Tenta-chan quite obligingly explodes!

... Then reforms, even denser and wrigglier, and wraps her tendrils around the Ri-class. She doesn't seem to be put out at all.

<Take this!>

A surge of pink energy flows through Tenta-chan, and Maxine gets a sensation of fullness across the link as experience points bleed from the cruiser, weakening and slowing it. 

Maxine will - become an escort for the heavier ships? Probably the smartest thing to do! If she can just keep the gnats away they'll win this, right?

The heavy cruiser keeps struggling in tenta-chan's grasp, but grows steadily weaker. Her shots ping off of Missouri's armor as the battleship closes.

The two light cruisers fire on the pair of Fletchers, who dodge what they can and weather the rest.

Lexington puts another bombing run into the carrier, and it sinks.

New Orleans pours fire into the heavy cruiser alongside Missouri.

Tenta-chan is in her element, feeding off of the heavy cruiser's levels eagerly. Her aphrodisiac slime doesn't seem to be doing much, but it's the thought that counts, right?

After all, bad girls who struggle need to be taught their lessons.

Maxine is going to go threaten those light cruisers some! Let's see if they're fast enough to keep from getting comboed.

This Ri is certainly struggling, but the only lesson she's learning is that the Americans are weird and better defended than expected, and that she's not going to get to report back to her Princess about this.

The two Ho-class light cruisers split up, trying to keep away from this strange melee shipgirl while firing on her.

Maxine is somehow just incredibly hard to get a valid firing solution on!

She goes after the closer ship at her maximum speed and sees if she can overtake.

Meanwhile, tenta-chan just keeps draining away. The empathic link sings with satisfaction and joy as her tentacles redouble in strength, leaving the Ri-class pretty much helpless.

Nola catches one of the fleeing Hos in a quick salvo, leaving it listing and taking on water.

Morri and Fletcher fire on the other, which turns to avoid them and winds up losing ground to Maxine's chase.

Meanwhile, Missouri puts hole after hole into the weakening heavy cruiser.

Here we go!!!!

Maxine darts into the light cruiser and kicks it in the teeth!

The cruiser's hull crumples a bit, and it starts taking on water at the bow. A couple teeth break.

It seems that the XP from tenta-chan's level drain went into enhancing Maxine's durability a bit, so far.

The cruiser turns sluggishly away and tries to escape.

She has no idea what she's doing but the bullies at her middle school always stopped picking on her when she started hitting with her elbows. 

Schoolyard fight tactics go!!!!

This dents it a bit more, and with a bit of care to avoid hitting Maxine, Morrison and Fletcher fill the cruiser with holes, eventually holing the fuel bunker, and the whole thing goes up like a firecracker in Maxine's face.

Nola's light cruiser has sunk as well, so she comes about and heads for the Ri, helping Missouri send her back to the Abyss.

Maxine staggers back from the cloud of smoke coming off the light cruiser and coughs a few times. She seems unscratched, but she felt that in her chest and all of a sudden she's a lot less certain of her invulnerability. 

She looks back over her shoulder at tenta-chan.

<It's okay!!> Tenta-chan sends, with a tentacle waggle that's somehow a thumbs-up. <You're doing perfect!>

Yeah, she's going to fall back for now. It's starting to strain plausibility that she hasn't taken a hit, and she doesn't want to test her narrative sense too badly.