"Shoukaku, do you have any planes left?" Kaga asked as the two of them leapt out of the way of the Aircraft Carrier Princess' flamethrower.
"In my quiver? No. I do still have a few fighters and a bomber in the air, though," the white-haired carrier answered.
Kaga nodded. "That will do. Use your fighters to create an opening for your bomber, and then recall it to yourself."
Shoukaku wasn't quite sure what Kaga was planning, but she followed the secretary ship's orders nonetheless. A few moments later, the Suisei dive bomber flew towards her and landed on her flight deck, disappearing in a small cloud of smoke and reappearing as an arrow in her quiver.
"What happened to close-quarters combat?" Aircraft Carrier Princess taunted as she watched the two ship girls momentarily retreat. "It does not matter, I suppose. You will be eliminated either way."
After she finished speaking, the Abyssal withdrew some of her planes from the air and pulled them towards the airspace where she was fighting Kaga and Shoukaku. There, she had the spherical planes hover in place above the battlefield. Their circular shadows were dark on the ocean below, dotting the water with various black spots. What Kaga and Shoukaku found strange was that none of the planes was moving; instead, they merely hovered in the air above the Abyssal and the two carriers.
"Well? Come and face me if you dare," the Aircraft Carrier Princess declared, holding out her arms. "You have heard of underwater and underground minefields, but I wonder if you can withstand an aerial minefield? Now that my dive bombers are positioned directly above us, I can easily and quickly call any of them downwards in order to destroy you if you step underneath them."
Kaga and Shoukaku glanced up at the supposed aerial minefield with worried looks. They had no planes left, and so they were powerless to stop the hovering bombers. They did, however, have their anti-air guns, so they could still use those.
"We have no choice but to fight her in close combat, so we'll need to rush in," Kaga said to Shoukaku. "There's no reason for us to wade through her 'minefield,' however. We will cut a path through it by shooting down the planes with our anti-air guns, and then sail through that path."
Going with that plan, the two carriers began shooting down the hovering aircraft, a task that was fairly simple since the planes were not moving. The ship girls moved at their maximum possible speed, only shooting down the minimum number of planes. They did this because they knew that if they stopped for too long, the Princess would be able to direct the other planes towards them. If they were moving this quickly, though, the only planes that would be able to reach them in time were the ones directly above them, but since they shot those down, they were able to sail unhindered.
It seems all that endurance training does pay off, Kaga thought as she fired her flak guns, remembering the long runs that her admiral made his fleet do every training session. But still… This seems too easy. Did the Aircraft Carrier Princess really spend all that effort setting up her minefield just for us to bypass it so simply? Did she underestimate our speed and anti-air accuracy, or does she have something else planned?
Kaga found out the answer the hard way. Since her eyes were occupied in aiming her anti-air guns towards the planes, she was not paying too much attention to the Aircraft Carrier Princess herself. Kaga figured that the Princess couldn't really pose much of a threat since all the Princess' planes were already in the air, but she had completely forgotten about the Princess' beast. A jet of dark red flames shot towards Kaga, and the intense heat was the only warning the ship girl had. Thinking quickly, Kaga deactivated her boat slippers and dove underwater. The flamethrower passed over her head, and even under the surface, Kaga could feel the hot power emanating from the attack.
She then resurfaced, breathing in air and a sigh of relief at having dodged the flames. However, because she had to travel underwater for a brief period, she was not able to shoot down the mines in her path. As soon as she surfaced and regained her footing, a white dive bomber smashed into her, exploding with a bang and almost knocking her over. A second one soon followed, and this one did knock her over. Kaga tasted blood in her mouth as she momentarily dipped beneath the waves again before her equipment righted her. Smoke trailed from her rigging, and she felt a resounding ringing in her ears as her vision swam.
The low growl of more Abyssal bombers barely managed to make it to her, but there was nothing she could do to stop them. The repeated explosions had thrown her off-course and into the minefield, and now the Princess would easily be able to bomb her to hell and back. Kaga tried to aim her guns, but she was still woozy from being hit twice in quick succession.
Luckily, Shoukaku had noticed her teammate's troubles and deviated from her own course. Shoukaku instead turned her path towards Kaga, allowing her anti-air guns to shoot down the planes that were going for the stoic carrier and saving her from certain destruction. Kaga used that time to recover and get her anti-air guns back on track as well.
"We have to keep moving!" Shoukaku shouted over her guns.
Kaga nodded and sailed on. If they stopped for too long, the aerial minefield would just close in on them and blot them out. Now they both also had to keep an eye out for the Princess herself, though.
I suppose our movements were too easy to read, Kaga realized. Since Kaga and Shoukaku were shooting down the planes directly ahead of the path they were going to take, the Aircraft Carrier Princess could just look at that and see exactly where the two ship girls were planning to sail. That was how she had been able to fire her flamethrower so accurately this time in spite of the carriers' fast speeds.
However, the ship girls were rapidly approaching the Princess' position, and the Abyssal recognized that she would be overrun before she could recharge and fire off another flamethrower. She gathered up the remaining bombers in her aerial minefield and called them back to her. They formed a white wall behind her, and she pointed her hand towards the ship girls.
"Sink!" the Aircraft Carrier Princess demanded, and as she spoke, her planes rushed forward in an all-or-nothing attack.
Kaga and Shoukaku paused their advance as they saw what the Abyssal was planning. Kaga thought about just going underwater again, but that wouldn't work against dive bombers, especially not against an air fleet of such size. She wouldn't be able to get deep enough to avoid the explosions, and that would definitely lead to her sinking.
"We have to throw off their timing," Kaga said.
"I agree. Sail forward, then?" Shoukaku suggested.
"Yes."
At a time like this when an enormous bomber fleet is heading straight towards you, Kaga figured the most unexpected thing would be to sail right into the bombers instead of trying to avoid them. Simultaneously, Kaga and Shoukaku sailed full speed ahead and jumped right into the oncoming wall of Abyssal bombers. They fired their anti-air guns in order to make a hole in the wall, and using that newly-created space, they leapt right through the rushing dive bomber assault, completely bypassing it. Since the timing of the bombers was controlled by the Princess and not by proximity, the dive bombers failed to explode. They did blow up a second after Kaga and Shoukaku passed through them, and the explosions sent the two ship girls flying forward and made them faceplant into the ocean, but ultimately they escaped any major harm.
The Aircraft Carrier Princess stared dumbly as she watched the ship girls dust themselves off.
"You… How did you…"
Kaga and Shoukaku wore firm looks, and Shoukaku cracked her knuckles, fully prepared to sink the Abyssal with her fists if she had to. The Aircraft Carrier Princess took in their confidence and was not happy about it.
"Why won't you sink! Die like the humans who were aboard you!"
The Princess fired off her flamethrower again, but unlike last time, the ship girls were prepared for it, and they were both able to dodge the attack. However, the flamethrower maneuver did give the Princess time to call over six Abyssal fighters to aid her. The spherical planes orbited around her as she smirked.
"Come at me, then," the Princess scowled. "But be warned, as soon as you get close, I will send these planes crashing into you."
Kaga glanced at Shoukaku, and the white-haired carrier nodded in return. Kaga then notched her bow with her final arrow and fired. The projectile flew for a very short distance before materializing into two fighters.
Shoukaku followed suit, though her arrow only produced the dive bomber that she had recovered earlier. In total, the ship girls had three planes to the Abyssal's six, and only two out of those three were fighters capable of taking on the Abyssal planes.
The Princess was visibly confused. "What is this? Pathetic. I will destroy your planes and then come after you myself, then."
Before the Princess could make good on her threat, Kaga sent her two fighters forward. The Abyssal moved her fighters to intercept. Since Kaga only had two planes, the Aircraft Carrier Princess could easily destroy them and also keep a watch out for Shoukaku's bomber, which was undoubtedly going to approach from a different direction.
But to the Abyssal's surprise, Kaga's fighters did not even try to engage her own. Instead, the ship girl's fighters turned and crashed right into each other, blowing up in a cloud of smoke and flames. The Princess stood there, completely at a loss as to why Kaga would do such a thing. However, she found her answer as Shoukaku's dive bomber came blazing through the smoke cloud and straight towards her. Since she was so distracted by the explosion, the Abyssal was unable to react in time to stop the bomber, and Shoukaku's plane dropped its load right onto the Abyssal's head.
An explosion ensued, and the Aircraft Carrier Princess shrieked in pain and surprise. Now that the Abyssal was blinded and damaged, Shoukaku and Kaga both rushed in themselves. Kaga launched a right haymaker at the Abyssal, her fist connecting with the Princess' already-damaged face. Shoukaku also took that opportunity to kick the Abyssal in her stomach, the double blow causing the Princess to stumble and fall to her knees.
"It's over!" Shoukaku declared, gritting her teeth and grabbing the Abyssal's head with both her hands. She had never actually executed this move before, but her admiral had taught it to her as a way to snap the enemy's neck and kill them quickly.
The Aircraft Carrier Princess was faintly aware of Shoukaku's hands around the base of her head, and she knew that if she didn't act now, she would die. With a desperate flair, the Abyssal had all six of her fighters simply converge on her position. The six planes smashed into the Abyssal, but that also meant that Shoukaku, who was in close proximity to the Princess, was hit.
Though kamikaze attacks typically did less damage then bomb hits, when six planes exploded at once, it was bound to be pretty destructive. Kaga rushed over to scene of the explosion and pulled Shoukaku out. The white-haired carrier coughed and sputtered as Kaga dragged her out by the armpits, her body limply following along.
"Are you all right?" Kaga asked, noting with concern the damage to Shoukaku. Her flight deck was completely destroyed and parts of her clothes had been torn off, revealing charred black skin underneath.
Shoukaku groaned in pain.
Kaga frowned deeply as she noticed smoke sizzling from Shoukaku's wounds. The Fifth Carrier Division ship girl's left arm was also burnt black and shriveled. It seemed that Shoukaku had been almost entirely engulfed in flames by the explosions, but apparently her Fairies had managed to put the fires out fairly quickly. Nevertheless, it was clear that the flames had still done severe damage. There was no way that she could hold her bow or fight in close quarters in such a state.
"Perhaps you should retreat," Kaga told her.
Shoukaku glanced down at her burnt body, then weakly nodded. "But… You are injured as well…"
"That does not matter. Look over there."
The two ship girls set their eyes on the Aircraft Carrier Princess, who had also been damaged by the six kamikazes. In addition to that, the repeated attacks from Kaga and Shoukaku had evidently taken their toll on her. The Abyssal's right arm was missing, and her anti-air guns were smashed beyond all recognition. Her sickly white skin was crusted in black and red, and the dark flames in the jaw of her Beast had dimmed to a flicker. The Princess was able to stand, but she was panting and her red eyes were losing their light. Black liquid seeped out from the corner of her mouth.
"One more hit will finish her," Kaga concluded. "You have done your job here, Shoukaku. Now use the anti-air cover from the escorting ships and sail back to the Admiral."
"All right. I will see you there, then."
Shoukaku gave Kaga a reassuring nod before slowly sailing away, trails of smoke slithering out from her body and rigging as she retreated.
The Aircraft Carrier Princess looked up at Kaga, then grinned at her. "So… It's come to this."
"Yes. Your grave awaits you," Kaga said coldly.
"Heh… Tell me, Kaga. Do you remember them?"
Kaga blinked in confusion. "Remember whom?"
"Oh… The sailors who served aboard you," the Princess continued in her hate-filled tone.
"Of course I remember them. What of it?"
"What do you remember about them?"
Kaga was unsure of why the Abyssal was asking her these questions, but at this point, Kaga had already won the battle, and every second that passed was only making her enemy weaker and more tired.
"I remember their courage and their strength," Kaga answered, "how they fought even in the face of death because they valued their honor and their loyalty to their country. Though they are nameless to history, their spirit carries on inside of me. I may just be one vessel, but I have the power of hundreds behind me. That is why you have lost today."
"What nonsense," the Abyssal spat. "Is that really all you remember?"
The Aircraft Carrier Princess looked into Kaga's eyes. An unsettling feeling poked at the ship girl, and it was the same sense of discomfort she had felt back when she first saw this Abyssal at Hachijo-jima.
"I am familiar to you, am I not?" the Princess asked. "That is the strange sensation you are feeling now."
"I do not know you, aside from the time we briefly met at that island," Kaga denied.
"You don't know me, and I don't know you. And yet we are both similar," the Aircraft Carrier Princess said. "You heard it back at the island you mentioned. Abyssals and ship girls are two sides of the same coin. You were molded by the positive aspects of the crew of the aircraft carrier IJN Kaga… And I was born of the hatred, the despair, the gloom, the pain, and the regrets of that very same crew."
It was true that Kaga had heard about this from the Battleship Princess at Hachijo-jima, but what she did not know was that the Aircraft Carrier Princess was created from the feelings of the same crew that she was.
"So you are… Also a manifestation of the Kaga?" the ship girl asked, unable to hide the tint of wonder in her voice.
The Princess smiled. "Yes… And the crew demands a sacrifice. Who should pay for all that they have suffered? Who is going to compensate them for the pain and sorrow that they endured? All those years that were cut short for them that they could have spent with their family and friends - can any of that even be measured, let alone paid back? As you said, they have all been lost to history. Nobody cares about them anymore. Their problems do not matter. The only one who still remembers… Is me."
An enormous burst of dark red flames suddenly shot forth from the Princess' monstrous maw. The unexpectedness of the attack gave Kaga no time to dodge, and all she could do was raise her left arm in front of her face, using her flight deck to protect herself from the fire. The impact of the flamethrower pushed her back, and she grunted in pain as she felt the intense heat engulf her arm and her flight deck. She allowed herself to fall backwards so as to avoid the brunt of the flames, and as she fell, she dunked her flaming arm into the ocean. The saltwater stung momentarily, but when she pulled it out, she didn't feel much pain. Instead, she saw that her entire arm, flight deck and all, had been completely burnt away.
If those flames had hit my head or torso… She then looked back at the Aircraft Carrier Princess. The Abyssal's eyes had turned black, and the flames had gone out in her Beast's jaw. Slowly, she teetered forward and collapsed onto the surface of the ocean. Then, she began sinking.
Kaga watched the Princess slip below the water, and she couldn't help but to regard her with slight pity. Is that how the sailors felt when they died?
Behind her, she could hear the sound of the escort ships cheering as the remainder of the Princess' planes fell out of the sky and plopped lifelessly into the sea. The Aircraft Carrier Princess had been defeated.
A low moan rumbled from the throat of the Battleship Princess' beast as the creature opened its red mouth, revealing its jagged teeth and broad red tongue which was sticky with saliva. The beast's long, gray arms dragged behind it, dipping into the ocean as the Battleship Princess walked towards Yamato.
The ship girl had to admit that she felt an acute sense of fear as she watched the beast. That thing was clearly unnatural… But what disturbed her even more were the Battleship Princess' red eyes. Their gaze bore through Yamato, and they appeared to her as demonic searchlights that signaled the coming of her doom.
The Battleship Princess' six main gun barrels beared down on Yamato from where they were attached to the beast's shoulders. Yamato prepared to sail out of their angle, but one of the beast's arms suddenly lashed out with surprising speed, creating a huge splash of water that slammed into Yamato's face. Stunned by the saltwater spraying into her eyes, Yamato was unable to avoid the ensuing cannon shots.
Though she was only hit by one of them, the shot that crashed into her gut and then exploded sent even a superbattleship like her flying backwards. She landed hard upon the water, and she slowly got back up, struggling to breath.
No… The fight has barely even started and I've already taken damage!
"That was truly pathetic," the Princess chided. "Could you not even predict a simple maneuver like that? How did you become the flagship?"
Ignoring the Princess' taunts, Yamato decided she needed to go on the offensive or risk being destroyed before she could even get in a hit. She recognized that a straight frontal attack probably would not work, so she reached into her rigging and pulled out a handful of explosive shells. She sailed to the Princess' right and pointed her guns at the enemy. The Battleship Princess raised an eyebrow but made no move to dodge, which Yamato found strange. Nevertheless, instead of firing, Yamato hurled the shells at the Princess like a ninja throwing shuriken.
This actually managed to catch the Battleship Princess off-guard, but only slightly. The Princess' beast reacted in time, and it lifted one of its burly arms to block the explosions. However, this gave Yamato time to sail around over to the Princess' undefended portside, and that was when Yamato actually fired her main cannons. With a roar that told of immense power, Yamato's guns shot their projectiles at the Princess with unbridled fury. The Princess' beast once again reacted, using its other arm to defend the Princess. Yamato's shots blew up when they slammed into the beast's arm, but amazingly, the beast appeared as if it had suffered no damage.
No way! How? Yamato stared in disbelief. Was the Battleship Princess' rigging beast really so sturdy that it could tank hits from her 46cm guns?
"Do you see, Yamato? Not even a supposed 'superbattleship' can stand up to the pinnacle of Abyssal firepower and armor," the Battleship Princess said, her tone not one of gloating but rather more akin to one stating an irrefutable fact.
To emphasize her point, the cannons on the Princess' rigging went off, and Yamato sailed away as fast as she could in order to avoid the shots. But since she was occupied trying to dodge the incoming shells, the beast was able to swat her away with one of its arms, again sending Yamato skipping along the surface of the ocean. When she came to a painful stop, she saw that her portside guns had crumpled under the force of the attack. Though the guns had taken the brunt of the Abyssal's swipe for her, that also meant that she could no longer utilize her full firepower. And since even an entire broadside wasn't enough to damage the beast, Yamato began wonder if it was even possible to win this fight anymore.
Maybe I should just try and retreat, she thought worriedly. Wait… No. I cannot do that. I still have to buy time for the others to escape… And I must live up to my name.
"I am Yamato of the Imperial Japanese Navy!" Yamato shouted defiantly as she stood up, more for herself than for the Battleship Princess. "Do not think you can defeat me so easily!"
The Battleship Princess made no verbal reply. Instead, a huge red beam shot out from the beast's massive maw, streaming with surprising speed right towards Yamato. The ship girl quickly dove to the side, unceremoniously landing on the water as her heart beat rapidly in her chest.
So she has an attack like that too… I should have expected that, Yamato admonished herself. Still, it was better that the Princess used it now rather than at a time when Yamato wouldn't have been able to dodge.
The Princess sailed closer to Yamato. "You ship girls are all the same. You are overwhelmed by notions of heroism and camaraderie, so much to the point where you cannot accurately gauge whether you can actually defeat your enemy or not. Yamato… You will sink here."
"No. It is you Abyssals who are wrong," Yamato countered. "All you care about is causing as much damage and taking as many lives as possible. The Battle of Tangier proved that. You were in command there, weren't you?"
The first visible strike of emotion flashed across the Princess' face as she scowled deeply.
Yamato smiled. "But never mind that. I will make you pay for your sins right here."
Reaching into her rigging again, Yamato pulled out a long, metal stick. She clicked a button on the stick, showing it to be a red-colored umbrella. Yamato held the umbrella in one hand and pulled out some more shells in her other, lining her fingers with two shells each.
"I could have never done this in my warship form, but now, I'll show you the true strength of a ship girl," Yamato declared.
Yamato tossed the shells up into the air. As they came down, Yamato held out her umbrella and started spinning it. The shells hit the umbrella and ricocheted off of it, and the fast spinning of the umbrella sent the shells in a variety of different directions. The Battleship Princess had not expected such an attack, and though she tried to defend herself with her beast's arms, the varying speed and direction of the shells still allowed some to hit her.
"Urgh… Damn you," the Princess cursed, pulling back after a shell had fallen in from up above her and detonated right on her head. The blow wasn't enough to cause significant damage, but now there was blood dripping from her scalp and flowing over her pale face.
But even as the Princess sailed backwards, Yamato rushed ahead, her umbrella pointed out in front of her like a battering ram.
Battleship Princess' eyes widened at the ship girl's aggressive maneuver. What the…!
Using her beast, the Princess reached out one of its long gray arms in order to grab Yamato. However, as the beast's arm came into contact with the umbrella, it was unable to advance any further.
The Abyssal stared in shock as she watched Yamato grit her teeth and push forward. She's actually matching my beast in strength?
Yamato's muscles strained as she used all her horsepower to press on. Slowly, she even began pushing the beast's arm back. The Princess sensed this and had the beast's other arm reach out to slam into Yamato, but the ship girl only smirked as she saw this. Yamato turned her starboard guns right onto the actual body of the Princess now that the Abyssal was unprotected by the beast's arms. Moments before the gray appendage knocked Yamato away, the ship girl's 46cm guns cracked through the air and smashed brilliantly onto the Abyssal Princess.
A series of loud crashes ensued, both from the beast slamming into Yamato as well as from Yamato's guns denting into the Abyssal. Yamato was sent soaring through the air for the third time, and this time she actually turned slightly to protect her guns. That meant that her body took a fair bit of damage, and she cried out in pain as she bounced off the ocean before finally landing. Yamato gingerly stood back up, using her umbrella as a crutch and thankful for her impressive armor. Even so, her breathing was now more labored, and an intense, throbbing pain emanated from her ribs.
As bad as Yamato was, the Battleship Princess was not much better. The shots from Yamato's cannons had done their damage. Shiny red blood poured out from wounds on the Princess' torso, and her right arm was bent crookedly, twisted from the force of the explosions. The Abyssal coughed up blood and black liquid, and her eyes blazed with anger.
Impossible… A ship girl has done this much damage to me? The Battleship Princess looked over at Yamato. Could she truly be as powerful as she claims…?
Yamato smirked at the battered Abyssal. "It seems you grew overconfident, Battleship Princess. You may have underestimated me because I was sunk fairly easily by aircraft back during the War, but today you have tried to face me in a battleship contest. I am Japan's first superbattleship! I will not be defeated so easily!"
She angled her guns towards the Princess again, and the Abyssal reflexively brough the beast's arms around to guard from the hits. The Princess heard the guns firing and the shells impacting her beast, but the sounds were slightly more muted. Nevertheless, the Princess removed the arms and then prepared to fire retaliatory shots. However, as soon as she unshielded herself, a barrage of firepower flew towards her, pelting her with shells once more.
The repeated explosions took their toll on the Princess, and she felt her body becoming weaker. Her black dress had torn in several places and her skin was bruised blue. The Abyssal hacked up blood again as she sailed back from Yamato.
"You shouldn't be so hasty with your defenses," Yamato said to her. "I only fired my secondary guns on that first volley. Still, I knew you would immediately use those arms to block the shots no matter what because I've only fired my main guns up until this point, and taking another volley of those would be devastating. It appears I guessed correctly, Abyssal."
The Battleship Princess clutched at a wound on her abdomen, trying to stem the bleeding. This bitch… She is far more clever than she initially made herself out to be.
"Just… Sink!" the Princess shouted, growing frustrated. How can she be fighting me, the flagship of the Abyssal fleet, on equal footing?!
Filled with rage, the Abyssal Princess rushed forward, sailing straight towards Yamato. The ship girl turned around, and the Princess urged herself on even faster because she thought that Yamato was trying to flee. The Abyssal was planning on first attempting to grab Yamato with her beast's arms, and if that failed, she would just predict the ship girl's trajectory and blow her away with her main guns.
But to the Princess' surprise, instead of sailing away at full speed, Yamato fired her main guns. This made no sense to the Princess since Yamato was facing away from her and her shells would just hit the ocean, but she quickly realized the meaning of the shots. Yamato made no attempt to control the recoil of the shots, and the force from the cannons firing sent Yamato backwards. Since the Abyssal Princess was rushing forwards at the same time, the maneuver allowed Yamato to slip past the outstretched arms of the beast and move inside of them.
For the first time in the fight, Yamato was close enough to touch the Abyssal with her hands. From this close, Yamato could see the demonic fury in the Princess' red eyes, but she could also see the intense damage that her guns had done to the Abyssal. That gave her confidence to press on even in face of the Abyssal's fearsome gaze, and Yamato lifted her umbrella and stabbed the metal rod end at the Abyssal, aiming for her head.
Now, die! Yamato cried out internally as she grit her teeth and slammed the umbrella down with all the strength of a superbattleship.
But unfortunately for her, the Princess made the most minute of movements, tilting her head in such a way that the rod simply deflected off the Abyssal's horns. Stunned by the counter, Yamato was left open, and the Battleship Princess took that opportunity to growl and slash at Yamato with her black claws. The strike tore a gash into Yamato all the way from her left shoulder to her right hip, and blood sprayed out from the wound, splattering the Abyssal. Yamato winced in pain and stumbled back, and the Princess followed this up with a powerful kick to Yamato's stomach, sending the ship girl flying in the opposite direction again.
This time, Yamato struggled mightily to get up. The saltwater stung fearsomely in her wound, and her umbrella had come loose and was now floating aimlessly on the surface of the ocean. The slash she had received from the Princess was actually bleeding heavily, tinting the water around her red.
No… I can't sink yet, she reminded herself. There was a brief spike of despair as she realized just how much relief she would feel if she just let go right now, but she quickly overcame it. This time, she would be of use.
"I am impressed that you can still stand," the Battleship Princess said, her tone calm but tinged with exertion.
Yamato stood to her full height, even as her shirt and skin were dyed red and slick with blood. "I… I will remain standing until I have destroyed you."
"Fine, then. I will simply force you to your knees."
All at the same time, the Battleship Princess fired her portside and starboard cannons as well as the red beam from her beast's mouth. The multiple attacks covered a large range, and so Yamato could not dodge. The ship girl dove for her umbrella and picked it up with haste. Opting to take her chances with the Princess' shells rather than the beast's laser beam, Yamato positioned herself in the path of the portside barrage. As the shells came raining down on her, she held her umbrella out in front of her. Though the projectiles exploded on impact, Yamato was protected from taking damage as the umbrella took the force of the impact.
"Oh? That is some impressive armor," Battleship Princess admitted.
Yamato smiled defiantly. "Thank you, but I like my firepower as well."
The ship girl angled her starboard cannons towards the Princess once again and fired. The large shells sailed through the air and arced down towards the the Battleship Princess. But as usual, the Princess merely used her beast's arms to block the shots, and the shells exploded harmlessly off the thick skin of the massive creature.
The Battleship Princess moved the arms away so that she could fire her returning shots, but her aim was thrown off when something flew towards her at amazing speed.
What the hell is this!
The Princess' red eyes went wide as she tried to dodge the projectile, but it was too late for that.
"Augh!" the Abyssal cried out as she felt sharp metal pierce her abdomen. Blood sprayed out of the wound, and the Princess gasped in agony.
Trembling, the Princess glanced down to see what had struck her. Stabbed into her stomach was Yamato's umbrella. The ship girl had apparently folded it back up to make it more aerodynamic and then thrown it with all her power, as if she were some sort of spearman.
I've had it with this bitch… the Princess seethed. In spite of her great anger, she was also grimly aware that her strength was slowly fading. She had taken quite a bit of damage, definitely more than she had initially expected to take. She needed to come up with a plan soon, or else she really would be defeated.
The Abyssal Princess began sailing towards Yamato, her crimson blood dripping slowly from her wounds. Yamato carefully observed the Princess, poised to dodge and counterattack as soon as the opportunity presented itself. Though Yamato was incredibly fatigued from her own wounds, the sight of the battered Battleship Princess showed her that she could win this fight.
Just a little bit more… Yamato told herself. I'm going to prove that I am worthy of the superbattleship title!
The Princess fired, and Yamato tracked the trajectory of the shells with her trained eyes. With practiced movements, Yamato sailed out of the way of the shots, and they fell harmlessly into the water, only sending up small splashes instead of doing any actual damage.
And of course she has one more weapon… Yamato reminded herself.
Sure enough, the red laser beam shot out of the beast's unholy maw right after the shots missed Yamato. This attack was even easier to dodge because the Princess missed by a mile and instead shot her beam in a ragged arc that blasted at a downward angle into the water below. Yamato could see the Princess staggering, which was probably why the attack missed by so much.
So her wounds are finally taking a toll on her, Yamato allowed herself a tired smile. Though she was nearing her limit, evidently the Abyssal was as well.
However, a split second after the Princess' laser beam missed, a series of underwater explosions blew up around Yamato, sending large blasts of seawater into the air. The force and placement of the underwater explosions surprised Yamato, and she was almost knocked back.
What… So missed her initial volley on purpose? Yamato realized with horror. She then also missed her laser beam on purpose, instead intending to strike the high-explosive shells that she had put underwater.
Like a demon emerging from the fires of hell, the Battleship Princess suddenly shot out from in between the huge bursts of water and lunged at Yamato, her red eyes burning with fury and her beast letting out a bone-rattling bellow. Yamato tried to parry, but her umbrella was stuck inside the Princess. The beast's fist crashed into Yamato with a sickening crunch, and the ship girl was thrown several meters away from the force of the hit for what felt like the millionth time today.
Yamato's mind told her she needed to get up as soon as possible, but her body refused. Her rib injuries had grown even more severe, and as she gasped for air, an intense, shooting pain coursed through her sides. She tasted blood on her tongue, and she felt very dizzy. Yamato was dimly aware of the Abyssal sailing towards her.
No… I won't lose…
Gritting her teeth through the pain, Yamato slowly tried to stand, but the intense pain only allowed her to make it to her knees. Even so, she still managed to point her starboard cannons at the Princess as she approached… But when she tried to shoot, nothing would come out. A terrible feeling washed over Yamato as she realized that the beast's punch must have smashed her last remaining guns.
"Aren't you a pathetic sight," Battleship Princess mused as she stood over Yamato, her beast looming above them both. "You came close, didn't you? I must applaud you for that."
The guns on the shoulders of the beast depressed down towards Yamato.
"Die, Yamato."
Instead, Yamato let out a defiant cry and leapt at the Princess with the desperation of a cornered animal. Battleship Princess gasped in shock, but at this range, there was nothing she could do. Yamato's hands wrapped themselves around the Princess' neck and squeezed with all their might. If the Abyssal wasn't a Princess-class battleship, her armor would have easily crumpled. Instead, her armor managed to hold out, but her windpipe was being restricted.
The Battleship Princess' expression turned to one of panic. Her beast's arms were made for bludgeoning and smashing, so it would be impossible to remove Yamato from this close range without also severely damaging herself, which could end in her death in her current state. The Abyssal looked into Yamato's eyes. The once-gentle battleship's eyes were dimmed by exhaustion and pain, and yet there was a fierce hardness to them.
I see… She has not forgotten what she is fighting for… Nor must I.
Abandoning her futile attempt to remove Yamato's arms, the Battleship Princess instead placed one hand on Yamato's back and the other on the hilt of the umbrella that was stuck inside her. Using her left hand to firmly keep the umbrella in place, Battleship Princess used her right hand to pull Yamato towards her with all her might.
The sound of steel tearing through flesh was heard as the Princess impaled Yamato upon her own umbrella. The Abyssal winced a bit in pain as the umbrella dug slightly deeper into her as well, but it was worth the cost. Yamato's head was now right next to the Abyssal's, and the Battleship Princess listened to the ship girl's ragged breathing in her ear. A moment later, Yamato gave one last rattling breath and then stopped. Her arms fell limply from the Princess' neck.
"An impressive showing," the Battleship Princess admitted to Yamato, though she knew that the ship girl could no longer hear her.
Again using one hand to steady the umbrella, the Battleship Princess slowly pushed Yamato off the umbrella's hilt. The ship girl's blood soaked her weapon's handle, and the Abyssal caught one last look at Yamato's dead eyes before the Japanese superbattleship collapsed with nothing left to support her.
As she watched Yamato's body slip below the waves, the Battleship Princess sighed to herself.
My wounds are too severe; I will have to retreat from the battlefield. Once again I underestimated the ship girls.
"Hahaha… " the Princess laughed weakly. "The power of my hatred was even able to overcome the flagship of the ship girl fleet. Soon… All will be consumed by the darkness of the Abyss."
With one last glance at the spot where Yamato had sunk, the Battleship Princess turned and sailed away.