Douluo: Soul-Breaking spear

Chapter 138: Tang San's First Defeat

In the following days, Heaven Dou's Second Team faced a series of relatively average opponents, none of which were seeded teams, and most lacked Spirit Ancestors, having at most only one. For Heaven Dou's Second Team, these matches were a breeze, leading them to an unbroken winning streak. By this point, both Heaven Dou's First and Second Teams were tied for first place.

Heaven Dou's First Team, however, had a slightly tougher road and soon faced one of the traditional powerhouses—Elephant Armored Academy. For this match, they fielded four Spirit Ancestors: Tang San, Ning Heng, Yu Tianheng, and Bai Xiaofei.

Elephant Armored Academy, known as one of the older, well-established teams, was sometimes categorized alongside the Elemental Academies due to its mastery over earth-element techniques. The academy's students specialized in defensive skills, making them one of the tougher opponents.

However, with Bai Xiaofei's Needle-Tailed Swallow as his martial spirit, his high-speed flight capabilities proved an excellent counter. Although his attacks weren't very powerful, Bai Xiaofei's relentless harrying made it difficult for the heavy, earth-bound Elephant Armored students to focus. Thanks to rigorous physical training with Yang Potian, Bai Xiaofei's strength was no longer an issue, and he was able to keep the team fully occupied.

The match ended with a complete victory for Heaven Dou's First Team. During the battle, Tang San showed off his Meteor Hammer tactics, maximizing his control abilities, while Yu Tianheng demonstrated the full power of his Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, prevailing over the Elephant Armored Team's captain, Huyan Li. Huyan Li even revealed a head spirit bone but was ultimately overwhelmed, suffering severe injuries. When he activated his head bone, Tang San and Yu Tianheng coordinated to launch targeted attacks, nearly ending Huyan Li's life.

Watching from the stands, Elder Huyan Zhen was beside himself with anger, but his fury was only met by Ning Fengzhi's sardonic taunts, leaving him humiliated both in the match and off the stage.

Perhaps by coincidence or by design, Elephant Armored Academy's next match was against Heaven Dou's Second Team.

Compared to Heaven Dou's First Team, the Second Team appeared even more brutal. Facing Huyan Li, a towering figure weighing nearly four hundred pounds, they opted for a direct clash of strength. Though Huyan Li had impressive defense and brute force, he was outmatched by Niu Meng. In terms of defense, strength, and speed, Niu Meng proved superior in every way, resembling a stronger version of Huyan Li.

Huyan Zhen, watching from the stands, was nearly apoplectic. His Elephant Armored Clan and the Royal Defense Clan had long shared a reputation as the best defensive spirit master schools on the continent, yet it now seemed that his clan was falling behind. While he himself was only at rank 88, Niu Gao of the Royal Defense Clan had already attained the rank of Titled Douluo.

In the match, Huyan Li—despite having a head spirit bone—was thoroughly outclassed by Niu Meng, who crushed him in a one-on-one brawl. Meanwhile, the other members of Heaven Dou's Second Team quickly subdued the rest of Elephant Armored Academy's students, allowing them to sit back and watch the showdown between Huyan Li and Niu Meng. A team match had devolved into a single-combat spectacle.

After their victory over Elephant Armored Academy, Heaven Dou's Second Team next faced Thunderclap Academy. Thunderclap's captain, Yu Tianxin, wielded the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon with lightning affinity, which somewhat countered Dugu Yan's poison abilities. Nonetheless, Thunderclap's overall strength fell short, and after a brief struggle, Heaven Dou's Second Team emerged victorious.

With the tournament reaching its midpoint, both Heaven Dou's First and Second Teams maintained undefeated records, each winning every match with few injuries.

However, there was a stark contrast between the two teams' strategies. Heaven Dou's Second Team fielded a consistent lineup, eschewing complex tactics and relying on sheer power to overwhelm their opponents. In contrast, Heaven Dou's First Team adopted a more strategic approach, frequently rotating members to keep their tactics unpredictable. Tang San's impressive control abilities continued to leave the audience in awe.

The most infrequent participants were Tai Long, Dai Mubai, and Ning Heng. Given the overlap in skillsets, with all three being powerful assault-type spirit masters, Yu Tianheng emerged as the mainstay, while Dai Mubai played a less prominent role. Tai Long had yet to make an appearance.

For the tournament's first half, the First and Second Teams performed on par. However, Heaven Dou's First Team began facing tougher challenges in the second half.

Their first setback came when they went up against Blazing Fire Academy.

Blazing Fire Academy, though fielding only two Spirit Ancestors, specialized in fire-based martial spirits, giving them a natural advantage over Heaven Dou's First Team, particularly its core member, Tang San.

When both teams entered the arena, Tang San deployed his Meteor Hammer tactics once again. But Blazing Fire Academy unleashed an inferno, incinerating the Blue Silver Grass covering the stage in an instant.

Despite Tang San's high spirit power level of 45, he found himself completely countered by Blazing Fire Academy's team, whose fire abilities neutralized many of his tactics. Even his strongest ally, Yu Tianheng, was locked in an evenly matched battle against Huo Wushuang, failing to gain any advantage.

Just as the two teams were locked in a fierce exchange, Blazing Fire's core member, Huo Wu, unleashed her fourth spirit ability, Blazing Sun Dance. A massive fireball materialized over the arena, and its explosive attack wiped out three members of Heaven Dou's First Team in one strike, including the Spirit Ancestor Bai Xiaofei.

Bai Xiaofei's martial spirit, the Needle-Tailed Swallow, granted him exceptional speed, which usually gave him an advantage against most spirit masters. However, four of Blazing Fire Academy's members wielded Fire Crane spirits, allowing them to counter Bai Xiaofei effectively. With limited offensive power, he struggled against their relentless pressure.

After an extended battle, Heaven Dou's First Team barely managed to secure a victory, marking their hardest-won match to date. However, this battle served as a turning point, exposing a significant vulnerability in their strategy: Yu Xiaogang's tactics were all built around Tang San. As a result, Tang San had participated in every match, becoming the team's linchpin.

The encounter also highlighted a significant flaw in Tang San's own abilities. His Blue Silver Grass spirit was notably weak against fire, and following this match, nearly every team facing Heaven Dou's First Team fielded a fire-attribute spirit master to counter him. Once Tang San was neutralized, the team's formation often became chaotic.

While Heaven Dou's First Team barely scraped by against Blazing Fire Academy, they encountered a complete defeat against Tianshui Academy.

Tianshui Academy wasn't overwhelming in terms of Spirit Ancestor numbers, and Heaven Dou's First Team had taken them lightly, sending only three Spirit Ancestors into the match. Most assumed that Heaven Dou's First Team would win handily, but Shui Bing'er's abilities exceeded all expectations. Her first spirit skill was a group control technique and, astonishingly, could be cast instantaneously.

Additionally, Shui Bing'er and Xue Wu activated their fusion ability, Snowfall in Ice. The arena filled with snow and ice, and a massive ice phoenix formed as their combined spirits. It was the first time Shui Bing'er had used her fusion ability, and the immense power and full-field coverage shocked everyone.

In a surprising move, Tang San chose not to back down against the fusion ability, instead opting to face it head-on with his Clear Sky Hammer—marking the first time he'd revealed his secondary spirit in the competition. However, despite his bold approach, Tang San was only a Spirit Ancestor at level 45 and lacked the tempered resilience of his original story counterpart, who had undergone ice-and-fire body refinement.

From the sky, Shui Bing'er repeatedly urged Tang San to surrender, but he ignored her warnings and swung his Clear Sky Hammer directly at the incoming ice phoenix. The hammer met the phoenix in a powerful clash, but rather than shattering it, Tang San himself was encased in ice, and the remaining members of his team were also frozen into statues.

Thus, Heaven Dou's First Team faced their first defeat. Their misjudgment in underestimating Shui Bing'er and Xue Wu's fusion ability led to this failure. Tang San sustained considerable frostbite, and if not for the immediate intervention of nearby healing spirit masters, his injuries could have been far more severe.

With this loss, only three teams remained undefeated in the tournament: Heaven Dou's Second Team, Tianshui Academy, and Shenfeng Academy. The top three teams had yet to face each other, while Heaven Dou's First Team had slipped to fourth place.

The unexpected loss sparked widespread debate. Some questioned why Heaven Dou's First and Second Teams hadn't merged their strongest members to form an elite lineup, which could have resulted in a powerhouse team of one Spirit King and six Spirit Ancestors, likely strong enough to dominate the tournament.

Doubts also began to surface regarding Tang San's personal abilities. Although his level 45 spirit power was still among the highest in the tournament, his Blue Silver Grass spirit's vulnerability to fire had become a glaring issue. Now, whenever teams faced Tang San, they made sure to field fire-attribute spirit masters, making his performances notably less impressive than before.

Interest in evaluating the competition led to a number of analyses on the tournament's standout participants:

Among control-type spirit masters, the most prominent in the Heaven Dou division were Shui Bing'er, Dugu Yan, and Tang San, although Tang San faced increasing criticism.

For defense, Niu Meng was unanimously considered the strongest, followed by Huyan Li.

Yang Ping'an, the only Spirit King in the division and with his outstanding Breaking Soul Spear, was regarded as the top offense-oriented spirit master, with Yu Tianheng and Feng Xiaotian close behind, both known for their formidable beast spirits.

As for support, Ye Lingling was unmatched. Thanks to her, Heaven Dou's Second Team emerged unscathed from nearly every battle, with Ye Lingling even providing healing assistance to their defeated opponents. Among healing spirit masters, she was truly in a league of her own.

Thus, the competition continued, with strategies, strengths, and weaknesses becoming increasingly clear for all involved.

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