Bismarck was angry - no, scratch that - she was furious. After all, some random humans and a DD had snuck into the place of her greatest victory, with the intention to sully it and undo her handiwork done to scare off the Royal Navy and their Azur Lane allies from trying to try and stop her faction from dominating the world as it was destined to, with every other nation slaving for the superior Iron Blood.

Even with the setbacks she had with Tirpitz's small 'rebellion' against her, her subsequent exile to the North sea and the disappearance of Blücher's group in the Pacific, she was positive that her plan was still going smoothly forward. The Royal Navy will fall soon and then, the Eagle Union will be overwhelmed, she thought as she watched a man throw something shiny from the suspiciously still DD into the sea.

Those are the cubes! she realized and accidentally activated her foghorn as she hastily selected her Psgr L/4.4 Bdz AP shells and let the rigging load them in. Then, she fired and moved out of the mist for better intimidation… just in time for a flash of white light to blind her for a few moments and the sound of several squadrons of those accursed torpedo bombers, that seriously damaged her rudder the first time she faced them, made her even angrier than before.

And when her vision finally restored, she quickly exchanged her rigging for her ship and activated the AA guns, while still keeping her main guns trained on the DD and confused, but very much alive, Hood.

Being ripped apart by an explosion hurts way more than I ever thought it would. I'm sorry for failing, your majesty. And no, I don't deserve Heaven after I massacred the Iris fleet. You are wrong with me being worthy of reaching it, Illustrious. Wales… I hope that you're alright and she didn't sink you. And Belfast… I'll never enjoy your tea again…

Wait, is that… light?! But why is it above me? Maybe it's Purgatory, instead of Hell? Wait… was that a foghorn?! And… was that Twin 380mm SK C/34 main gun?! That can't be good. I should go there and finally silence those guns!

And with that in mind, she opened her eyes and stared confusedly at Foxhound and two humans, one of them missing an eye and his left hand, having a standoff against Bismarck.

Ark Royal knew that she made the right decision by following Foxhound from a distance. After all, she felt uneasy that a single DD and two humans were sent alone to the Denmark strait to try and revive Hood. And her fears came true, when she saw Bismarck herself leave the very unnatural mist.

Wait… weren't her eyes supposed to be blue? And where's her cape?! She thought as she observed the BB from afar with three Fairey Swordfish squadrons she purposefully sent to engage at their lowest speed possible to fool Bismarck's AA defenses. And as she saw Bismarck summoning her ship, she grinned as it only gave her a much bigger target to hit.

But, to her surprise, all 36 of her Great war era torpedo bombers were shot down way more efficiently than back in May 1941, but only a few of them sent their "fish" away, which did a very minor damage to the behemoth's port side, none hitting the rudder, or the stern, as she wanted.

"Ark Royal?! What are you doing here?!" Foxhound's voice shouted at her from the intercom, just as one of Bismarck's main guns changed aim and elevation and fired two 380mm AP shells straight towards her, despite Ark standing 21.6 n miles away from the BB and she instinctively jumped back, barely avoiding the shells by just a few feet.

"Her guns were enhanced by Siren tech. There's no way that she'll be able to fire past 19.5 n miles and with such precision without it…" she said in shock at her narrow escape from death and started moving randomly, in hopes of throwing the BB's lock on her off. And to her delight, it somewhat worked, with splashes of water appearing around her every now and then with increasingly larger delays.

She'll run out of ammo soon, but I'll get tired long before that happens, Ark thought as she dodged another attempt at sinking her. But, she knew that she'll have to hold out as long as possible, until Hood or Foxhound score a lucky enough hit to force Bismarck into retreat once again. And this time, sink her once and for all.

But, she still somehow doubted that it'll happen, unless they had at least two more CVs to help beat the Siren-enhanced BB back to where she belongs: the bottom of the ocean.

Foxhound shivered in fear, when she saw Bismarck shoot down all those torpedo bombers, like it was absolutely nothing. After all, she was supposed to be unable to shoot down the Fairey Swordfish, only overpen their airframe, but here she was, defying her fate and common sense with how the only torpedo that hit her made a very small dent, when it should've caused flooding already! It made no sense to the DD and with a quick glance, she noticed that her human companions were thinking the same.

"Bloody Sirens' tech!" The one known as "Mad Jack" Churchill growled and pulled the trigger of his Lee-Enfield rifle, before anyone could stop him from doing so and five consecutive shots ringed across the sea, all of them flying right at the head of the enemy with the accuracy of a hunter going after squirrels.

However, none of them made contact with Bismarck, as a shimmering blue hexagonal shield materialized in front of her, blocking all of the bullets with ease, the unnatural golden eyes of the BB switching focus from Ark Royal in the distance to the human who dared shoot at her, her starboard secondary guns snapping to life and aiming at Foxhound.

"Evasive maneuvers! Get us to her starboard, preferably near the stern! Now!" Adrian Carton de Wiart shouted and Foxhound complied, dodging the barrage at the last possible moment and attempted to return fire by hastily unloading all torpedoes from one of her quadruple 533 mm torpedo tubes at Bismarck's stern from as close as possible, to attempt either disabling Bismarck's rudder, or cause flooding at the very least.

However, the BB somehow dodged most of the torpedoes, only one scoring a hit… but, the result was once again only a small dent in the BB's impossibly durable armor belt, the DD growling in frustration, much like the "Mad Jack" not even a minute ago, failing to notice that both secondary and AA guns were aiming at her, almost prepared to fire and send the DD and two humans to their watery grave.

But then, the sound of a BL 15-inch Mk I naval gun firing tore through the silence that followed Foxhound's torpedo run, and a sudden explosion took down Bismarck's rearmost starboard secondaries and AA, giving Foxhound a small blind spot in Bismarck's defenses to hide in, while the BB screamed in pain.

And everyone present knew what it meant. Hood had joined the battle, a menacing aura radiating off of her in waves, betraying the BC's true emotions, hidden by her innocent smile that she aimed her rigging at Bismarck, prepared to sink her herself to avenge all the sailors who died by Bismarck's hand on that fateful May day.

"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned…" Adrian muttered just loud enough for Foxhound and "Mad Jack" to hear him, and right after the trio shivered in fear and Foxhound almost felt sorry for Bismarck. The key word being almost. Hell, even the nearly emotionless enemy BB showed a hint of fear in her mad eyes. And that was saying something.

Bismarck stared in disbelief at the mangled remains of a quarter of her secondary and AA gun emplacements. After all, she was confident that her Siren-enhanced turret, belt and main deck armor was nigh impenetrable by even the highest-caliber guns that Royal Navy could deploy… and here she was, her firepower lessened by a single volley from a outdated 15 inch gun, when her turrets were supposed to be only slightly dented by the main guns of the Sakura Empire's Yamato-class BBs! And the Observer even confirmed it!

"I-impossible! Utterly impossible!" she shouted, the pain and fury she was feeling gaining strength as her vision turned red. All she wanted now was to sink the Royal Navy upstarts who dared to hurt her, instead of running away, or letting themselves be sunk by her guns without a fight. If that happened, she would've given them the mercy of a quick death, but now, she was all but merciful.

She then engaged all of her weaponry on auto, her fury only growing stronger as the Royal Navy upstarts dodged all of her shells almost effortlessly. However, she failed to notice that the more furious she became, the more did her aim suffer and soon enough, her enemies just stood still as all of her shots missed them by over 3 n miles, either falling short or past the intended targets.

However, she was brought out of her "berserk" state by over 2 dozen of torpedoes impacting against her stern and actually causing a minor hull breach right between stern compartments VII and VIII, making her hiss in pain, just as a 15 inch shell somehow penetrated through her bow, much like the Prince of Wales' 14 inch shell did - without detonation, but tearing through her oil tanks and causing massive flooding, this hit making her scream in pain once again.

And it was at that moment, when Bismarck decided to retreat back into the artificial mist to have at least some time to try and at least partially repair the damage done to her ship. She didn't want to have a repeat of her first sinking, not even pausing to think about the possibility that the Sirens lied to her.

"Interesting. Interesting indeed," a youthful voice purred in amusement as she observed the battle from afar with morbid curiosity. This battle turned out to be more interesting than whatever small raids that the Royal Navy and Iron Blood conducted against each other for the past few weeks. Oh, there were reports about a skirmish and then a larger battle at Pearl Harbor, but she had to focus more on the situation in the Atlantic than whatever Observers Zero and Alpha did in the Pacific.

"I have to agree, Observer," another youthful voice answered with a dark chuckle as she looked over Observer Beta's shoulder, whom Observer swatted away with an annoyed huff escaping past her lips. She never did like, when someone did that, much less someone who knew that she hated it.

"Knock it off, Tester." Observer growled at the only humanoid Siren in a 200 miles radius, trying to get as much data from the battle without a distraction, which proved to be impossible, thanks to Tester Gamma's constant pestering and her… less than appropriate touches made it even worse. Oh, how she wanted to just blast the pest into oblivion! But, doing so would both alert the fighting sides of their presence and mean her death at the hands of either the Empress III or that young upstart Observer Zero who appeared out of nowhere 2 months into the campaign.

And due to that, Observer Beta decided that she had enough data gathered and promptly left, leaving the Tester there to not lose sight of Bismarck and avoid losing that amusing and somewhat useful pawn that she is.

Adrian stared at the retreating BB's form with a glare. And while he knew that bringing Hood back alive and whole to the Isles is the goal of the mission, finishing off Bismarck took priority in his and, from what he saw in "Mad Jack's" and Foxhound's eyes, his companions' minds, but he doubted that entering the mist would be a good idea for the two humans, because it was suspiciously similar to the chlorine gas, despite being less green, he heard about in WW1.

"She's holed up in the only place that no human can enter," he said with a low growl as he set down the Lee-Enfield rifle that he somehow managed to keep steady, despite holding it only with his remaining right hand, now knowing that the gun was completely useless against the BB. But then, he got an idea to smoke her out of the poisonous artificial fog.

"Foxhound, on my mark, unload all of your remaining torpedoes into the mist and tell Ark Royal to send in as much Swordfish as possible. And tell Hood, you stand down and prepare to leave the area and return to the Isles. The latter also applies to you and Ark Royal. Understood?" he said, slipping into his 'officer mode,' his eyes never leaving the place, where Bismarck disappeared, doing mental calculations on how deep the BB might've went and how many torpedoes should be enough to at least harass their enemy to disrupt her emergency patching up, while "Mad Jack" just stood next to him, awaiting his own orders from the older man.

"Jack, you get on the comms and inform the prime minister about our progress. Then, start preparing depth charges for possible anti-submarine combat," Adrian added and watched the younger commando leave for the bridge, before refocusing on the mist before him and waiting for a bit, until he felt that the moment was right. He then drew air into his lungs and announced the signal with a single and simple, yet effective, word.

"Fire."

Hood sighed in relief as her pent-up anger dissipated after she received the order to stand down. Even though she felt strangely powerful, while in that state, she hated the fact that it was at the cost of her rational side and ladylike behavior. And just then, she imagined Unicorn cowering in fear behind Illustrious, if she had ever seen her in that state, and she cringed slightly. After all, it wasn't a pleasant picture for her to imagine.

She then shook her head to clear her mind and checked her aerial warning and rangefinder radars, finding them both in optimal working condition and then, she loaded one last pair of 6CRH AP shells that she was willing to use and fired into the mist, determined to cut the snake's head, while she was still recovering.

Ark Royal let a small smirk form on her lips, when she saw the extent of the damage inflicted to the fleeing Bismarck. She was also impressed after seeing the younger human having the guts to actually attempt shooting from his rifle at Bismarck, even if none of his bullets hit her, impacting against a blue hexagonal shield, which promptly disappeared from the BB's hull, allowing both her and Hood to finally deal some damage to their enemy.

"Ark Royal, get ready to launch your torpedo bombers and send them into the mist, when you receive the signal," Foxhound informed her via the comms and Ark couldn't help, but grin. Now, that was a command she liked. Finishing off a dangerous enemy that instead of sinking or giving up, was either running away or kept on fighting. And she was willing to do it even more, when an adorable DD was endangered by said enemy.

And that was something that she wouldn't allow to ever happen. Nobody, not even the Sirens themselves would be able to stop her from protecting the little ones, until her dying breath. She will have her revenge on anyone willing to hurt them, no matter what. And not even them being on the other side of Earth would save them.

But then, she was broken from that train of thought by the signal being announced over the comms by the older human and she sent two squadrons of her Swordfish towards the mist and lowered the speed of the second one to allow her to adjust the aim of the second wave, if the first completely missed their mark, which was even confirmed as a possibility, when she sent a Fulmar ahead of the two torpedo bomber squadrons to scout out the mist, finding it very hard to notice a BB of Bismarck's size, only confirming her position after the Fulmar literally missed the ship's hull by less than 1 inch.

"Enemy spotted. Fish will be away in ETA 30 seconds," she announced, but then, she saw something move in the water near the edge of the mist, closest to Foxhound's current position. Something with the possibility of being at best very annoying and at worst very deadly, if left unchecked

"Foxhound! Possible enemy submarine near your position! Prepare for ASW!" she shouted, internally cursing her lack of preparation for ASW, wishing that the DD had at least some depth charges loaded on her deck and, just in case that the submarine was careless, Ark sent four more Swordfish, only this time, sending them to launch their load before the rest.

U-556 looked with worry in her eyes at her lord as she saw the extent of the damage that was somehow done on her by two volleys from Hood and over 60 torpedoes, despite the protection granted by the Siren tech. And she'd rather not mention the growing madness and paranoia that lord Bismarck seemed to get after taking over the Iron Blood lands from a raving madman who thought that he could outsmart the Sirens and her lord.

But then, something in her mind told her to move and she did so, just as a Fairey Swordfish squadron unloaded their deadly ammo and flew away, followed closely by another one, which also released their "fish" and left for wherever they came from. U-556 suddenly paled, as she looked at the torpedoes speeding towards her lord and she tried to shout a warning, only to get thrown away by an underwater explosion, as a bunch of depth charges exploded just a few feet away from her, dazing her.

"Ugh… I hate those depth charges…" She muttered and picked herself back up, only to see another wave of torpedoes charging towards her lord and she knew that she had to act quick, if Bismarck was to avoid the first and second waves in time.

"Lord Bismarck! Enemy torpedoes!" U-556 shouted as she charged towards the badly damaged BB, not noticing that she went right into the path of a torpedo belonging to the last wave. She saw the BB turn towards her, confusion quickly turning into shock as she recalled her ship to narrowly dodge the incoming torpedoes, but whatever she was about to say, U-556 would never know, as something impacted with her submarine and everything went black as she was sent flying, the last thing she saw being 2 large caliber shells flying past her.