The reaper-like aircraft dropped palm-sized bombs that locked onto Abyssal Yamato like they had eyes.
Abyssal Yamato felt her soul leave her body.
These were the very carrier-based aircraft responsible for the sinking of Abyssal Kaga!
Six-star carrier aircraft—even Abyssal Yamato feared them.
The central forces had already moved north, leaving her alone and exposed.
No… I can't die here.
Driven by absolute terror, Abyssal Yamato performed an act so shocking that it left everyone speechless.
"She… she dove underwater?!"
Ranger opened her eyes wide and looked at Saratoga, disbelief all over her face.
While shipgirls sometimes swam or dove underwater during their downtime, doing so in battle—unless you were a submarine-type shipgirl—was almost unthinkable. Neither regular shipgirls nor Abyssals would willingly submerge during combat.
It might be due to a deep-rooted instinct: for shipgirls based on warships, sinking beneath the waves symbolized death. Submerging during combat was an act every surface ship instinctively resisted.
Some researchers joked that shipgirls were born from the memories of steel, and since those battleship hulks had rested for too long in the lightless depths, the steel had developed a fear of drowning—and passed that fear on to the shipgirls.
Of course, that was just speculation, but to see an Abyssal flagship dive underwater to avoid an airstrike… even Ranger had never seen anything like it.
Saratoga opened her eyes, looking completely lost.
"Have you ever seen an Abyssal Yamato that cowardly?"
Ranger shook her head. Her combat experience didn't even come close to Saratoga's—if Saratoga hadn't seen it before, there was no way she had.
Saratoga asked again, "So… what do we do now?"
Diving was unexpected, but undeniably effective at avoiding airstrikes.
Now, even locking onto Abyssal Yamato was difficult. And hitting her with aerial bombs while she was submerged? That was ten times harder.
"Bomb her," Ranger said, clenching her fists, a gleam of excitement on her face. The rabbit-ear ribbon on her head swayed back and forth. "If she hides in the sea, we'll just blow the sea up!"
Previously, their bombings were precision-guided—they only exploded when they hit Abyssals, focusing all their power into pinpoint blasts.
It was less like bombing, and more like firing homing arrows.
But that wouldn't work now.
Now they'd have to bomb for real—like dropping miniature nukes.
Saratoga frowned. "We might not have enough aircraft."
Carrier-based bombing consumed aluminum, though that wasn't the biggest issue. The real problem was aircraft loss—when planes were destroyed, replenishing them required aluminum bursts, which cost even more.
And neither Saratoga nor Ranger had brought any fighters. Their bombers were incredibly vulnerable during air raids, especially with the enemy boasting tens of thousands of fighters and a wall of anti-air firepower.
"Let's just finish this battle first," Ranger said, glancing toward Yamato. "She said there's no more strong enemies further north anyway."
As the two carrier shipgirls resolved to flatten the ocean, Prince of Wales had also engaged the vanguard of the Abyssal army.
She was feeling bitter.
Bismarck and Helena had charged ahead, so she couldn't do the same.
Otherwise, the two carrier shipgirls would have no protection—if they got surrounded by the Abyssal army, it'd be a disaster.
And the more she thought about how Bismarck was off having fun fighting Abyssal flagships while she was stuck getting dogpiled by the vanguard, the more pissed off Prince of Wales became.
Seizing battlefield merit wasn't just about earning favor with the Commander. It was also the main way different factions competed.
Right now, the UK faction was losing—defeated by both the German and US factions.
Sure, she could argue that she was the only UK rep present… but Bismarck was the only German one, too.
And anyway, faction banter didn't care about "objective reasons." Admitting you were just weaker only made it more humiliating.
There's no such thing as "deserving sympathy for being weaker" on the battlefield.
She had wanted to make a big contribution too…
Thinking this, Prince of Wales glared fiercely at Yamato, who was fighting beside her.
It was all her fault. If Yamato had been able to hold off the Abyssal vanguard alone, she could've gone after Abyssal Yamato herself.
Useless weakling!
Yamato cried out, "Prince of Wales, help me! Their battleships are focusing fire on me—over a thousand guns firing all at once!"
"Handle it yourself," Prince of Wales snapped. "A thousand guns? That's just two or three hundred Abyssal battleships. That's not even real focus fire!"
[End of Chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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