Chapter 18

Anzu had enough of the hiding after there was the announcement about an intervening tank. "It has non-regulated HEAT shells in the ammunition storages and also enough to shoot down every single tank in this match." The SC prez was shocked after hearing that.

Anzu ordered Yuzu to get them to the ambush spot, hoping to gain the attention of the P26/40. That way, the original plan will play out, but she still needs to inform Miho about what she was planning to do. "Turtle team?! Do you copy?" the voice of George asked. "Yes. What is it?" she responded a bit too much angrily.

"The enemy tankettes are heading your way! Move to the ambush spot!" the boy said. "On it. Over." "Understood. Over." And after that, a shell flew past her tank, hitting and white flagging one of the mentioned tankettes. "Momo, you should better hit something right now!" Anzu commented as the gunner missed another target by at least fifty meters!

Traf looked at the two Semoventes which were following him and firing at his tank, missing every time. "Takashi! Hard stop and turn 225°!" he commanded. The driver nodded and soon, the Tiger did an almost sickening mix of moves, but it still had the desired effect. "Target locked. The leftmost Semovente."

After that, the two confused TDs stopped and he smirked. "Feuer frei!" Traf announced as he fired at the tank. A white flag showed up a second later. The second Semovente tried to run away, but he had already locked on it. "Pursue it, so I won't lose the lock on it!" he shouted and the Tiger started moving towards the escaping TD.

"I'm sure about winning this." The commander looked at his radioman. "Don't jinx it!" he warned George with a small scolding glare. Both his crewmates laughed it off and refocused on their tasks.

Caesar loaded another shell and Saemonza fired it at the Semovente, but it was shrugged off… again. "Loading speed is the key to win…" she realized as she loaded another shell into the 7,5 cm StuK 40 L/43 cannon. "Oryou, stop! Saemonza, wait for us to fully stop!" she suddenly commanded as she remembered the lecture Miho gave them at their training.

They did as she said and Saemonza fired a second later. The Semovente suddenly went to a halt and a white flag popped up, but the same happened to the StuG. "A draw, huh?" Erwin smirked. "Yes, a draw."Two of Anzio's Semoventes and two Carro Veloces rendered immobile! On Oarai's side the only casualty was a StuG III F!" the voice of Hibiki Inatomi announced.

"Next time, we won't get destroyed!" Saemonza shouted. "YES!" the rest of the History buff club responded with enthusiasm in their voices.

Noriko loaded another shell to the Type 89B's cannon. At least, they were still protecting the flag tank from being shot down. She looked at the gunner, who fired yet again. "Akebi, status of target?" she asked her. "White flagged!" Akebi responded and they all cheered. "Now this is volleyball!" Taeko added with a wide grin.

"All Semoventes and half of CV33s shot down!" the judge announced through the open channel to every tank. "The numerical advantage is on our side now!" Akebi cheered. "Remember, don't jinx anything now!" Trafalgar's voice cut in almost simultaneously with the end of the judge's announcement. "He's spoiling the fun…" Taeko pouted after hearing that.

"Wait… what?!" Akebi said suddenly. "The tankettes broke the pursuit!" she explained almost immediately. "They were maybe called to defend the enemy flag tank." "We'll pursue them!" Noriko decided after a while. She wanted to raise the 'kill' count of her team. And now was the chance to do so.

Miho looked behind her to see if the enemy flag tank was still pursuing them. It seems like she wants to take down the commanding vehicle first. Not a bad decision… the inner Miho surprisingly complimented Anchovy. Taking down the enemy captain is almost as effective as destroying the enemy flag tank. Both can end the match… she thought and ordered Hana to turn the turret to face the enemy.

"Can you shoot it?" she asked the gunner. Hana shrugged. "I can try…" she started but something cut her off. "Do, or do not. There's no try." Miho felt her inner self nod in approval at that. Better is actually do it than try. "Trafalgar is right!" Yukari shouted from her spot as she was waiting to reload.

Miho looked at Hana as she pulled the trigger and followed the trail of the shell with her eyes. It hit the turret mantlet and got stuck in there. Well… better would be stopping and firing at it, when we aren't in motion… Miho thought and smiled a bit. After that, the P26/40 returned fire, but the shell impacted with the turret Shürzen and tore a bit of it. "That was close…" she heard Saori comment on the enemy shot.

"It was indeed…" Yukari supported the radiowoman. "All Carro Veloces are heading towards the enemy flag tank!" Taeko's voice said through the comms. "We'll have company really soon! Requesting help!" Saori responded to that with a bit of fear in her voice. "On my way, Ankou!" George's voice answered after a few seconds. "What happened to the Rabbit team?" Miho wondered as another shell from the enemy got deflected.

Pepperoni was almost next to the road, where Anchovy reported that the enemy commanding vehicle was, when she noticed something green poking out from a nearby bush. "What is this?" she wondered aloud as her tankette drove by it. She blinked after a while. Did it just… move?! she thought as she focused harder on it.

And really, the thing moved again. It was like it was aiming at them… "ENEMY SIGHTED!" she shouted when she realized what it was. But it was too late to do anything as it fired two times in one second. One shell missed by about two meters, but the second one managed to destroy the left track.

Before she could say anything, the thing drove out from the bushes and revealed itself to be that M3 Lee. It stopped and fired again at her tankette. There was smoke everywhere right after it, but the sound of white flag popping up was unmistakable. "We got taken down, Anchovy-nee-san!" she announced before the channel was cut off.

Anchovy knew that she was slowly losing. Only two Carro Veloces were left, but they could do only as much as defend her from taking two shots. But, she smirked, when she saw that the Panzer IV H was stuck under a cliff. She had the chance to take down the enemy captain and demoralize Oarai, so she took it and fired.

Only to miss as the tank drove a few feet forward. Suddenly, she heard rumblings of three engines that stopped as soon as she heard them. "You're surrounded!" stated a voice from behind. Anchovy turned to the direction of the voice and gulped. The Tiger and Type 89B I-Go were angled a bit and looked like they were shielding something. The flag tank is behind them! she realized and tried to find a way to take down the Panzer 38 (t).

But, before she could do anything, the Tiger opened fire from two of its three MG34 machine guns. One of them was firing at the back armor, while the second was slowly raising and with each few bullets it fired, it was nearing her! Anchovy cursed and quickly slid inside the turret. And after a few more agonising seconds, the MGs stopped firing.

Anchovy slowly peeked out from the turret, only to see that the four tanks fired at the same time on four different spots. "Anzio's flag tank unable to continue in battle. Oarai wins!" the judge announced and Anchovy collapsed on the turret. She lost after finally getting past Round 1… Next year is another Tournament. And another chance to try and win this… she thought and sighed.