"I'll take care of everything; you just stay here while I beat them into submission," Lenin told Le Malin, turning toward Algérie as he brought his guard up.
Le Malin's heart skipped a beat, swelling up in elation. Knowing that he was willing to go toe-to-toe with two META shipgirls for her filled her with warmth and a bubbly feeling. But then she noticed his heavy breathing. His skin was back to its normal hue, and his eyes weren't glowing anymore. She remembered the literal steam that was oozing out of him mere seconds earlier, and she felt a pang of concern hit her.
"Lenin, are you okay? What was all that steam?"
The shipboy seemed reticent to answer at first, but then let out a sharp breath before glancing over to her.
"It's nothing; just my nuclear reactors. I had to tap into them through my Cube to get out of that trap," he said in a hushed tone as he hid his lips from the enemy. "I'll be okay as long as I don't abuse it."
Her eyes widened in understanding. She didn't get the specifics, but it didn't take a genius to understand that whatever he did wasn't exactly good for his body. What she did understand was that the shipboy had to harm himself to help her, all because she couldn't find the resolve to face her comrades' META counterparts.
She didn't like that.
Taking a deep breath, she gathered her resolve and clutched her estoc tighter. Knowing how far he was willing to go for her, it wouldn't be right if she didn't work even harder.
"I refuse to let you fight alone. We'll get through this together," she declared. "Don't worry. I won't let my hesitation get in the way again."
He was about to protest, but a quick glance at her determined expression was enough to deter him. With a concealed smirk, he turned to focus on the enemy.
"If you two are done chattering, we aren't quite done with you yet," Algérie interjected from above, having recovered from the surprise. She wasn't expecting the small shipboy to hide enough vigor to get through her trap, nor even to slam La Gallissonnière into a wall.
Speaking of, the pink-haired cruiser had just recovered from the hit and was standing up on her wobbly legs, supporting herself on the dented wall she had just smashed into as she cradled her head with one hand. A trickle of blood was streaming down her forehead, framing her bloodshot eyes in a red pattern, which only added to her psychopathic appearance.
"Ahahah, that was a good hit!" She cackled, her crazy grin still etched on her face. "I like you, kid! I'm going to take my sweet time with you, so make sure to entertain me," she said as she called upon her weapon. Her executioner's axe had been reduced to splinters, so she had to resort to another option.
Le Malin turned on her heels, bringing her back against Lenin's to face La Gallissonnière as she strutted toward them, twirling her oversized new weapon in her hands like a feather. The thing could pass as a war hammer, but it was just a grotesque lump of steel, adorned with what seemed to be the face of some kind of demon from hell.
She pointed her estoc at the META cruiser, who seemed surprised for a second.
"Oh, it seems Le Malin has finally come to her senses," she sneered at the destroyer. "Good; chopping your head off would leave a bad taste in my mouth if you didn't put up a bit of resistance."
Le Malin narrowed her eyes at her, took one last deep breath, and fell into a stance. Behind her, she could feel Lenin flexing his legs, ready to go.
"On three?" He asked her.
She nodded.
"Un… Deux…Trois!"
And with that, the two lunged at the METAs.
Temperance breathed a sigh of annoyance as her camouflage came undone.
Since the moment she had shown up in front of the Kansen of Azur Lane, she knew things would go like this. Her plan was to take advantage of the moment they'd be busy talking to get rid of Ash; without her, the rest of the METAs would lose their only means to travel through the timelines, and they would no longer be a threat.
Unfortunately, such a plan meant that, the moment her cover was blown, she'd find herself alone against every Kansen present, so that was to happen only as a last resort. As such, she genuinely hoped that Azur Lane could convince Ash to give up on her goal; that way, she wouldn't have to personally intervene. But she hadn't taken into account the stubbornness of the leader of the Ashes. When Ash refused to comply, Temperance was compelled to intervene.
Things didn't exactly go as planned when Ember came out of nowhere to save Ash, but the situation turned out for the best. Because of her, the Ashes and the Kansen of Azur Lane were duking it out; all she needed to do was sweep in after the battle was over and finish the job.
She had retreated to the edge of the city, where she intended to lie low and wait for the situation to calm down. With her jamming still up, radio comms didn't work, and the Kansen had no way of finding her as long as her camouflage was up, although, with only one of her projectors at her disposal, it could only last so long. She had left the other contraption back on that cruiser to conjure her doppelganger and trick them into thinking she was still there with them, but by now, the thing should have already returned to her.
As if on cue, the missing part of her rigging came out from the water below her. It hovered in front of her for a few instants before she willed it back into place on her left. Now she had nothing to fear; she could sit idly until-
"Found her!"
Her head snapped to the side at the voice.
Standing on the water a few feet away from her was Admiral Graf Spee, having just rounded the corner. Behind her were Helena and Hermione, who perked up at the Iron Blood's notice. The tentacles on Temperance's rigging came to life and began flailing menacingly around her, intimating the shipgirls to keep their distance as the cruisers positioned themselves in a half circle around the Arbiter. Frowns appeared on their faces as they kept her at gunpoint, and themselves out of the reach of her tentacles.
With her back to the literal wall, Temperance's escape routes were cut off. At least some of them.
Though running wasn't on the Siren's mind at the moment.
"How did you find me? I only just deactivated my camouflage, and my projector should also be invisible to your sensors," she asked aloud, her head turning to Helena. She knew the blue-haired cruiser was more adept at this kind of stuff, but she still couldn't figure it out for the life of her.
"I wasn't tracking your rigging," Helena declared with confidence.
At that moment, Temperance felt squirming right beside her. She turned her projector around to see where the disturbance was coming, and she frowned in confusion.
A red metal fish was attached to it, frantically flapping its body. It resembled your usual Iron Blood shark-like rigging, although it was much smaller—only as long as her forearm. The weirdest part was that it wasn't armed; its body was sharp and shaped like a claw, but it didn't have teeth, and it was attached to her projector from its forehead, much like a suckerfish.
The Arbiter swatted it away with one of her tentacles, and the thing detached itself from her rigging. It fell into the water, only to immediately scamper away and toward the Iron Blood cruiser. Spee reached for it with her hand, and the iron suckerfish jumped out of the water to attach itself to her metal gauntlet.
"I sent one of my claws after that contraption of yours as soon as the hologram faded. That's what we were tracking," Spee said as the suckerfish shifted into place before coming to stand still on her hand, having taken its spot back as the fifth missing claw. She flexed her gauntlet a couple times to ensure it was still holding and let out a satisfied hum before going back to focus on the Arbiter. The time she had spent practicing with Leviathan was bearing fruit.
Temperance pursed her lips. They had managed to track her despite all the precautions she had taken. Was fighting her only chance? She wasn't exactly a fighter like Strength and Hermit; her comrades were a lot more adept at it than her, but she could still hold her own in a fight, especially against three feeble cruisers. The only problem was that even if she did manage to defeat them, she'd find herself too drained to carry out the rest of her plan.
She needed to save her energy in case Ash survived the encounter with the other Kansen, which meant she needed to finish them quickly. Luckily for her, the shipgirls had already revealed their cards. The trick they had used wouldn't work twice now that she knew about it.
The standoff was destined to go in her favor.
"Interesting…" Temperance mused aloud. "But it won't be of any help to you."
In the blink of an eye, the Arbiter activated once again her rigging's camouflage and disappeared in a flash. The three Kansen were expecting it, so they were unfazed. Just like Spee's suckerfish, the Arbiter's camouflage worked better with the element of surprise. They knew she was coming; they only needed to wait for her to make her move.
It didn't take long. Temperance knew that shooting one of them would give away her position and make her vulnerable to retaliation from the other two, so she decided to close the distance.
She moved with her rigging behind the blue-haired cruiser as fast as she could. She would stab her with her tentacles and shoot the Royal maid at the same time. That way, she'd reduce the numerical disadvantage, and at that point, taking care of the Iron Blood would be child's play.
But before she could stab Helena, a volley, coming from the side, blasted through her shield projector, destroying it and making her camouflage flicker. The force of the hit made her stumble, but more than that, the shock made her hesitate. The barrage had come from Hermione. But how? Was she able to follow her? No, something like that was unconceivable. No radar could track her when her camouflage was up.
Such hesitation was enough for Helena to turn on her heels and shoot a volley of her own into the Arbiter before putting some distance between them. The second volley spelled the demise of the remaining projector, making her entire body and rigging flicker back to visibility. Now bruised, battered, and bamboozled by the assault, the Arbiter could barely keep herself upright.
The final straw, though, came from Admiral Graf Spee. The heavy cruiser had closed the distance and grabbed hold of a bunch of her tentacles with her oversized claw-gauntlets. Yanking with all her Kansen strength, she smashed the Arbiter into the closest building, then she jumped atop her rigging and sank her claws into the side of her squid's mantle before literally tearing her body out and throwing her down into the water.
Temperance was too dazed to react as she floated on her back. Glancing up, she saw Hermione looking down at her. The only thing betraying the maid's gentle expression was the torpedo launcher peeking from under her skirt and the barrel of one of her turrets aimed straight at the Arbiter's face.
Too bewildered by the turn of events, she could only advance a question.
"How did you know?"
The maid tilted her head to the side in confusion.
"How did you know what I was doing? I'm sure you didn't use one of those suckerfish again," Temperance said.
"Oh, call it a maid's intuition. Since you've already proven yourself a coward on multiple occasions, I knew you were going to sneak up on one of us from behind. And it only made sense for you to go after our best radar first," Hermione replied somberly. "Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time to clean up the trash."
With that said, the maid adjusted her aim on the Arbiter, blowing her up with a shell straight to her face. The explosion raised a geyser of water, forcing the shipgirl to shield her face with her arm as it disintegrated the Siren's body.
With Temperance gone, her rigging, still encased in the building where Spee had slammed it, stopped squirming and went inert before disappearing in a flourish of cubes.
"Whew, that takes care of that." Hermione let out a short breath of relief before turning to address the other two shipgirls. "Miss Helena, Miss Graf Spee, are you all right?"
The heavy cruiser nodded her head in confirmation, and Helena breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes, but that was a close one. Thank you, Hermione."
"Glad I could be of assistance, Miss Helena," the maid replied with a curtsy before brushing off the filth from her skirt.
"What do we do now?" Spee asked them.
Now that the Arbiter was dead, her jamming was gone with her; they could finally contact the others and use Helena's radar to check on everyone's position. More importantly, they could find out what happened with the Ashes that brought this all to play out. They were sure Temperance was involved; they could have taken her alive to question her, but they couldn't risk a repeat of what happened. Besides, they didn't need her alive; as long as they had her Cube, they could question her later if they wanted.
"We should hurry and contact Master Emperor and the others," Hermione said. "Miss Helena, can I ask you to-"
Her words were interrupted by a long, drowned-out bellow. A splash of water and a flash of black and red signaled the arrival of Leviathan's rigging, the shark-like metal body emerging from the waves a few feet away from them.
"Liebe?" Spee approached the giant shark and placed a hand on the side of her head. Liebe leaned into the touch; the difference in size was almost comical, almost sending the shipgirl on her butt as the shark pushed back against her affectionately.
"I didn't know she was so amiable," Helena commented, watching the scene with slight confusion. "She's always been so... skittish."
The shark-like rigging was a constant presence during their travels, but their interactions with her were few and far between, mostly in the presence of her owner. She mostly kept to herself, watching over them from below the waves without drawing attention.
"I thought so too in the beginning, but Leviathan said she's actually a sweetheart when you get to know her. I tried to keep her company for a while, and she got attached," Spee exclaimed before addressing the shark. "What's wrong, girl? Where's your owner? Why aren't you with him?" Spee asked her with a gentle tone of voice, as if she was talking to a puppy.
Letting out another bellow that reverberated through her core, Liebe pushed herself above the water, leaving her body submerged vertically but her entire head in the air. Then she opened her jaws, revealing its contents.
The shipgirls gasped in shock. Inside the rigging's mouth was Cinder; her eyes were closed, her long, white hair was sticking to her face, her skin was paler than ever, and she had a hole in her chest.
Hermione hastily pulled her out, allowing Liebe to close her mouth once again.
"C-Cinder? W-what happened to her?" Helena stammered, shock and dismay etched on her face as Hermione delicately propped the carrier up in her arms.
The maid tried to find a pulse and shake her awake as the others called out her name, but to no avail; she was as still and cold as a corpse... No, maybe that was just a corpse. Her heart clenched as she handed Cinder's body to Helena. She then rose to her feet and reached for her internal radio.
"Master, it's me. We took down the Arbiter, but... we have bad news," she said gravely.
"Constructs?! Seriously?! You relinquished your subjects for these mindless puppets?!" Emperor yelled as he dodged another hit.
The fist of the first construct punched through the concrete behind him, creating a hole in the wall right where his head was. As the other construct charged him, he jumped out of the way, making it smash into the side of the closest building.
The two golems had been coming at him for a while now as he tried to find a window to retaliate. Dodging their hits wasn't easy; their physical prowess was impressive, and their speed and agility, despite their size, were nothing to scoff at. But what was causing him more trouble was the fact that he had to constantly keep an eye out for Sheffield.
The META cruiser had been pressing his flank the entire time, trying to find a good line of fire to shoot him. He had to always keep one of the constructs between them to prevent her from doing so, but that meant he had to stay close to the golems, even at the risk of being hit. Of course, with all that pressure, he was having trouble going on the offensive.
All the while, Elizabeth had been screaming and yelling at him in anger.
"I relinquished no one! I lost them all because of the Sirens!" Elizabeth yelled back at him, anger seeping from her every pore as she tried to hold back tears.
"Really? Are you sure they didn't die because you were so inept as a leader?" He mocked her, regaining his balance after another close call.
"Shut up! You know nothing about me! I told them- I ordered them to stay alive no matter what, but they went against my orders and got themselves killed!" She clutched her head with her hands, images of her old sisters, comrades, and compatriots flashing before her eyes.
She clearly remembered that fateful day. The Royal Navy was the sole faction left standing between the Sirens and the destruction of their timeline. With their military weakened and without the support of the other nations, her fleet stood no chance against the invaders. She survived only thanks to Sheffield taking her out of harm's way while everyone else bought time for their escape.
Powerless, they could only watch as the Sirens simply razed to the ground everything they knew. They didn't know how long they had spent wandering through the barren wasteland that was their timeline, but they found a sliver of hope after meeting Cinder. For a while, they found solace in bonding with the other METAs, especially their Royal kin. It felt like going back to the old times, when their comrades and sisters were still alive, when they still had a real family.
"I'll do anything to get them back, and I won't allow you bastards to get in my way!"
Raising her scepter like a javelin as it gathered energy, she threw it at him in anger. The staff traveled in the air like a lightning bolt toward the shipboy, only missing Sheffield by a hair before spearing itself into the closest building and blowing off a good chunk of its roof with a loud explosion.
Time seemed to stop for her as Elizabeth realized what she'd almost done. "S-Sheffy… Oh no, I'm so-"
Shaking off the stupor at the close call, Sheffield hurried back to her distraught queen. "Your Majesty, please, you need to calm down. He's just trying to get to your head."
"I'm spitting facts, Lizzie," Emperor declared. The slight respite he got from Sheffield pausing her attacks to check on her queen had allowed him to throw an airwing of miniaturized fighters into the air from his rigging, and he had maneuvered them straight into the two goliaths' faces to harass them like a swarm of flies.
With the two constructs occupied, he kept berating the META monarch. "Tell me, what about Fortune and the others? You left them behind to embark on this folly with Ash, didn't you? You betrayed them!"
"That's not-"
"Repulse is dead, you know?! And Renown would be too, if it weren't for me! But of course you didn't know; you weren't there when it happened!" Emperor pressed on. "You were so focused on what you've lost that you didn't even bother acknowledging what you've found."
Elizabeth felt a pang of guilt clutching at her heart and a lump forming in her throat. Suddenly, it became hard to breathe.
"Cease your blabbering right this instant!" Sheffield intervened, sending him a murderous glare. "You don't know what you are talking about. You don't have the right to judge Her Majesty!"
"Oh, Sheffy, you are so naive..." he scoffed. "Your queen is too blinded by her self-centered goal. How long do you think it'll take before she does the same to you?"
In response, the META maid aimed her rigging upward, shooting the aircraft harassing the constructs, taking down most of them with a flurry of anti-air fire. The weaker bullets bounced off their helmets, leaving them unharmed and now free to resume their attack on the shipboy. One of the puppets had removed his double-barrel turret from his back and was now aiming it at him as the other advanced menacingly toward him.
Emperor took off his hat, finally ready to carry out his plan, but right at that moment, a voice reached his ears.
"Sorry Hermione but I'm a bit busy at the moment!" He said into his radio as he narrowly dodged a blast from Sheffield's gun.
He was about to move out of the way, but her next words left him speechless. That split second hesitation was enough for him to make a wrong step and take a punch straight to the face from the one of the puppets. He was sent flying toward the building on the other side of the road, crashing into its wall and disappearing inside it as a half-chunk of the roof fell down on him.
"How's that for an ugly copy, you bastard? Take back what you said!" Elizabeth bellowed before addressing the maid beside her. "Sheffield, now's your chance. Go and bring me his head!"
Sheffield acknowledged her order and brought up her gun as she carefully advanced toward the precarious construction. As she got close enough to catch a glimpse of the shipboy, a bright light appeared from beneath the rubble.
Before she could step back, the pile exploded upward, sending chunks of concrete and pebbles flying all over the place as a thick, armored arm came out of nowhere, striking a blow at her. She managed to shield herself with her rigging right on time, but the sheer force of the blow was enough to push her back, leaving her left turret as nothing more than a crumpled piece of steel after withstanding the hit.
"Sheffield, are you okay? What was that?" Elizabeth asked her in concern, but before she could get an answer, the sound of the rest of the building crumbling caught their attention. They could only watch and cover their faces as it came down on itself.
As the dust settled, only an empty space between two other buildings was left. Standing atop the pile of rubble were two identical copies of Sandy and Muick, although, instead of the red, blackened armor plates, their armor was of a silvery gray, traced with gold lines. Between them was Emperor; his damaged rigging was still on his back, but he had forgone his hat, a trickle of blood was running down the side of his head, and his attire was covered in dust and filth. His face had lost all trace of the mocking sneer of disappointment he sported earlier; now his eyes were serious.
"I'm sorry, Your Majesty, but I just received some concerning news; so playtime's over." He waved his hand, and his own constructs darted forward, launching themselves at the other two.
Soon, the four goliaths found themselves locked in a brawl, with Muick and Sandy on the defensive as they tried to prevent the other two from getting close to their mistress, while Emperor's newly arrived minions attempted to push through them, exchanging blows and blocking hits as both sides tried to one-up each other.
Of course, the display didn't fail to leave Elizabeth dumbstruck.
"Muick, Sandy, but how?! What kind of trick is this?"
"That's the least of your concerns," he declared as he produced a cubic object from his pocket. It was a Wisdom Cube, and it was glowing with a light azure hue.
"That's-"
"Hermit's Cube," Emperor stated. "I had a chat with her, and she said she'd be more than happy to help dealing with the lot of you."
At the shipboy's mental command, the Cube began glowing with an even brighter light; then, some kind of steam began seeping out of it, spreading around the place.
Not knowing what he was up to but aware that she couldn't let him do as he pleased, Sheffield rushed ahead, trying to find an opening through the four constructs brawling out, but before she could line up a shot, visibility had already dropped.
Soon, their surroundings were enveloped in a curtain of mist, so thick that it blocked even the few rays of sunlight from above.
She knew exactly what it was: a Mirror Sea. The shipboy had tapped into an Arbiter's Cube to cast one, and by the sound of it, the Siren was completely on board with it.
The META maid turned on her heels, but before she could rush back to Elizabeth, she stopped in her tracks. She couldn't even see the tip of their nose; even the sound of the constructs beating on each other had become muffled.
And suddenly, amidst the eerie atmosphere, a voice was heard, reverberating in the air like a sick, menacing croon.
London Bridge is falling down...
Falling down... falling down...
London Bridge is falling down...
My fair lady.
Her heart rate picked up; not out of concern for herself but rather for her queen.
"Your Majesty, stay where you are! I'll be right-"
Her voice being cut off all of a sudden caused Elizabeth to jump.
"Sheffy, what's wrong?! What happened?!" The queen yelled with increasing dread. "Where did you go?! Why aren't you answering?!"
She glanced around nervously, trying to discern her surroundings, but she couldn't stop shivering in fear.
"You coward! Working with an Arbiter and resorting to such cheap tricks!"
And then that chilling nursery rhyme resumed.
London Bridge is falling down...
Falling down... falling down...
London Bridge is falling down...
"My fair lady."
The last verse was recited straight into her ear as Emperor appeared right behind her.
Her heart jumped, and she spun around in fear, trying to push him away with all her might, but before her strike could land, a powerful bash hit the back of her head.
Pain coursed through her body and everything went dark.
Le Malin emptied her torpedo launcher into the water as La Gallissonnière lunged at her.
The torpedoes exploded around the META cruiser; their goal wasn't only to damage her but also to reduce her visibility by raising copious amounts of water and to make her flinch long enough to allow Le Malin to move to her right flank.
The destroyer took advantage of the distraction to shoot her in the side with one of her single turrets. The volley hit the bullseye, but La Gallissonnière shrugged it off with the bulkier part of her rigging.
"That's not enough to even tickle me!" She declared after recovering from the flinch.
Le Malin frowned as the META charged her once more, shooting a volley at her. The destroyer ducked under the blast before vaulting out of the way of her hammer's reach. But La Gallissonnière wasn't done; she pressed on with her assault, waving her weapon around effortlessly as if she were trying to swat away an annoying fly, cackling madly all the while.
And just like a fly, Le Malin kept evading her. Whether it was cannon blasts or hammer swings, the destroyer kept dodging and weaving through all her attacks with ease, her speed and diminutive stature giving her an advantage over the bulkier shipgirl. Despite that, she was still keeping on the defensive; her goal wasn't to kill but rather to disarm her opponent. To do that, she had to take out both her rigging and her war hammer without hurting her too much.
Easier said than done; her attack didn't even leave a scratch on the cruiser. It seems that she needed to step up her game if she wanted to come out on top, but at the same time, she wasn't in any rush. Her other goal was to give Lenin enough space, so she had to bring her duel with La Gallissonnière further from him; that way, the shipboy could focus on his opponent without having to worry about involving Le Malin.
A loud rumbling announced the collapse of a building behind her, signaling that she didn't need to hold back any longer.
Sensing an opening between her opponent's attack pattern, she steeled herself, raised her blade, and dove in.
As Le Malin engaged the light cruiser, Lenin had taken a running start before ramming full speed into the face of the building with his rigging, all under Algérie's incredulous look.
The construction was just a two-story grocery store, with only the second floor above the water level; time and the elements had already taken their toll on it, and the hit of the icebreaker was the last drop that sealed its fate.
"What the-?" Algérie's words were cut off by a loud crack. The sheer force of the impact was enough to split the concrete and the partitions inside before the roof caved in under her feet.
She lost her footing as the building crumbled, and she shielded her face from the debris falling around her as she plummeted. Instead of waiting for her to come down, Lenin jumped, winding up another punch as he met her midair.
"This is for caging me up!" He roared, taking a swing at her.
But Algérie, having found her composure again, was ready to meet him.
A bunch of bone-like appendages sprouted from behind her back, hugging her body in a white blanket, like a protective straitjacket. The things had replaced her rigging after she had undergone Metamorphosis; they were made of some kind of obscure, special alloy that rendered them tough and flexible at the same time, which allowed them to shrug off even light Siren ordnance.
They managed to prevent his attack from making direct contact with her body, but the sheer force of the blow was strong enough to send her flying backward. She landed ruinously on the remains of the now fully collapsed building, her bone-like appendages absorbing the impact for her. She quickly scrambled to her feet as the shipboy landed a few feet away from her.
"And there's more where that came from!" He declared, charging at her once again.
At that moment, Algérie smirked, and Lenin's eyes widened in shock. He was charging with the intention of taking another swing at her and knocking her out for good, but before he could even wind up another fist, he hesitated.
The shipgirl had resorted to the dirtiest escamotage she could think of. She had brought her hand up to lift one of the straps hanging over her chest, revealing one of her naked breasts to the world; her perfectly shaped mound and nipple were free for his eyes to admire.
It was just a brief peek, but it was enough to cause a short circuit in his simple, hormone-filled, young man's brain. More than that, it was the bewilderment and confusion of her doing such a thing in the first place that made him falter. It only lasted a split second, but that moment of hesitation was enough.
Algérie called out another batch of claw-like bone structures to extend from her back and to attack him head-on. Lenin could only raise his guard to defend himself, managing to deflect most of those coming at him from up front, but right when he thought he was out of danger, he felt a sharp pain coursing through his back and leg. Two of those things had pierced his right shoulder blade and left thigh from behind, taking advantage of his blind spot.
He groaned in pain, turning around and smashing the offending appendages into pieces with his rigging before they could dig deeper into his flesh, but the damage had already been done; blood was already pouring out of his wounds.
He turned toward her, visibly upset. She regarded him with a mocking grin as she retracted the rest of her bones, which only fueled his seething anger.
"What's wrong, boy? You've never laid eyes on a woman's assets before? I didn't expect you to be so gullible," she mocked him, openly trying to provoke him.
Lenin gritted his teeth in frustration, his skin flushing red in shame and exertion.
"You bitch!" Without wasting time, he lunged at her once more with a rallying cry, but this time, the shipgirls didn't even flinch.
From under the debris, an arm came out, grabbing his ankle and making him faceplant on the solid ground with a groan of pain. The rubble shifted as the owner of the offending appendage emerged from below.
It resembled one of those statues decorating old churches and belfries—a gargoyle. Its gray skin seemed to be made of the same material as those bone things, but it was tougher and less flexible. It had a humanoid body under a bestial face, clawed hands, and a pair of bat-like wings on its back. It rose to its full height, coming to stand a good eight feet, still tightly clasping his leg as it brought him up above the ground.
Lenin tried to fight back from his upside-down position, but the creature slammed him into the concrete, making him groan in pain and spit blood from his mouth. He tried to wiggle himself out of its grasp, but the gargoyle proceeded to do it again and again and again; each time, sharp waves of pain coursed through his body. Once it was done, it quickly switched its hold on him, trapping him in an imprisoning embrace with both arms around his body, bringing his back against its chest with his feet dangling above ground.
Lenin winced in pain, his head spinning. As he tried to keep himself from losing consciousness, Algérie walked up to him.
"Poor thing, so young-looking, so naive... I can tell you've barely even enjoyed the pleasures that life has to offer, yet here you are, fighting a battle that doesn't even concern you," she sneered, swinging and twirling one of the white pieces of cloth covering her chest in a teasing manner.
Bruised and battered after the rough treatment, but still very much conscious, the shipboy glowered at her while also trying his best not to lower his gaze as he tried to push against the gargoyle's hold.
"Y-you… fucking succubus," he growled, his face flushing in both anger and shame at being played in such a way. "Stop mocking me!"
"Oh, have I wounded your pride, boy? Do forgive me," Algérie smirked. "I was just trying to have some fun, and bullying an innocent little thing like you was just too amusing to pass up."
"You are trying to... have fun? Are you serious?" Lenin paused his struggling, an incredulous look appearing on his face. "So this is all just a game to you? Everything you said about creating a timeline without Sirens was just a bunch of horseshit?!"
"Not a game, no. Our goal still has absolute priority, don't get me wrong, but that's precisely the reason why we need to find some leisure where we can. You see, in a situation like ours, you need to learn to enjoy the few little things that come your way if you want to keep going, even those that you wouldn't have considered before—yes, even battle and pain," Algérie said as he regarded her with a befuddled expression. "Don't look at me like that. The opposite of fun isn't pain, but boredom. Pain is also a kind of pleasure; whether you give it or receive it doesn't matter, and fighting, by itself, is enjoyable. You certainly can't blame us for jumping to the occasion, especially when it's handed to us on a silver platter."
Lenin couldn't believe his ears. The more she talked, the more she resembled the humanoid Sirens who had imprisoned him. Her logic was as twisted as theirs. He saw their insane eyes in her gaze, looking down on him as they gleefully explained how the repeated massacre of humanity across multiple timelines was necessary for their shared growth and evolution.
The way she talked about pain was disgusting to him. He knew that only someone who had experienced hell could be broken enough inside to come to those conclusions. And yet, no matter how much he tried, he couldn't empathize with her at all. On the contrary, her words were pissing him off. Maybe it was just a way to cope with what she and her peers had gone through, but that alone wasn't an excuse.
"How dare you…" Lenin spoke through gritted teeth, his expression darkening as anger began rousing from within him, along with something else. "Are you saying I should have taken pleasure in all the pain I've been through since I came to this goddamned world?! Do you have any idea what the Sirens put me through?! What they forced me to do?! Why don't you ask Le Malin?! Ask her how fun it was when I attacked her and her comrades. Ask Dunkerque how fun it was when I broke her spine! You have the courage to tell me I should have derived some sort of sick pleasure from that?! There must be something wrong with your head!"
Algérie, not expecting the sudden outburst, flinched at his words, prompting the gargoyle to tighten his grip around him. For just a second, a flash of what seemed to be regret passed through her eyes.
"Even after all you've been through, you understand nothing about pain. You've completely forgotten what it means to suffer if you can compare it to pleasure," he declared with a resolute tone of voice. "Maybe I should remind you."
Suddenly, his eyes began glowing, and his already flushed skin took on a darker crimson hue, just like earlier.
Before she could even wonder what was happening, his cestuses disappeared from his arms in a flash of light, and a shadow was cast above them. Looking up, her words were caught in her throat. A hull had appeared above their heads—the shipboy's hull. It was so close that she could clearly see the gaps in the paint on the underside as it plummeted down on them.
"What in the hell is he thinking? Is he trying to kill us both?!"
Frozen on the spot because of the shock, Algérie could only watch as the hull descended, but right before it could slam down on them, it disappeared in a flash and a flurry of Cubes, that went back around his arms to solidify in the form of his cestuses again.
Their reappearance made the gargoyle holding him captive stumble slightly, and Lenin took advantage of it by delivering a powerful headbutt on its chin with the back of his head. Its arms were still around his form, but its hold had momentarily loosened. With his strength once again enhanced by his nuclear reactors, the shipboy pushed with all his might, ignoring the pain coursing through his body, and finally broke free.
Letting out a grunt of triumph, he landed on his feet and immediately spun around on his heels. With enough momentum gained, he struck a powerful blow straight at the gargoyle's stomach.
The following crack was so loud it managed to shake Algérie from her stupor, but she could only watch in surprise as her familiar's body was split in half, its torso reduced to pieces in a single blow.
Lenin turned toward her with a murderous glare, locking eyes with her.
"You've been doing nothing but underestimating me this entire time! It'll cost you dearly!"
With that said, he lunged at her once again, with the intention of putting an end to the fight. In response, she stepped back, jumping off the rubble and into the water, trying to put some distance between them as she extended her bone-like appendages to lunge at him.
One after the other, he either deflected or destroyed them with his cestuses before they could stab him, ignoring the pain as he kept chasing her.
"Yes! Yes! Now you are doing it!" She yelled, a wild grin appearing on her face as she called forth another bunch of claws from behind her back to attack him.
The more they kept going, the more steam came out of his body, and the shorter he could keep up at that pace. He had to put an end to this fight as soon as possible, but despite how strong and resilient he was, he couldn't catch up to her with her claw-bones lashing out at him.
Luckily, his chance had just come into view.
He sucked in a long breath to push his body to the limit, increasing his pace and the amount of steam coming out of him in a final sprint as he pressed with his onslaught.
This time, instead of deflecting the bones coming at him, he grabbed as many of them as he could. Of course, some of them ended up stabbing him, but it didn't matter; as long as he could hold the shipgirl in place by pulling on the elongated appendages, it was fine. She was still too far away for him to deal a decisive blow, but he had no need to do so.
"Le Malin! Over here!" He cried out.
Algérie's eyes widened in surprise as she turned her head to the side, right on time to see a flurry of torpedoes traveling toward her, leaving a trail in their wake under the surface.
At a short distance, right around the corner, were La Gallissonnière and Le Malin. The former was covered in blood and injuries, probably caused by the other shipgirl; the latter, with her back turned on her opponent, had her tubes aimed at her.
Algérie tried to pry her claw-bones out of the shipboy's grasp, but she found herself firmly locked in place. Inevitably, the torpedoes reached her, enveloping her in a cacophony of explosions. But their goal wasn't to harm her but rather to create an opening for the shipboy by stunning her.
Sensing the opportunity, Lenin pulled on the bones with all his strength, dragging her along. She tried to resist, but her feet had already been lifted above the water. He began spinning wildly on his heels, increasing his speed with each passing second, until, with a loud cry of effort, he threw her away and into the closest building with a powerful slam.
The shipgirl was too dazed to even register the pain of the impact. She could only look up to see the shipboy approaching her rapidly, but she didn't even realize the predicament she was in until he was close enough to lock eyes.
She could only resign herself to her fate as the shipboy dismissed his rigging and landed a series of rapid punches in her face.
"Chagrin, anger, so this is the taste of defeat? It's been a while since I last tasted it—how delicious…" Were her last thoughts before losing consciousness.
Le Malin breathed a sigh of relief as she watched her torpedoes reach their target, all under La Gallissonnière's incredulous gaze.
The entire duel between the two had been spent with the META light cruiser futilely trying to land a hit as Le Malin wiggled out of her grasp. Every now and then the destroyer would swipe in, stabbing her exposed flesh with her estoc, always aiming at her limbs and junctures, in a clear attempt to tire her out with a battle of attrition.
The more hits La Gallissonnière missed, the more frustrated she became; and the more she lost her cool, the more openings she offered to the destroyer for landing hits. Of course, that made her even more frustrated and reckless with her attacks, trapping her in a downward spiral that would lead her to her demise.
By now, the META cruiser was covered in blood-spilling stab wounds all over her body, panting heavily in exertion, and on the verge of passing out, while Le Malin was fairly unscathed. It was so frustrating that she had come this close to just blowing everything apart with her rigging, but she managed to keep her composure knowing that she'd risk involving Algérie in her shelling as well.
And now that her comrade had been defeated, she barely had enough energy left to continue.
As she caught her breath, Le Malin turned to face her.
"La Gallissonnière, stand down; I don't want to hurt you any further," she said with a serious tone, looking at her with pleading eyes. "Now that you're alone and with all those injuries, you can't possibly win."
Gritting her teeth and growling in anger, La Gallissonnière tapped into the last ounce of energy she had left. She jumped at the destroyer, her hammer held high above her head.
"Burn in hell!" She yelled as she swung her weapon down.
A loud clang resounded in the air as her hammer stopped right before reaching her target. She gawked in bewilderment when she realized what had happened.
Arms raised above his head, Lenin was blocking her hammer by the handle with one of his cestuses. The shipboy, after finishing his own business, had jumped in at the last second to cover for his friend, returning the favor.
Using her own momentum, he let her weapon land harmlessly on the water before grabbing her wrist with his free hand, pulling her tired form toward him, and headbutting her in the face.
Blood sprouted out of her broken nose as she recoiled backward, wincing in pain.
She tried to lift her hammer again in one last vain attempt of defiance, but the shipboy had already stepped away from her, giving space for Le Malin to finish the job; her torpedo launcher was already locked and loaded.
"Merde-"
La Gallissonnière didn't even register the pain as a cacophony of explosions enveloped her. She lost grip on her weapon as she was sent flying upward, her body going limp before falling into the water, out cold.
AN: Happy New Year, everyone!
Probably no one will care about this, but I think it's a good reminder for the story's progression.
Up until now, chapter 34 held the record for the longest chapter, with 7.5k words of dialogue and exposition. With around 8k words of mostly action, this chapter has just taken over the record.
About Algérie META's rigging, I was having a bit of trouble finding a good way for her to use it since, well... Bones?! Seriously?! How exactly does that even work?! I understand the familiars/minions/summons in the gargoyle's statues, but that? I had to take some liberties and improvise without elaborating too much for the sake of immersion; in the end, I decided to go for an organic Doctor Octopus-like style. I just hope the result was satisfying enough.
Also, I swear to God, this is the first and last time I let a shipgirl's skimpy outfit be relevant to the story.
And by the way, for those who didn't know, Muick and Sandy are the names of two of the corgis belonging to the late Queen Elizabeth II.
See you all next time!
Next Chapter: The Rabbit and the Crane