The chain of tsunamis unleashed by the bombing rippled outward as Abyssal Musashi drew a deep breath and snapped her gaze westward.
Over there, several "little bugs" were moving swiftly toward Hikaru's base. They might think they were moving in secret, but they had been under Musashi's watch the entire time.
Perfect pawns for her to make use of.
Musashi was still mulling this when a flash streaked at the edge of her vision—two contrails blazing straight toward her face.
The enemy missile destroyer had locked onto her!
Fury twisted her features. The missiles screamed in at over three thousand meters per second, but her movements were even faster. She swatted downward with one hand, detonating both warheads at point-blank range.
Fire blossomed around her, yet she emerged unharmed.
Beside her, the twin dragon-headed turrets of her rigging lifted their maws. Their horns glowed a searing crimson before unleashing a twin broadside of electrical lances, streaking forward in a straight line toward Hikaru's base.
It was a bombardment from two hundred and fifty nautical miles away!
"Watch out!"
Bismarck barked, throwing herself in front of Hikaru.
Boom!
Dazzling arcs of plasma exploded outward, engulfing her completely as if she had plunged into a vat of lightning.
She had taken the blast head-on.
The other shell landed with even more destructive force.
It tore across the base's surface, smashing straight into the outer wall and obliterating an entire section in a thunderous impact.
From the shattered breach, Prince of Wales stepped out grim-faced, storm clouds written across her expression.
"I've lost two durability," Bismarck reported. "That's with my skill absorbing another eight—the raw impact of that shell was ten points."
Yamato's heart lurched.
Ten points of damage to Bismarck—that was terrifying. Her total durability was only 100. Without her powerful defensive skill, ten shells like that would be enough to sink her outright.
In battles between shipgirls, trading heavy salvoes was routine. Tirpitz had once fought the Abyssal Barbarossa from dawn until dusk, trading thousands of shells without yielding.
Back then, Barbarossa hadn't managed to make Tirpitz flinch. For Musashi to inflict this much damage in a single strike… was she actually stronger than Barbarossa had been?
Yamato, however, had forgotten something important. Tirpitz's legendary endurance had come only thanks to five elite damage-control fairies rotating her "Absolute Defense." Without that external crutch, she would've fallen in a drawn-out siege.
Bismarck turned to Prince of Wales. "What about you?"
The British battleship's rigging was cracked and smoking. She shot Bismarck a look, her voice low. "Twenty-one points of damage."
A sharp hiss escaped the others.
Prince of Wales had the same 100 armor rating as Bismarck, but her durability was only 79—twenty-one less.
At a lower level of training than Bismarck, that one salvo had already left her lightly damaged. Another would push her into moderate damage for sure.
Bismarck quickly ran the numbers. "Her level is somewhere between 105 and 108. Firepower's not extreme—around 220. From what I know of Abyssal Musashi's usual profile, she should be carrying one or two main guns."
"Not high firepower?" That was only by Abyssal standards. For normal shipgirls, 220 firepower was more than enough to make them blanch.
Changchun added her report. "That kimchi-eater dodged my missiles far too nimbly. She must have an anti-air radar equipped!"
Finally Lexington spoke. "She's also fielding a high-speed recon plane. But her anti-air can't be very high—sixty at most. Armor around 180, durability unknown, but I'd estimate over three hundred."
Sixty anti-air wasn't much compared to carrier specialists, but for Abyssal Musashi it was unusually high. Her base stats without gear gave her barely forty in anti-air.
It was the same story as with the real-life Yamato-class battleships—Yamato and Musashi had ultimately been brought down by relentless waves of U.S. bombs and torpedoes. Those who inherited their names were all notoriously poor at air defense.
"So her weakness is definitely anti-air," Bismarck concluded, her mind racing. "She's probably equipped with two Large Triple Gun Mount, each giving +20 firepower and +5 anti-air, plus the one gun with an anti-air modifier."
Yamato frowned. "Why is her loadout so poor?"
A level-100-plus Abyssal battleship flagship, and her main guns were only five-star gear?
Five-star cannons were strong, of course, but compared to Barbarossa's arsenal of six-star guns casually tossed her way, Musashi looked almost shabby.
Even Yamato, facing an enemy, felt faintly unsatisfied.
After all, Abyssal Musashi was a J-Faction battleship, while Abyssal Barbarossa had been a G-Faction.
[End of Chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
[Check out my Patreon to read 20+ chapters ahead]
[[email protected]/BellAshelia]
[Thanks for your support!]