a glance at her. Her soft brown hair and clear green eyes gave her an innocent look. Damn, the navy is really picking some young officers… Though I guess I'm not that much older than she is.
He turned his dark eyes back to the radar. "I have no control over the flight operations of this carrier, so I can't do that. It also probably wouldn't help much, if the reports from other carrier pilots in this battle are to be believed."
Truly, there was no hope of defeating the Abyssal fleet with just a handful of American destroyers. Though it appeared that only a small group of Abyssal battleships or heavy cruisers were engaged in shelling the destroyers, in order to get to them and eliminate them, Drake would have to send the ships right into the main Abyssal force, which would result in their certain destruction. The only thing he could do right now was minimize the chance for casualties. He stepped over to the microphone near the command center and switched to the US destroyer fleet frequency.
"This is Rear Admiral Richard Drake speaking. Samuel Adams, take the lead ship position. All other ships, line up behind her."
"... A line ahead formation, sir?" one of the destroyer officers asked.
"Yes. Sail towards the Abyssal fleet for five minutes."
Drake was sure this order perplexed the destroyer commanders, and he could also see a puzzled look on Longfellow's face. Nevertheless, the destroyers took their positions and executed the command, beginning to sail in a straight line towards the Abyssals. Drake was sure that the Abyssals were still firing upon the destroyers during this time, but the sudden and strange change in formation and direction definitely threw them off, and during the five minutes, Drake did not receive any report of confirmed hits by the enemy.
"Get me a pen and paper," Drake said to Longfellow, who hurriedly complied.
With occasional glances at the radar screen, Drake began scribbling various coordinates and bearings on the paper. Then, he went back to the speakerphone, holding up the paper and reading off it as he issued new commands.
"All right, all ships are now to turn back. Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Robert Paine, and Elbridge Gerry are to turn to port, and Samuel Huntington, Roger Sherman, and William Williams are to turn to starboard. Each ship, follow the specific bearings I am about to give you. They are as following…"
Drake read of a series of bearings specific to each ship. He looked up at the radar screen to see if the ships were following his orders. Each destroyer was now turning away from the Abyssals and heading backwards, but they had scattered and were all following different routes back. This sudden change from an organized, straight forward line to a bunch of ships all going backwards in various directions was designed to throw off the Abyssals even more.
"All ships' end points are in Sector Four. When you return there, Samuel Adams will retake the lead ship position, and you will repeat the maneuver. Radio in if you need a refreshing on the bearings. Other than that, continue with your orders until directed otherwise."
Drake sighed as he sat down in the chair at the station. He regarded the radar screen with apprehension.
I've bought them some time… But for how long?
"How is the retreat going?" Yamato asked Musashi as she reloaded her huge cannons.
Musashi glanced over her shoulder, where she was greeted with the unfortunate sight of a mass of bodies, rigging, fire, and churning waves. Sounds of shouting and guns firing filled the air, and it was basically impossible to keep track of the fleet as a whole anymore.
Musashi said as much to her sister. "Who knows? I can't see shit from here. My guess is that it's not going very well at all, though."
Yamato's long ponytail whipped in the wind. She frowned. "We have to find some kind of opening…"
"Easier said than done," Iowa interjected as she sailed up to the two superbattleships. Prinz Eugen and the German destroyers were still following her.
"What are you doing here?" Musashi asked with a dissatisfied tone.
"Eh? I just happened to sail over here," Iowa grinned, oblivious to Musashi's disapproving look. "Anyway, have you guys seen Bismarck? We kind of lost her in the battle."
"Bismarck? I'm afraid not," Yamato answered. "And what happened to your arm?"
Iowa glanced at her blown off appendage. "Oh, this? Just another battle scar, I guess! I can still fight, though."
"Well, since you're here, we might as well use you," Musashi began. "We're going to try and punch a hole in their fleet to the south so that we can retreat. If all three of us fire at the same time, then it should be enough to create a momentary gap."
"But we haven't found Bismarck yet!" Prinz Eugen yelled, but she quickly cringed and shrunk back when the three battleships turned their gazes to her.
"She's a big girl, I'm sure she'll be all right," Iowa waved the German cruiser off. "Anyway, where are we shootin', then?"
Yamato turned around to survey the battlefield, looking for a possible exit. "Hm… Maybe -"
"Watch out!"
Yamato whirled around at the warning from her sister, just in time to see an accurate volley of battleship-caliber shells heading straight towards her face. Her pale purple eyes widened in fear.
However, Yamato was saved when Musashi rushed to her rescue. The white-haired battleship roared ferociously as she punched one of the the projectiles, attempting to divert its trajectory. Unfortunately for her, the shell exploded, as did a few of the others that landed around her. When the smoke cleared, Musashi was still standing, but she was panting heavily and was now missing an arm. Blood slowly poured from her shoulder, staining the surface of the water.
"Musashi!" Yamato sailed over to her younger sister with a worried look.
"I… I'm fine, Yamato," Musashi said, her voice laced with pain.
"Hey! You trying to outdo me or something?" Iowa called out, waving her stump at Musashi.
"Oh, shut up, will you…" Musashi shot back, though she was becoming noticeably quieter.
Yamato grit her teeth. It's because of me that this happened…
Lebe then gasped. "Mein gott! Is that…"
The other ship girls all turned to look at where she was pointing, and they saw none other than the Battleship Princess in the distance. She was sailing slowly towards the ship girl fleet, and she exuded a sinister confidence as the sea breeze tugged at her dark clothes and hair. Her firm, violent red eyes punctured a momentary spike of fear even in the three battleships.
"Iowa… Take Musashi and the other girls and get out of here," Yamato said, her eyes fixed on the Princess. "Try and find an opening to retreat with the rest of the fleet as well."
"Wait, what? You can't be thinking that you're going to fight her alone," Iowa protested.
"Don't be an idiot, Yamato," Musashi agreed, "we have to help -"
Her words were interrupted when she winced in pain, undermining her point.
"You're both in no shape to fight a Princess," Yamato decided. "As flagship, I order you to retreat. Go now."
"But… I can't just leave you here to die," Iowa said.
Yamato smiled at her. "Oh, don't worry, I have no intention of dying here. I may not have shown it during the War, but I am Yamato, Japan's greatest battleship. I'm not going to lose to the likes of her."
"If you say so. But you better not die here! You and I haven't had our spar yet."
"Then I'll look forward to it," Yamato replied.
Iowa gave her a final nod before taking Musashi, who had become to weak to speak, with her good arm and sailing away. Prinz Eugen and the destroyers followed, shooting a worried glance at Yamato as they left.
Yamato now focused her full attention on the Battleship Princess. With a determined expression, she began sailing towards the Abyssal.
I need to get close to her so that she doesn't have a chance to shell our fleet from a long distance.
The Battleship Princess slowed when she noticed Yamato approaching. "You're pretty brave, sailing right up to me like that. I presume you're the Yamato-class?"
Yamato nodded. "I am Yamato, the lead ship and flagship of this operation. You are the Battleship Princess, or Dyson?"
The Battleship Princess raised an eyebrow. "Dyson? That's just a dumb nickname my comrades call me. I'd prefer you not use that."
"Very well, then. But what I call you soon will not matter," Yamato stated.
The Battleship Princess smiled, exposing sharp, dangerous teeth. "I suppose so."
The European Princess continued to stare at Bismarck. Her icy eyes were glowing with strange energy, and behind her, a tail which appeared to resemble a dolphin's but with guns attached waved about dangerously. The two synthetic stingray-like creatures hovered around her, slowly swimming through the air as if they were underwater.
Bismarck swallowed nervously. For all her talk yesterday, now that she was actually alone with an Abyssal Princess, she didn't feel so confident. To her chagrin, she found herself wishing that Admiral Drake or one of her fleetmates were there to help her. Even Prinz Eugen and the two German destroyers were nowhere to be seen.
"You would face me alone?" the Abyssal spoke. Her voice was calm but resonated with an echoing tone, sort of like the sound of sonar. She spoke in English and also seemed to have a slight British accent.
"... I don't need any help to defeat the likes of you," Bismarck retorted, trying to appear confident even though she felt anything but. It wasn't as if she could just magically summon allies to her location anyway.
The European Princess did not seem offended by the comment, only confused. "Very well."
Without any further ado, the Princess launched one of her stingrays towards Bismarck again. Bismarck tried to dodge, but almost simultaneously when she launched the stingray, the Princess had also fired the guns that were attached to the vehicle she seemed to be riding. Bismarck was able to slide past the stingray but failed to dodge the guns. As searing pain tore through her left side, the second stingray came rushing at her, slamming into her chest and sending her onto the surface of the ocean.
Bismarck groaned in pain and felt the ocean water sting the open wound on her side. She slowly tried to get up, but as she was rising to her feet, the European Princess came rushing at her with surprising speed, her motorcycle-like rigging slicing through the waves. The Abyssal smashed the front of her vehicle into Bismarck, throwing the German a good distance away.
Bismarck slammed onto the water and tried to stand up more quickly this time, though the pain made that very hard. Ugh… Her fighting style is so fast!
When Bismarck glanced back at the Princess, she noticed that the Abyssal was now wielding a thin, black sword.
What the… Where did she get that from?!
Bismarck scowled and aimed her cannons. It was about time that she fought back. However, the two stingrays were still buzzing annoyingly around her. She tried to angle her Flakvierling anti-air gun to shoot them down, but one of them suddenly dove down towards her and whipped her with its tail. She hissed in pain as the blow stung a bit. She then tried to grab onto the creature, but she found that her body was paralyzed. With a horrified expression, Bismarck switched her gaze back to the European Princess, who was now rushing her with the sword.
No… No! I can't move!
Bismarck desperately tried to get her body to sail out of the way, or else she would end up impaled on the end of the Abyssal's blade. Luckily, she felt some feeling begin to return to her limbs. She was able to move her body just enough to place her guns in the Abyssal's path. The European Princess noticed this and quickly changed her course, abandoning the attack. Bismarck's shots sailed wide, but she had at least avoided an unpleasant death.
So it looks like I'll be paralyzed for some time if I get hit with the tails on those things, Bismarck deduced, warily regarding the stingrays. They also seem very slow, but they can move in quick bursts from short range. I'll have to keep my distance.
Now, Bismarck had to keep track of the two stingrays as well as the fast-moving European Princess. Though the stingrays didn't do much physical damage, if she were hit by them at an inopportune time, that could be the end for her.
The European Princess fired her guns again, but Bismarck easily avoided them this time. However, she forget about the tail, and the Abyssal's long appendage came in from a different angle to fire at her. Bismarck raised her arm to shield herself. The shots exploded as they made contact with her, and they tore open the clothing and skin on her arm, burnt, charred flesh giving way to bone.
Tears welled up in the corners of Bismarck's eyes as she grit her teeth and fought through the pain. No, I can't dwell on any injury!
The throbbing in her side still continued, and she could feel warm blood leaking out from that wound as well. To make things worse, Bismarck had yet to land a single shot on the enemy. She was losing this fight, and she was losing it badly.
At this rate, I'll be killed for certain, she realized. She hated to admit it, but she was no match for a Princess alone. She would need to find an opening and then escape.
That seemed to be a very difficult thing to do, though. The European Princess fired up her engines once again and rushed towards Bismarck with alarming speed. The fastest ship in her fleet was Amatsukaze, and though the European Princess didn't quite match up to the destroyer's speed, she was close. Either way, it was too fast for Bismarck to outspeed, and so her only choice was to fight back. Bismarck aimed her guns at the Abyssal and fired, expecting the Princess to once again swerve out of the way. To her surprise, the Abyssal instead tanked the hits and continued onward. Though the Abyssal didn't lose any speed, the hits did have an effect, and the explosions actually caused a burst of light blue blood and mauled one of the mounted guns on the vehicle.
Despite the good hit, it soon became clear to Bismarck why the Abyssal didn't dodge the shots. Apparently the European Princess had decided that taking damage from the shells was worth it if she got to skewer Bismarck in the end, and she sailed towards the German with her sword poised for a stabbing strike. At this point it was far too late for Bismarck to evade, and so she figured that she would just have to deflect the hit somehow.
Raising her blade, the European Princess thrusted forward. Bismarck countered by lifting her good arm in front of her face, and with impressive reaction skill, she deflected the Abyssal's sword using the metal brace around her wrist. The sword strike cracked the brace, but it had served its purpose. The deflection momentarily stunned the Princess, and Bismarck took advantage of this by firing her AA gun in the Abyssal's face. That stunned the European Princess even more, so Bismarck used the opportunity to grab onto the Abyssal's sword arm. With an angry cry, Bismarck used her battleship strength to twist and snap the Princess' arm. Grunting in pain, the Princess was forced to drop her sword, which sunk into the water. However, Bismarck's victory was short-lived as the Abyssal's tail suddenly swung around and smashed into Bismarck's injured port side, once again sending her flying.
The blonde battleship had a rough landing as her rigging and body got beat up by the force at which she impacted the waves. She floated on her back, moaning in pain as her side resonated with pain. The saltwater also did not help in easing her agony, and the longer she lay there, the more it stung. Bismarck screwed her eyes shut with exertion as she got to her feet, and she felt a sweat begin to break out. The longer the fight dragged on, the more damage her body was taking. Soon, she figured she would probably collapse from pain or exertion.
Damn it… Even the Re-class I fought is nothing compared to this monster, Bismarck thought, glancing at the European Princess who had now regained her neutral expression.
The Princess' cool stare remained fixed on Bismarck. Then, her tail curled up over her head and pointed its guns in Bismarck's direction. Bismarck prepared to dodge again, but she felt a sharp, stinging pain and then froze.
… I forgot about those stingray things!
Bismarck's body tensed up, and her legs refused to move. Meanwhile, the European Princess' guns were primed for the coup de grace.
I'm going to die here? Bismarck almost refused to believe it. Hot tears unwelcomingly rushed to her eyes, and her throat tightened. No… It's not fair! Why me?
The whistling sound of shells flying through the air reached Bismarck's ears, but surprisingly, they had not come from the European Princess. Instead, the shells were heading in the opposite direction, and the Princess was forced to give up her attack and sail out of the way of the projectiles which were aimed towards her.
Finally regaining her mobility, Bismarck turned to see who had come to her aid. Her blue eyes widened with recognition as she saw Haruna sail over. The Kongou-class battleship looked a bit roughed up and bloodied, but all in all, she was in much better shape than Bismarck.
"Bismarck! I've finally found you," Haruna smiled warmly. After what Bismarck had been through, seeing a friendly face was an enormous blessing.
"H-haruna?" was all Bismarck managed. Her voice was still shaky from her near-death experience.
"It's all right. Haruna is here now," the Japanese ship girl assured Bismarck. She then fixed her gaze on the European Princess. "So you've been fighting a Princess by yourself… No wonder you've taken so much damage."
"Yeah. She's tough," Bismarck said. "Also, watch out for those flying things. They will paralyze you if they touch you."
"I see. So those are her beasts." Haruna's eyes followed the slow path of the stingrays through the air. "Can you still fight, Bismarck?"
"Yes," Bismarck assured her. She was banged up, but all her guns were still operational.
"Then we should attack together. You were able to destroy her portside guns?"
"Yes, but her tail can reach around to cover that side, so it doesn't even matter," Bismarck responded with frustration.
"Hm… I think it does," Haruna disagreed. "If we both attack her from her port side, then her tail can only choose one of us as the target. The other will be able to get a good lock on her and fire at her."
"So we both rush her from her left side?" Bismarck asked for confirmation.
"As long as your body can handle it, then yes."
Bismarck nodded. "I'll be fine. Let's do it."
Making sure to watch out for the stingrays, Haruna and Bismarck began sailing towards the Abyssal, moving so that they made it around to her left. The European Princess' vehicle rigging allowed her to attain great speeds, but it did not allow for much maneuverability, so she was unable to fully turn around to face them. The only defense she had against such an attack was her muscular and flexible tail, which she twisted to face the oncoming battleships.
"It's working," Haruna said. "She seems to be aiming towards me… Bismarck, you fire and I'll try and evade!"
"Jawohl," Bismarck replied as she readied her cannons.
With a resounding report, Bismarck fired her guns, her shots hitting the Abyssal before she could even begin firing at Haruna. When the smoke cleared, the Princess was still standing, but her left side was heavily leaking cyan blood. Her calm expression had also been replaced with a snarl.
"Sink… Sink!" the Abyssal cried out.
She charged at the two ship girls with her high-speed rigging, but Haruna and Bismarck were far enough apart that the Abyssal ended up missing both of them. However, to the ship girls' shock, they suddenly found that neither of them could move.
"W-what happened?" Haruna asked in confusion as she tried to move her rigid body. "I felt a sharp stinging pain… Did we get hit by the stingrays? But how?"
Bismarck cursed as she realized what had happened. "Those things probably hitched a ride on the Princess' rigging, then flew off and attacked us when she sped past us. She wasn't even trying to hit us with her rigging in the first place."
No more words were shared between the two ship girls, as at that moment, the Abyssal fired her guns at the immobilized Haruna, causing the Japanese battleship to cry out in pain. Haruna's guns became dented by the ensuing explosion, and part of her starboard side had been burnt. There was no rest for her, though. The Princess then rushed at her again and used her tail to slam into Haruna's ribcage. The shock of the blow sent Haruna bouncing off the surface of the ocean.
"Haruna!" Bismarck cried out with horror. She was now able to move again, but there wasn't much she could to for her teammate anymore. She at least wanted to make sure that Haruna was still alive, though.
The European Princess had other plans. She then turned her ire towards Bismarck and rushed at her, but Bismarck anticipated this and fired off another salvo in the path of the oncoming enemy. The shots were not very accurate since they were fired off relatively quickly, but it at least had the effect of throwing the Princess off, which gave Bismarck a chance to sail over to Haruna.
"Haruna, are you okay?" Bismarck asked worriedly.
The ship girl in question was clearly hurt badly, but she weakly got to her feet and gave Bismarck a smile. "I'm… I'm all right."
"You don't look all right," Bismarck frowned.
As if to accentuate the German's words, Haruna began coughing up blood and then wheezing, her face contorted with pain.
"You can't stay here any longer," Bismarck decided. "I'll distract the Princess for now. Sail back to the fleet and retreat."
"No… I can't," Haruna shook her head, even blood dribbled from the corner of her mouth.
"I know the Admiral said we need to look out for each other, but you don't need to take it this far," Bismarck told her.
"That's not it…" Haruna replied. "It's not about the Admiral's orders. You and I are fleetmates, and so I want to help you. We're comrades, right?"
Bismarck was at a loss for words for a moment, but she then smiled. "Yeah, you're right. And that's exactly why you're going to get out of here right now."
"B-but -"
"Your guns are bent out of shape, and you look even worse than I do," Bismarck argued. "As your teammate, I'm not going to let you sink here. Get out of here, and go see if you can find help for me if you can. I'll try and hold the Princess off until then."
Haruna looked reluctant, but she eventually nodded. Bismarck did have a point. "All right… Please survive, Bismarck."
"I will. Now go."
As Haruna slowly sailed away, Bismarck turned back to the European Princess, who appeared to be curiously watching the proceedings.
Bismarck's tired blue eyes studied the Princess. I was talking big just now… But how exactly am I supposed to beat her?