area51novel Chapter 210 The primary objective is to break the formation.
Chapter 210 The primary objective is to break the formation.
"The Xu family of Xingguan is an ancient soul master family with a history of ten thousand years. It is no exaggeration to say that the current emperor of the Star Luo Empire is unfathomably powerful. However, the strength of this Princess Xu Jiujiu is indeed quite mysterious."
I know she's also a Soul King, but the Insight Glasses can't determine her exact level or what soul skills she possesses. Perhaps only when we're close enough, and when Princess Xu Jiujiu uses her martial soul, will we be able to obtain clearer information.
As Long You finished speaking, the others in the conference room couldn't help but frown slightly.
"This is not good news. Star Crown Martial Souls have always been mysterious. Even after ten thousand years, the continent's understanding of Star Crown Martial Souls is extremely limited. Even the academy doesn't have much information on this."
However, all the information circulating on the mainland regarding the Star Crown Martial Soul indicates that it is an extremely powerful martial soul. Unless a soul master is an idiot, the possessor of a Star Crown Martial Soul almost innately possesses the ability to fight opponents of higher levels. Many of the soul skills of this martial soul require the power of stars to be used, and with the enhancement of star power, the soul skills used by a Star Crown soul master become extremely difficult to deal with.
After a brief silence, Wang Yan used his expertise in martial spirit theory research to introduce the Star Crown Martial Spirit of the Star Luo Royal Family to the best of his ability.
"So, the Star Luo National Academy can actually be considered to have Soul Emperor-level combat power!"
These words, spoken in a relaxed tone, came from Beibei.
Compared to the others, Bei Bei already knew from Long You the extent of the difficulties Shrek Academy would face. Right now, the only difference was the addition of Xu Jiujiu, a Soul King level cultivator, which was nothing compared to Ma Rulong, who could briefly unleash Soul Douluo-level power.
Perhaps it was Beibei's relaxed tone that infected the others, and the atmosphere in the meeting room gradually became lively. Everyone put aside how difficult their opponents were and did their best to offer suggestions for improving Shrek Academy's combat strength.
That evening, Shrek Academy's tactical meeting lasted until 10:30 p.m., barely enough to avoid affecting everyone's sleep.
As the sun rose, the competition entered its final four rounds, and the atmosphere in the arena became even more serious. The players' rest area in Xingluo Square had been renovated into four independent spaces.
Shrek Academy arrived rather late; the other three academies were already waiting in their respective rest areas. With Shrek Academy's arrival, the atmosphere in the rest areas noticeably became tense. Although their spaces were relatively private, sparks still flew when their eyes met occasionally.
On the first day of the semifinals, a team battle took place. A rather unexpected scene unfolded: ten minutes before the start of the match, a ten-meter-wide red carpet stretched directly from the gates of the Starfall Imperial City to the front of the competition stage. Immediately afterwards, the palace gates opened wide, and His Majesty the Emperor of the Starfall Empire strode out, surrounded by palace guards, heading straight for the competition stage.
The roar of the guards surrounding Xingluo Square echoed, the first time Longyou had heard such a large-scale military shout since the opening day of the competition.
The spectators, who were already standing in the stands, were now able to stand up straight, actively following the rhythm of the army and expressing their respect with shouts. In the rest area, the members of the four teams also stood up at this moment, paying their respects to His Majesty the Emperor of the Star Luo Empire.
The number of guards accompanying the Emperor of the Star Luo Empire was not large, but even without using the analytical ability of the Insight Glasses, Long You knew that there were at least four Title Douluo among the guards.
Okay, none of that matters. What matters is that the Shrek Academy vs. Star Luo National Academy team battle begins.
Whether it was to showcase their national strength or not, the Star Luo Empire arranged for its Guardian Douluo to serve as referees in the final two rounds of the competition. For the audience, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness a Title Douluo, while for the students, it provided unparalleled security.
The team battle between Shrek Academy and Star Luo National Academy was hosted by Heavenly Fiend Douluo – Huang Jinxu. This titled Douluo senior was a rather taciturn titled Douluo. Without any visible movement, he appeared in the center of the arena in the next instant.
Despite the lack of words, upon witnessing this scene, the students from both academies dared not slack off, quickly walking onto the competition stage and arranging their competition formations as they went.
Shrek Academy's formation is relatively traditional, a 2-3-2 formation, but even this traditional formation still seems somewhat strange to the audience. The strange point is Shrek Academy's personnel arrangement.
The personnel arrangement for Shrek Academy is as follows: Long You and He Caitou stand in the first row; Bei Bei, Dai Yueheng, and Gongyang Mo stand in the second row; Ling Luochen and Huo Yuhao stand in the third row.
This is a rather incongruous personnel arrangement. After all, in a traditional 2-3-2 formation, the person standing at the front should be the strongest defensive or offensive Soul Master in the team. In other words, it would be more harmonious for Bei Bei and Dai Yueheng to stand in the positions of Long You and He Caitou.
The somewhat odd personnel arrangement sparked some discussion throughout Star Luo Square. Where Long You could see, most of the students from the Star Luo National Academy frowned slightly. But where Long You couldn't see, in the rest area of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy, Ma Rulong's slightly puzzled voice rang out:
"Did we gather the wrong information? Aren't the two Shrek Academy members standing in the front row Soul Masters? And shouldn't their Martial Souls be inclined towards control and food types? According to the tradition of the Three Kingdoms in Douluo Continent, such team members should be arranged in the back row, right?"
"The information we've gathered is accurate, but Shrek Academy's arrangements are indeed illogical. However, Shrek Academy has shown too many illogical aspects in this competition, so let's just keep watching."
Ma Rulong wasn't the only one with questions, but before the others could even open their mouths, Teacher Hong, who was leading the group, stopped them.
Let's turn our attention back to the competition stage. If Shrek Academy's formation was traditional with a touch of oddity, then the Star Luo National Academy team's formation was utterly bizarre.
In general terms, the formation of the Star Luo National Academy team is a triangle with a small tail.
One person in the first row, two people in the second row, and three people in the third row, forming a fairly neat triangle of six people in total. Princess Xu Jiujiu of the Xingluo Royal Family was the little tail outside the triangle.
To be honest, this strange formation made the Shrek Academy team frown secretly, but the Heavenly Fiend Douluo, who was in charge of the referee, did not give the two sides any more time to think. Seeing that both sides had completed their formations, the Heavenly Fiend Douluo almost immediately shouted the command to start the match, and then disappeared from the arena.
Another strange phenomenon occurred: neither of the two academies moved forward. Both Shrek Academy and Star Luo National Academy remained on their original positions, making preparations for the battle against the clock.
A series of metallic clanging sounds rang out from Shrek Academy's side, clearly indicating that while releasing their martial souls, Shrek Academy was also equipping themselves with soul tools. With Shrek Academy's actions, the strangeness of their previous traditional formation became understandable.
Two large soul-guided powered mechs, each five meters tall, appeared in front of Shrek Academy's formation like a thick city wall. They materialized from the shadows and released traction channels, leading Long You and He Caitou into the mechs' cockpits.
Behind the two tall soul-guided powered mechs, in a place that the Star Luo National Academy cannot see from its current angle, three more soul-guided powered armors, each about two meters tall, were lined up in sequence.
Without a doubt, these three soul-guided powered armors belonged to Bei Bei and his two companions, who were standing in the second row of the formation. Bei Bei already had his own soul-guided powered armor, which was custom-made for him by Long You and He Cai Tou. It was relatively balanced, and its main function was to enhance Bei Bei's ability to borrow the power of the light attribute.
As for the remaining two soul-guided power armors belonging to Dai Yueheng and Gongyang Mo, Fan Yu worked overtime to finish them after they arrived in Xingluo City.
These two soul-guided power armors have different focuses. Dai Yueheng's armor is more focused on close combat, mainly enhancing Dai Yueheng's movement speed and physical strength. It has some ranged attack methods, but its main purpose is to prevent Dai Yueheng from being kited.
The soul-guided power armor used by Gongyang Mo primarily focused on ranged attacks, or rather, it was a desperate gamble that emphasized ranged attacks. As a traditional support-type soul master, it was truly remarkable that Gongyang Mo developed melee combat abilities in just one month.
Further back, the combination of Ling Luochen and Huo Yuhao also changed somewhat. Ling Luochen put on the soul-guided tactical helmet he used when fighting against Zhengtian Academy during the round-robin tournament, while Huo Yuhao put on the soul-guided power exoskeleton, the only one he could currently activate with his soul power level.
"call"
An invisible wind swept across the Shrek Academy's territory, and a holographic real-time system based on Huo Yuhao's spirit detection and shared soul skill appeared in the minds of every student on the Shrek Academy field.
At this moment, the Shrek Academy team was no longer seven scattered students; they had become a unified whole with synchronized thinking.
At this point, all battle preparations were complete, and on the opposing Star Luo National Academy's position, Princess Xu Jiujiu, a combat support-type Soul Master, had already completed the Soul Skill buffs for her own team.
"charge!"
The towering soul-guided powered mechs moved forward with strides that seemed capable of shaking the arena, simultaneously unleashing a barrage of soul missiles wide enough to cover the entire width of the arena. Meanwhile, three relatively lightweight soul-guided powered armored vehicles took to the air immediately. The one belonging to Gongyang Mo filled the aerial firepower gap for the two soul-guided powered mechs that had deliberately reduced their firepower to conserve soul energy.
Meanwhile, the two soul-guided power armors belonging to Bei Bei and Dai Yueheng, like meteors, instantly traversed the 100-meter distance of the competition platform, directly carrying terrifying kinetic energy, and crashed into the formation of the Star Luo National Academy.
In team battles, the side with a formation and deployment often has an advantage over the side that is scattered and fights individually.
However, considering that a seven-player battle is not a large-scale battle, the formation of the team with the superior individual strength often serves only one purpose: to use the power of the formation to quickly break up the opponent's formation, and then use the stronger individual strength to cut through the opponent's formation, forming multiple one-on-one situations, and finally winning the final victory by relying on individual strength.
Of course, this doesn't mean that the side with stronger individual skills doesn't know how to utilize the power of the team, but rather that this one-on-one approach can obviously end the battle much faster.
If we take a closer look at Shrek Academy's performance in this tournament, we can see that Shrek Academy has always liked to use this method of breaking the opponent's formation and then winning through one-on-one battles.
There was no way around it; even though Shrek Academy was a depleted force, even if it was a reserve team, it was actually much stronger than in the original story because of Long You's involvement. Before entering today's competition, Shrek Academy had an advantage in individual strength compared to all their other opponents.
In fact, Shrek Academy adopted this formation in today's match largely because it could effectively launch attacks and disrupt Star Luo National Academy's formation in the shortest possible time.
The reason is somewhat complicated. At the very least, it's not because Shrek Academy had an advantage in individual combat strength during this battle, but because of one person—Princess Xu Jiujiu of Xingluo.
The Star Crown Martial Soul is an extremely powerful Martial Soul. Wang Yan's assessment of it is that it is a combat support type, a system that does not exist in the conventional classification of Soul Master systems.
How to put this assessment? It's a real riddle. For Long You, whose only focus is on the princess's strength, this statement is utter nonsense. Fortunately, Shrek Academy's millennia-old heritage still holds true. Although the specific types of Star Crown Martial Soul skills are unclear, their operational mechanisms are still documented.
According to Shrek Academy's records, this type of martial soul has relatively weak active attack power, and it is more suitable as a status enhancement device.
Take, for example, the third soul skill that Xu Jiujiu has just unleashed. Under the influence of this soul skill, all the members of the Star Luo National Academy were covered with a layer of dark golden starlight. This layer of starlight looks like light, but it is actually made up of tiny molecules, the kind of tiny molecules that can explode.