Though Tirpitz had once again curled up lazily in that man's arms, acting all soft and cuddly, Josephine knew the fear she felt toward Tirpitz would linger for a long time.
So this… is the Queen of the Northern Seas?
Marshal Heizou broke the silence. "The enemy commander has fallen. Why don't we launch a full assault while their lines are in disarray?"
Fleet Admiral Gorou shook his head. "Abyssal Barbarossa has arrived."
…
Abyssal Barbarossa had been stationed only a few dozen nautical miles away. The moment the Abyssal Monitor was defeated, she mobilized her entire force without hesitation and began advancing forward.
The South Sea Legion didn't take the opportunity to strike. They lacked the power to swallow the Abyssal horde.
So the panic among the Abyssals was quickly suppressed.
From within the hundreds of thousands of Abyssal shipgirls, Abyssal Barbarossa descended atop her infernal dragon.
The beast was forged from obsidian, its body coursing with lava-red magma, as if it had crawled straight out of a volcanic lake.
Abyssal Barbarossa brushed the horn on her forehead and summoned her rigging.
Four twin-barreled cannons emerged at her sides, clean and sturdy in that signature German design—efficient, brutal, beautiful.
Her voice rang out—ferocious yet icy, as if an iceberg were about to be consumed in demonic flame.
"Who dares stand and fight me?"
In the command hall, Fleet Admiral Gorou took a deep breath and fell into a long silence.
To whittle down Abyssal Barbarossa using conventional shipgirls… the decision alone was hard enough. But once made, how to execute it was another massive problem.
Marshal Heizou glanced toward Hikaru's shipgirl. "Shall we send Captain Kuramoto's shipgirl back out?"
The Fleet Admiral shook his head.
"Abyssal Barbarossa is not an opponent any single shipgirl can handle. Is the carrier strike group ready?"
The marshals in charge of the First, Second, and Third Air Divisions all nodded, though their faces looked grim.
They'd already tried multiple carrier-based bombing runs over the past few days, but the results had been abysmal. They couldn't even get past Abyssal Barbarossa's escort fleets. Dozens of planes and even shipgirls were lost. The Fourth Air Division had to be disbanded and absorbed into the Third.
Yamato stood up. "Let the battleship divisions go in first. Three divisions will attack simultaneously to grind down her endurance. Then the air divisions can bomb from above, and the submarine units can strike at the opportune moment."
"That's what I had in mind," the Fleet Admiral nodded. "But I have an addition." He beckoned to someone behind him. "Destroyer Inazuma has acquired a special ability over the years. If it works, she can cut Abyssal Barbarossa's endurance in half with a single strike. But it only works once. You all need to cover her."
Marshal Heizou was stunned. "Come on, you're joking. Even half of Barbarossa's endurance is over a thousand points. You think that's easy to shave off?"
"It's a do-or-die move," said Inazuma, now a grown young woman, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "I have to strike Barbarossa directly. I'll give up half of my own endurance in exchange for half of hers. What I need… is a window of opportunity."
Barbarossa had already begun a barrage to signal her presence. The vanguard shipgirls were barely holding on. There was no more time to fine-tune the plan.
Truthfully, in a clash between top-tier titans like this, life and death are decided in an instant—not in pre-battle strategy.
The Fleet Admiral stood tall and swept his arm forward. "Operation begins. Codename: Grand Chorus!"
The Silent Horizon began to fall back, while squadron after squadron of shipgirls surged out to the ocean surface and formed up in formation.
Faced with this clear all-out assault by the South Sea Legion, Abyssal Barbarossa didn't counterattack immediately. In fact, she waved her hand—and the Abyssal legions behind her retreated thirty nautical miles. She chose to face tens of thousands of shipgirls alone.
"She's going all in," Hikaru narrowed his eyes, staring at the distant Barbarossa.
She hovered high in the air, standing on the head of a hundred-meter-long infernal dragon, circling slowly above the frontline.
His words caught Yamato's attention. She turned around in surprise. "What are you doing here? Get back to your ship—wait, where did you get that sword?"
Hikaru raised the command blade in his hand. "Don't worry about details. Feels pretty comfortable."
Yamato's gaze shifted to the three shipgirls standing beside him. "And you just let him walk into danger like this?"
Fletcher stepped forward, sticking to Hikaru's side like glue. "If anyone wants to hurt the Commander, they'll have to get through me first!"
[End of Chapter]
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