My wife is an immortal black snake.

Page 132

But she knew one thing very well—that the flesh golems were exceptionally difficult to deal with.

"Theresa?! It's been 20 minutes! Why aren't these flesh puppets dying yet?!"

"You're asking me?! Aren't shipborne weapons working?!"

"Most of their physical forms can be destroyed, but the problem is, what do we do with this still-writhing flesh and blood?!"

Just 20 minutes ago, Theresa's sisters stormed into the Alpha Landship and, together with the rebellious former garrison, raided Duke Nikolai's personal guards.

They easily killed everyone and then started the engines of the landship, ready to depart at any time—but the problem was that there were beings called "Flesh Puppets" on board. They had to deal with those Flesh Puppets before they could safely leave the Dukedom of Nikolai after the signal was given.

But the flesh golems were enemies far beyond Theresa's imagination. Although they moved slowly, their inherent fear field and terrifying regenerative abilities made them incredibly difficult to deal with—they had been bombarding the two flesh golems with the Alpha Landship's shipborne weapons for ten minutes.

Now all that remained on the ground were dents, fragments, and a clump of flesh still writhing. For a moment, Theresa really wanted to ignore them and just walk away, but the increasingly rapid regeneration of the flesh forced her to stop and deal with these mutated creatures.

But what should they do? She frowned. They had already wasted too much time here; if this continued, the situation would spiral out of control...

The chaos in the city is showing signs of decreasing, they need to hurry...

"Theresa! They seem to be afraid of fire!"

Suddenly, one of Theresa's sisters noticed the strange behavior of the mass of flesh. When she saw that the still-writhing flesh was avoiding even the smallest spark while reassembling its body, she shouted and pulled a bottle of strong liquor from her vest. Theresa didn't know where her sister got the liquor from, but in any case, Theresa watched as her sister threw the bottle and all at the mass of flesh, watching as the bottle shattered and the liquor spilled onto the remains of the flesh puppet, causing the mass of flesh to tremble unnaturally.

She saw another sister launch a fireball using Originium Arts, but it was blocked by another flesh golem.

“They’re not afraid of fire at all?!” Theresa exclaimed, her face contorted in pain.

"I misspoke! It's alcohol, they're afraid of alcohol! Look at the one I threw down! It's almost motionless!"

"real?!"

Theresa turned around and discovered that the flesh puppet that had been splashed with the liquor had somehow turned into a mangled mess. Its body was rapidly decomposing and vanished without a trace in no time.

A part of the flesh and blood puppet that had just shielded its companion from the fireball was also stained with strong liquor. The flesh and bones in that area had liquefied into some kind of strange liquid.

It works, it really works—but how do we find more spirits? How do we find more alcohol?!

Theresa's mind was racing, and just then, the soldier fighting alongside them suddenly pulled out his flask.

"Go to hell, monster!"

They shouted in unison and threw their two-ounce flasks, along with the vodka inside, out.

The flesh-and-blood puppets splashed with strong liquor immediately emitted a cloud of crimson steam. These monsters, which even shipboard weapons couldn't completely destroy, were afraid of alcohol—it was really strange, but Theresa knew that no matter how strange it was, they had to keep working.

“Make your boss wait for our signal before leaving—huh?” Theresa shouted back to the officer in charge of the scene, but before she could finish, Mars patted her on the shoulder.

"Theresa! Serpent Scale's signal has arrived. Tell them to leave!" Mas shouted through her communication headset, her face showing a hint of tension, but even more so, the excitement of dancing ballet on the edge of death. "And the resistance is about to collapse—Serpent Scale said that the street is full of flesh-and-blood puppets. We have to hurry!"

"...Alright then. Sir, have your captain leave immediately—flee to the Duchy of Kosiché. My master has already sent men to meet him. Hurry!"

At this point, Theresa had nothing more to say.

After letting the wounded and those who were too unable to continue fighting leave on the first landship, Theresa returned to the streets of the duchy. Watching the landship slowly depart after its connection was severed, Theresa was left with 34 sisters.

"Let's go." She wiped the sweat from her brow. "There are three more."

“Two ships. If we can’t make it in time for the last one, we’ll abandon the refugees and run away immediately,” Mars said, patting Theresa on the shoulder. “Don’t forget what the boss asked us to do.”

"Okay, but we have to give it our all, otherwise how will we earn enough money for retirement?"

"That's true."

The ponies disappeared into the shadows of the street at top speed, taking a shortcut to the location of the second landship. Upon arriving at the scene, they found the Serpent Scales had already cleared the entrance and exit.

“You’re too late.” Paul shrugged at Theresa, then pulled his knife from the corpse he was standing on. “We took out the outer soldiers—but the flesh golems inside are a problem.”

"They are afraid of alcohol."

"Afraid of alcohol?"

“Literally, you splash them with your Ursus people’s favorite vodka—and then they’ll all go up in steam and fly away!” Theresa explained irritably, then stood there looking at the bridge leading to the landship: “What’s it like inside?”

"It's terrible. We tried to penetrate it once, but we were forced to back down."

"You'll be forced to retreat again?"

"No matter what, we are made of flesh and blood. When we turn a corner and are met with three flesh golems, all we can do is retreat—we're not those Gallic madmen. They would probably have it much easier if they were here."

"I heard they're going to blow everything to smithereens?"

"Correct."

"So if you go in again now... how many people will you lose?"

“Nobody’s here.” Paul shrugged. “And knowing their weaknesses has relieved all the pressure—let’s finish today’s work quickly, Pony. I can’t wait to go back and see Duke Nikolai’s face, which looks like he’s eaten shit.”

"Tsk."

Theresa shrugged, and after preparing her hypnotic Originium Arts for the next round, she had her sisters get to work.

Chapter 36

Dealing with the second landship was not difficult for Theresa. Knowing the weaknesses of the flesh golems, their combined operation with the serpent scales proved as efficient as it should be.

"Alcohol needs to be applied after it has penetrated their protective layers as much as possible. Otherwise, relying solely on the alcohol's own penetration speed, we would have to wait a very long time for it to disappear."

"Anyway, they're all dead now! Ugh... what time is it?"

"4:54 a.m. We have half an hour left—the resistance group won't last as long as we thought."

"That's enough. After all, they're just civilians who haven't been armed for very long."

Theresa stepped over the corpses on the ground and left the control room of the second landship. Just now, she had placed a hypnotic suggestion on the remaining control personnel and the person in charge in the control room, telling them that they must go to the Duchy of Kosiché to save their lives, so she no longer needed to worry about what happened next—she would just wait for the second landship to leave as well.

But to ensure they could have some peace and quiet, Paul and Theresa left a few people behind. Now, only 25 of Theresa's sisters remained, and Paul's men numbered only 20.

"The third land-based ship is nothing; the real trouble is the fourth land-based ship."

“I understand. A military factory… ugh, there are too many people, and that landship is too big; it will take a lot of time to administer hypnotic suggestions…”

“If all else fails, we will kill all the controllers and take control of the landship—the only problem is that there are a lot of flesh and blood puppets on it, and even more of Duke Nikolai’s personal guards.”

"Ah... the flesh puppets aren't under much pressure right now, those guys are having the hardest time."

She pursed her lips and, along with her sisters who were already starting to feel tired, and Serpent Scale, arrived at the outer perimeter of the third landship.

This time, the third landship didn't even deploy any outer defenses—even the most foolish person wouldn't risk spreading their forces and getting picked off one by one after receiving news of attacks on two landships. But the problem was that Duke Nikolai's reinforcements would take some time to arrive.

The resistance has set too far. The current situation is that only the police and flesh-and-blood puppets are there, and they can't deal with those slippery and fearless rebels. But if the army is also there, then the land-based ships will hardly be able to get troop support until they deal with the rebels—the vast majority of them.

The nearest reinforcements outside the city were two or three hours away, so the commander of the land-based ships had no choice but to shrink their defensive lines.

Moreover, his strategy did indeed cause serious trouble for the foals and the Serpent Scales—neither the Creed nor the Serpent Scales were good at frontal assaults; such situations should have been left to the regular army or the Gauls.

"...However, fortunately, we also have our own advantages..."

"After all, who would have thought that Theresa's Originium Arts could also be used for long-distance hints via communication media? Besides, we already obtained the necessary communicators from the other two landships... So, the hints were successful?"

"Phew... sort of. I've already signaled to the ship's weapons controllers to attack their own comrades, but whether it actually worked—"

Teresa answered breathlessly, and just then—

boom!

While lurking inside the landship, Theresa and her team heard a loud metallic clanging sound coming from the deck area leading to the control tower—the sound of heavy crossbow bolts from boarding crossbows colliding with the metal floor.

The ballistae, those heavy crossbow bolts with ropes that could pierce several people at once and were used to launch fixed landships and enemy cities, were now firing at their comrades. It seemed that Theresa's hint had indeed succeeded.

The ponies looked at each other, and finally, Mars led the others to fight alongside Serpentscale, while Lily and her two sisters protected Theresa, who was resting in place.

Her ability consumption is not fixed. If they can meet face-to-face, her Originium Arts don't consume much stamina—but if she gives hints remotely via a communicator...

A single hint would be enough to render her immobile for a while. Like now, she needs a few minutes to recover her strength, and during those few minutes, Theresa is in an extremely vulnerable state—let alone a grotesque flesh puppet, even a few untrained militiamen could easily take her down...

"Only at times like this do I truly feel that having you all here is really good..." She squatted wearily on the ground, complaining to Lily beside her, "Ugh, doing this kind of heavy work... I'm definitely going to die—if possible, I'd prefer an option to retire on the spot..."

"Keep dreaming. You'll have to give hints to a bunch of people later, and there's still a whole bunch of those fourth landships... Sigh, maybe we should just give up?"

"No, I don't want my carefully laid plan to be abandoned like this—and if we can bring back the fourth landship and the military factory on it, we won't have to work so hard anymore—just for that achievement alone, the money will definitely be enough... Sigh, that's where that boss's generosity lies. If it were still Kazimierz, we wouldn't have such good fortune..."

"Perhaps. Sigh."

Lily sighed, and Theresa remained silent. They held their breath, listening to the increasingly loud sounds of battle approaching from afar, until finally, a few minutes later, the fighting ceased.

Having regained her strength, Theresa was able to stand up and move around, so she stood up and, with Lily's help, moved toward their destination.

A few minutes later, someone arrived—it was Theresa's other sisters. Covered in blood, she casually announced that the battle was over; apart from many injured, very few had died yet.

"But Teresa, you'd better hurry—several of your sisters and the Serpent Scales have been seriously injured, and you'll probably only have less than ten sisters left to travel with you."

"Hiss... My head hurts."

Theresa smiled bitterly, feeling utterly helpless about the dwindling manpower at her disposal.

....... .......

[Event: Robbery]

Your Serpentscale and Creed forces are making great strides in plundering the landships and equipment of the Duchy of Nikolai, and they are making good progress, but the real test is yet to come.

Perhaps your little pony will have to pay a price to acquire the fourth landship; perhaps she will abandon the refugees and leave the dangerous place to protect her gains; perhaps...

In short, they are now on their own—or could you offer them some support?

'So what should I do?'

August 7th at 11 am.

When Yang Hao, naked and lying in the arms of his sleeping mother Sonia, vaguely noticed the incident, he forced himself to wake up from Sonia's gentle embrace and adjusted his position slightly in a way that would not wake her, so that he could focus his attention on the latest event rather than on Sonia's mother's bosom.

'May I see Teresa and the others' operation log?' he muttered under his breath, frowning as he rummaged through the puppet stage. 'No casualties, right?'

Although Yang Hao knew that there would inevitably be casualties in war... well, how should I put it? Whether from a value perspective or from a personal sentimental perspective, Yang Hao still didn't want any deaths to occur within the Serpent Scales and Creed groups.

He hoped that at most some of them would be seriously injured in this operation; if anyone died, that would be terrible.

He surveyed the layout of the puppet stage, finally finding a section titled "Historical Events" in an inconspicuous corner. There, Yang Hao saw with satisfaction that Teresa and her team had successfully taken control of the three landships. Aside from the unexpected incident involving the control of the third landship, which resulted in minor injuries to several people and the emergence of a few seriously wounded, there were no other issues that bothered him.

Their main mission was complete, and they could leave whenever they wanted—but then again, Theresa had mentioned the military factory to him before... After thinking about it, Yang Hao decided to leave it at that for tonight and not sleep for the time being, so that he could check on their condition properly.

"Hopefully nothing bad will happen..." he muttered to himself. Under the watchful gaze of Sonia, who had somehow woken up and was now gently examining his back, he began his work.

.....

However, he soon discovered that he didn't seem to have any work to do.

Because it was a special operations operation, and given his lack of experience, Yang Hao wisely refrained from controlling Snake Scales and the foal's every move. Furthermore, since His Majesty the Emperor was still rapidly consolidating territory and assembling troops, Yang Hao couldn't act rashly and directly mobilize his army... Besides, even if he did mobilize his troops, they would likely be outmatched. Therefore, militarily speaking, he was currently powerless.

What about other aspects? For example, intelligence.

There is something to do... but only a tiny bit.

"...The morale of that resistance group has dropped by half... They're surrounded on all sides, and they're probably just trying to buy themselves as much time as possible before they die... But then again, can Theresa and her team really pull off a surprise attack on the fourth landship with a force of less than 30 people?"

He muttered to himself, noticing a corner of Theresa's map where there was a unit called "Refugees" that needed to be sent back to the Duchy of Kosiché. They weren't many, but they were still a problem. If the resistance couldn't hold out long enough, perhaps it would be better to abandon those refugees.

Um...

He shook his head and began arranging for the foals to have the necessary medical units and supplies at the border crossing between the Duchy of Cosice and the Duchy of Nikolai—a checkpoint that had once received refugees and was still in use. He then ordered the Gauls stationed at the checkpoint to change into indistinguishable clothing and move approximately 5 kilometers into the Duchy of Nikolai to await further orders.

Hopefully, the Gauls can provide some support to the landships there, and perhaps intercept small groups of pursuing troops. If possible, it would be best to remain peaceful.

Yang Hao, engrossed in his work, didn't notice that Sonia's mother was pressed close to him, giving him a warm hug. He was so absorbed in his work that he couldn't tear himself away, while Sonia's mother simply watched him with a smile, making no attempt to disturb him.

...... ......

at the same time.

"Hiss... the chaos on the street is subsiding... small groups of Duke Nikolai's personal guards have begun to move towards our position. Hey, Serpent Scale—after you've dealt with those soldiers, go and take control of the landship's control tower. We'll handle the flesh golems, and we also need to bring those refugees up with us..."

“My personal suggestion is to just abandon those refugees—if we continue like this and get bogged down, the consequences will be unimaginable.”

"Take as many as you can. Those refugees can also be used in the propaganda war to establish our righteousness... Heh, let me give you a hint first, then you guys go for it, okay?"

The fourth landship outnumbered the first three in both total escort and number of flesh golems. Furthermore, to accommodate an entire military factory, much had been removed from the landship—such as most of its shipborne weapons and unnecessary armor. In short, this landship had become a veritable "mobile factory." With virtually no combat capability, it would offer no assistance to Pony and Serpent Scales in the ensuing battle.

So, why is Theresa now going to conduct long-distance hypnotic suggestion?

The answer is simple. She only intended to incite a portion of the soldiers to mutiny—her Originium Arts could indeed do that, but the price was that for the next two weeks to a month, she wouldn't be able to get a good night's sleep, or even a single day, and she wouldn't be able to work diligently after exhausting herself.

She may need to stay in bed and receive care for more than half a month in the future. During this time, even if she wants to go to the toilet, someone will have to accompany her to prevent her from falling directly into the toilet. Fortunately, this is not a side effect that will appear immediately. Based on Theresa's experience, after she has overexerted herself like this, her side effects will probably come over in about an hour.

However, the side effects that only appeared an hour later do not contradict the fact that she was unable to use Originium Arts for a long time after releasing this hint... So Theresa wouldn't have done this unless it was the last moment.