Chapter 291: The Mad Purifier

Yah, the offensive is so fierce? Looks like I have to use my real skills.

The Purifier, flying and dodging artillery in the sky, looked at the Sakura Empire shipgirls before her and chuckled, saying:

Facing so many Awakened Shipgirls of the Sakura Empire attacking her, she showed no panic at all and appeared completely at ease; from her words, it seemed she was about to launch a counterattack.

Upon hearing the Purifier's words, everyone couldn't help but become tense. Because they had just faced the Purifier and hadn't gained much advantage, and the Purifier's tone indicated that she indeed hadn't used her full strength earlier.

In that instant, the Purifier's gun barrel glowed with a purplish-red light, and every shipgirl facing the barrel felt a threat rising from the depths of their hearts.

Thus Zhang Men immediately ordered, 'United Fleet, prepare for defense.'

'Yes.' Everyone replied in unison.

'Haha, feel this strike!' After the Purifier said that, the purplish-red light from her gun barrel shot out instantly, but that purplish-red light was not aimed at the shipgirls; instead, it shot toward the sky.

Just as everyone was puzzled, a rain of light suddenly fell from the sky—countless purplish-red rays streamed down, exploding into waves on the sea surface and enveloping the Sakura Empire Awakened Shipgirls within.

The light rain came quickly and went quickly. When the waves on the sea surface calmed and the mist rising from the seawater gradually dissipated, dense shells shot out from the still-present mist, the water beneath shimmering, and torpedoes streamed straight toward the Purifier one after another.

'Hahaha!' The Purifier laughed maniacally while dodging the light shells. However, under the dense barrage of light shells, she was sometimes unable to dodge in time.

Thus, as several shells struck the Purifier, a tremendous explosion rang out above the sea surface.

Meanwhile, the mist in the Sakura Empire camp gradually cleared, revealing the Awakened Shipgirls of the Sakura Empire. Their uniforms showed varying degrees of damage, indicating that they, too, had not emerged unscathed from that rain of light.

'Did we hit her?' Shan Cheng, standing beside Fu Sang, said over the communicator.

But at that moment, no one answered her; the Awakened Shipgirls of the Sakura Empire all stared toward the explosion's direction, wanting to confirm the Purifier's condition.

'Hahaha! This is the feeling—this is what a battlefield is, this is what combat is!' A burst of laughter came from the smoke where the shells had just exploded, and a figure swiftly rushed out.

That figure was naturally the Purifier who had just been hit by the shells; at this moment her sailor uniform was torn to shreds, yet she still wore a grin across her face.

'Tch, so stubborn!' Akagi glared at the Purifier before her, furrowed her brow, and said.

At that moment, a voice came through Akagi's communicator: 'Akagi, you can try using your carrier aircraft to disperse and drive the Purifier onto the sea surface, then have all the destroyers aim at a single point and launch torpedoes.'

'Then lure the Purifier onto that point; such a torpedo explosion will inflict heavy damage on her.'

'Sister?' Akagi exclaimed excitedly upon hearing that familiar voice through the communicator.

'Yes, your carrier aircraft for this round haven't taken off yet? Hurry up and launch; by the time you drive the Purifier onto the sea surface, the next round of torpedo loading should already be finished.' Tiancheng continued.

'I understand.' Akagi nodded, and at that moment the other Awakened Shipgirls also heard this information and nodded to each other.

Thus, the aviation shipgirls' carrier aircraft took off again, heading straight for the Purifier. This time they did not employ the previous massed tactic, but instead scattered the carrier aircraft.

The scattered carrier aircraft formed an encircling posture, continuously strafing the Purifier with their machine guns.

Although the Purifier's floating cannons kept spewing purplish-red light, destroying carrier aircraft in the air, because this aircraft group was more dispersed, the number of carrier aircraft destroyed was far fewer than before.

Following the machine-gun assault, the Purifier, now lacking her protective shield, was pressed by the aircraft formation ever closer to the sea surface.

The vanguard shipgirls also anticipated where the Purifier would fall and simultaneously launched torpedoes at that spot.

Only when the Purifier landed on the sea surface did she realize that torpedoes were already rushing toward her.

'Tch, caught!' The Purifier had just reacted when the torpedoes made contact with her.

In an instant, a chain of explosions erupted, and the carrier aircraft in the sky simultaneously dropped aerial bombs, hurling them toward the blast zone below.

In an instant, the waves raised by the explosion made the sea surface churn violently. After this explosion, the Purifier's arms and legs had each been blown off a segment, her floating cannons were also destroyed, and she looked utterly disheveled.

'She's wounded—quickly press the attack and finish her!' Zhang Men's voice rang out, and upon hearing his order, the other shipgirls likewise began their follow-up assault.

However, under this barrage, the already disheveled Purifier suffered no noticeable effect; she continued to swiftly dodge the shipgirls' shells, all the while letting out a mad laugh.

It seemed as if the injured one was the enemy, not herself.

Just then, the Purifier received a message.

'The Observer told me to tell you: if you've forgotten your mission, then this time you come back, just stay in the little black room for a few months before we talk again.'

This message was very brief; from the moment the Purifier received it to her reaction there was no pause. Yet she dared not take it lightly, so while dueling with the shipgirls she suddenly surged upward, locking her target onto the command ship at a greater distance.

She accelerated toward the command ship, giving the Sakura Empire shipgirls that had been attacking her no time to react.

Akagi immediately noticed this behavior and shouted over the communicator: 'Her target is now the command ship—don't let her enter its range.'

'Yes.' The Awakened Shipgirls on the battlefield and those Sakura Empire shipgirls stationed around the command ship all replied in kind, beginning to pour fire upon the Purifier in the sky.

At that moment, aboard the command ship, Qin Ge watched the Purifier hurtling in at extreme speed, furrowed his brow, and asked, 'Is she preparing a suicide attack?'

'Cannot be ruled out, so for now the commander will remain on the command ship, and we, together with the outside personnel, will intercept her.'

Immediately, Qin Ge nodded and said to Tiancheng and Xinong, 'You just need to provide rear support; after all, your training levels are currently very low and your strength is still relatively weak.'

'Yes.' Tiancheng and Xinong nodded, then both walked to the stern of the command ship, went underwater, and rendezvoused with the Sakura Empire shipgirls.

Qin Ge then turned his gaze back to the screen, wondering why the Purifier had never noticed this command ship before, yet now she was paying attention to it—and doing so with such a desperate demeanor.