Kongou dodged another swipe from Ise's cannon-sword that was swung diagonally up to the left and prepared her cannons to empty their shells into Ise.
But a sharp pain in her gut sent her reeling, throwing off her aim as Ise pushed her leg into Kongou's lower torso while emptying her boost gauge to make Kongou miss, and to simultaneously push herself away to dodge Kongou's messed-up shots fluidly and retreat from the struggling Kongou, who was clutching her stomach in pain and staggering.
But Hiei came in hard, swinging her fists at Ise.
The two battleships tussled as Ise swung her cannon-swords around while Hiei blocked them with her bare hands and threw some hits of her own to keep Ise on edge as Ise blocked with her flight deck, Ise's cannons that were on her rigging already in position.
Ise then put her foot down, bending her knees and holding her two cannon-swords tightly as she shouted.
"Twin Steel Dragon's Ascent!"
And used her boost gauge as well as her powerful leg muscles to propel herself upwards, swinging her cannon-swords in an upwards slicing motion as the two cannons blurred from the sheer speed of the move.
Hiei barely dodged the dual cannon-swords, clearly seeing the rivets and seams on the surface of the cannon as the cannon narrowly missed taking Hiei's face off.
But Ise wasn't done yet.
Swinging the cannon-swords around her head, she brought down one cannon-sword as it was swung down at Hiei's head, the Ise-Class battleship shouting.
"Lone Steel Dragon's Descent!"
Hiei was barely able to catch the side of the 35.6 Cm Twin Gun Cannon as it was stopped with her two hands just centimeters from her face, the downward impact causing Hiei to bend her legs reflexively and sink a little into the ocean while roughly displacing large waves around her and causing an immense shock wave around them.
Her hands were trembling from having to catch Ise's cannon-sword that was swung down like a baseball bat, Hiei sweating and panting as Ise's boat slippers finally hit the ocean floor,
I thought she'd be tired from having to swing those heavy cannons around all the time. But not only is she less tired than I am, but she can still swing these heavy-ass cannons around like chopsticks!
Just how strong is she physically?
But as she prepared to fire all her cannons at Ise like her sister planned to while still holding Ise's cannon-sword, she saw a blur swing up and approach her from below.
Her preoccupied hands were unable to block the incoming boosted boat slipper that connected with her chin, causing her to fall backwards as she released the cannon-sword, Ise backing away as she commented.
"Whew, thought I had to resort to using my cannons to get her to let go…"
But an explosion behind her rigging threw her forward, Ise crying out as she kicked up water upon hitting the floor, plumes of smoke wafting out from the back of her rigging.
Bismarck's smoking cannons betrayed her presence as she cautiously approached the fallen Ise-Class battleship, keeping a distance while her cannon reloaded.
The Bismarck-Class battleship knew that it was "dishonorable" to shoot someone else in the back, but she knew from experience that holding on too tightly to such ideals in the face of danger was akin to signing your own death warrant.
And besides, this ship girl was far too unpredictable to be fought with the conventional tactics that most battleships often relied on.
This time, she saw a way to take down the seemingly unstoppable ship girl and had taken the shot, the practice round doing its job while doing minimal damage.
She was slowly approaching the downed battleship while trying to scoot around to try and cover the recovering Hiei as she pointed her smoking cannons at a groaning Ise.
But she heard the prone battleship trying to mutter something, which she finally made out as,
" … good job…"
Before one of Ise's cannons whirred slightly to point right at Bismarck, the German battleship's eyes widening before taking a step back and raising her arms instinctively.
But she was too late in trying to perform any evasive maneuvers as Ise fired off two shells, one into the left breast of her chest-plate and the second into her abdomen and striking the flesh underneath, causing her to fall back on her rigging.
She was barely paying attention to Ise, who had pushed herself up with her fists and was a few steps behind in trying to respond to Ise who was standing over her and was waving her cannon-sword around, obviously going easy on the three less-experienced battleships as she lightly mocked.
" … But not good enough."
Ise then seemed to notice something before boosting to evade the barrage of cannon-fire from the two Kongou Sisters, who approached the fallen Bismarck to help her up as Hiei addressed them both.
"We can't seem to beat her when we go in one at a time, so I propose that we all work together to take Ise down, Onee-sama!"
Kongou nodded, already trying to change her mindset to go against a better and more experienced opponent while Bismarck was trying to catch her breath as the last move had hurt her physically.
And Ise could be heard in front of them, nodding as she swung her cannon-swords around to warm up while she still had her katana in her mouth.
"That's right! Your cannons aren't guaranteed to hit all your enemies all the time, and your enemies sometimes try to close the distance in order to reduce the effectiveness of your cannons due to the slow turn rate and long reload times of our cannons. But this isn't a one-ship-girl show, and we aren't alone on the battlefield! There are enemies stronger than us out there, amongst them being the Princesses.And to fight them, you battleships had better learn to get your team spirit on!"
Hiei roared and charged in, Kongou and Bismarck right behind her as Ise readied herself for the triple threat.
Hiei and Kongou used several martial arts moves to block and attack Ise while Ise used her boost gauge sparingly to maintain her distance whilst swinging her cannon-swords around menacingly.
But when she successfully pulled away from the duo, she was assaulted by a barrage of cannon fire from Bismarck who kept up the pressure in long-range combat.
But Ise, being a veteran and a seasoned ship girl, wasn't fazed in the slightest as she struck out unpredictably with her knees and shoulders in a manner somewhat reminiscent of muay thai to keep the Kongou Sisters on their toes as well as keeping her swings of her cannon-swords to a minimum to prevent herself from revealing a moment of weakness and using her flight deck primarily as a shield, all while using the cannons on her rigging to shoot back at Bismarck, who seemed to be the designated long-range support.
She put her cannon-swords back onto her rigging and discarded her bandanna once she had some space to breathe, now resorting to the "one-sword style" as she took the sword from her mouth with her right hand to swing at Kongou, Kongou swiftly dodging by ducking.
But she was almost unprepared for Ise's rising right knee, catching Ise's knee at the last possible second before she felt a sharp cracking pain on the back of her head as her head was forced down into Ise's knee by Ise's descending left shoulder.
Hiei moved in to help her sister, but had to strafe to dodge a round fired from one of the cannons on Ise's rigging, Bismarck tsk ing at the moving target that made sure to keep herself mobile the entire time, trying to get a clear shot at Ise without hitting Kongou.
Ise then took the chance to use the disoriented Kongou, who was dazed from the facial impact with Ise's knee and had a bleeding nose, awkwardly spinning the confused battleship and positioning herself behind Kongou while holding Kongou's chin up with her left hand that had her flight deck shielding her left forearm, and her right hand held her katana very close to Kongou's exposed neck.
Hiei's face darkened almost instantaneously, seething,
" … Ise…"
Bismarck grimaced, trying to find a spot where she could snipe Ise in order to break her hold.
This proved to be difficult as Ise was positioned behind Kongou and her rigging, the aviation battleship having a flight deck to protect her grabbing arm.
There was almost no way to shoot at Ise without hurting Kongou, Bismarck understanding that Hiei wouldn't appreciate it if she ever shot at her sister, no matter how justified the situation.
Ise was moving erratically while using the reflective property of the katana's blade to reflect the sunlight at the duo to throw off their aim, proving to be quite the veteran as she used everything she had to bring everyone down.
But Ise could feel Kongou feebly trying to disarm Ise's grip around her chin, understanding that she was starting to regain her bearings in order to escape her hold.
Ise sighed, raising her boat slipper while moving the katana away from Kongou's neck and releasing her hold as she kicked Kongou in the bum with a shot of her boost gauge to throw off Kongou's sense of balance, the fast battleship stumbling forward towards Hiei as the younger Kongou Sister's face softened.
And Ise dived to the left as Bismarck fired all her cannons, one round impacting the roof of Ise's cannon and causing sparks to fly as Ise used her flight deck to block another two rounds at the expense of dents being formed in the flight deck, her cannons whirring.
But as Bismarck rushed towards Ise with headstrong determination, she suddenly found the distance between them increasing as Ise used the entirety of her boost gauge to push herself away from the Bismarck-Class battleship as she pointed all her cannons at Bismarck, chiding.
"Rushing at me when all your cannons are reloading, and mine are all loaded? Foolishness. Cataclysmic Howl of the Eight Great Cannons!"
And fired all her cannons, Bismarck's eyes were open with horrified shock as all eight cannon barrels fired off like a bunch of photograph flash bulbs blinding her as she ran straight into her doom.