Each person could take part in one individual Soul Fight and one team Soul Fight per day. After registering as a team, Fang Lin and Dugu Yan went ahead and signed up for today's two-on-two Soul Fight.
"Your Soul Fight is in arena eight." The young receptionist handed them a number plate. "You can wait in the rest area until it's your turn, or watch the earlier Soul Fights from the viewing area."
The Soul Fighting Arena had a dedicated viewing area for Soul Masters waiting to fight. It was beneath the spectator stands, not far from the platform. The view was slightly worse than from the stands, but it was closer.
"Let's go take a look." Fang Lin remembered that the Shi Mo Brothers' Soul Fight was also in arena eight. If they went in now, they might still catch it.
The passage to the viewing area was the same one the contestants used to enter. Once inside, a staff member led them to the dedicated area, which was only a dozen meters or so from the platform. The two could even hear the blows and collisions on the platform clearly.
On the platform, the Shi Mo Brothers stood close together, the shields spinning and flying around them tightly connected to the Soul Power in their hands. They had the opposing team of a Beast Soul Master and a Tool Soul Master firmly suppressed.
Cheers rose and fell throughout the stands, and many people were shouting the Shi Mo Brothers' team name.
"Black Tortoise Brothers, give them a good thrashing!"
"Take out the Tool Soul Master first! Attack him from both sides! Smash him with your flying shields!"
Fang Lin looked up and around, spotting Yu Feng in the upper left. His face was flushed, both fists clenched, and his shouts were louder than those of the two fat nobles beside him put together.
By the looks of it, at least half the people in the arena had placed bets on the Black Tortoise Brothers.
The two Shi Mo Brothers on the platform didn't disappoint. After a prolonged stalemate, they seized an opening and sent the Tool Soul Master flying off the platform. Then they surrounded and eliminated the remaining Beast Soul Master.
The Black Tortoise was a top-tier Defense System Beast Martial Soul. The shields formed from its shell struck with tremendous force, rivaling even heavy Tool Martial Souls in power. With the brothers' second Soul Skill allowing them to advance on the attack or retreat on the defensive, Fang Lin couldn't think of a better solution unless someone was far stronger than the Shi Mo Brothers.
"These brothers' third Soul Skill later on seems to let them split their shields even further. Right now they have four shields flying at once; later, who knows, it might be ten thousand shields returning to their origin."
Once the Shi Mo Brothers' Soul Fight was over, Fang Lin and Dugu Yan were up next.
They walked onto the platform and waited a while before a man and a woman emerged from the passage opposite. Both looked to be over twenty. The man in gray robes was powerfully built, while the woman wore fitted combat clothes and looked full of heroic spirit.
"Up next is the sixth two-on-two Soul Fight: Blade and Jade Phosphorous versus Snow Arrow and Longbow."
Whether in one-on-one or two-on-two fights, contestants only learned who their opponents were when they stepped onto the platform. The same went for the spectators. Only for famous contestants would the Soul Fighting Arena set their schedules in advance, sell tickets, and open betting.
For unknown teams without a winning streak, spectators only learned who was fighting after entering.
"Judging by their names, they're both Tool Soul Masters, and one of them is a ranged fighter." As they waited, Dugu Yan chatted with Fang Lin, looking quite relaxed. Tool Soul Masters mostly favored physical attacks and had few ways to counter poison.
"Then I'll watch you show your divine might in a moment," Fang Lin said with a grin. He only had to step onto the platform to make up the numbers, and he could split the money fifty-fifty. The feeling couldn't have been better.
The referee briefly introduced the two teams' names and Martial Soul types. As Dugu Yan had said, both opponents were Power Attack System Tool Soul Masters. The woman was Lin Qing, with a bow-type Martial Soul; the man was Yang Chen, with a spear-type Martial Soul.
The match began, and all four entered the Martial Soul Possession state.
When they saw that Fang Lin and Dugu Yan both had a Soul Ring Configuration of two yellow and one purple, Lin Qing and Yang Chen's expressions hardened. Both of them had only one white, one yellow, and one purple, putting them slightly behind in Soul Ring Configuration.
Dugu Yan struck first. The thousand-year Third Soul Ring behind her tail lit up, and she exhaled sheets of purple poisonous mist. A strong, fishy stench swept across the platform.
The two-person Soul Fighting platform was twice as large as the one Fang Lin had seen in his previous individual Soul Fight, measuring nearly fifty meters across. Dugu Yan would have to expend far more Soul Power than before to cover it. But the speed at which she released the mist was not much different.
Before Lin Qing and Yang Chen could react, the poisonous mist had already obscured their view, and it continued to close in on them.
Dugu Yan's voice came from behind the poisonous mist at just the right moment.
"You'd better not try to force your way through. My third Soul Skill contains a potent Jade Phosphorous Serpent Poison that corrodes Soul Power and flesh. If you're poisoned, you'll certainly die when it takes effect within one hour."
Lin Qing and Yang Chen exchanged a glance, their faces turning exceptionally grim. From the scent that kept drifting toward them, they could tell their opponent wasn't lying.
"I didn't expect to run into such a troublesome poison-type Soul Master." Yang Chen sighed. The Great Soul Arena might forbid killing opponents, but who knew whether being poisoned would leave lasting effects? "Forget it, Qing. Even if we win, we'll need time to recuperate. It isn't worth it."
"Damn it, we were only one match away from five consecutive wins." Lin Qing gritted her teeth, her face full of indignation. She watched the poisonous mist steadily closing in and snorted. "Hmph, even if we can't win, we can't let that wretched couple have such an easy time of it."
"First Soul Skill, Flying Feather Power."
"Third Soul Skill, Sky-Filling Snow Arrows."
The white and purple Soul Rings beneath Lin Qing's feet lit up one after the other. Her longbow blazed with white light as she drew its empty string with one hand, pulling it into a full moon. A white beam of arrows as thick as a bucket burst from the bow, blossoming into countless ice-crystal arrows the instant it shot out.
Lin Qing's first Soul Skill increased her arrows' speed and power, while her third was a rare area-of-effect Soul Skill. She fired in the direction where she remembered Fang Lin and Dugu Yan standing. If they hadn't moved, this rain of arrows would certainly cover them.
The sharp ice-crystal arrows plunged into the purple poisonous mist, carrying waves of cold. Empowered by the two Soul Skills, they crossed more than half the platform in an instant.
The poisonous mist kept expanding, forcing Lin Qing and Yang Chen to retreat step by step, but it also blocked Fang Lin and Dugu Yan's view.
By the time Fang Lin and Dugu Yan saw it, the rain of arrows was almost overhead. Dugu Yan's face registered shock; at this distance, there was no way to dodge.
At that moment, a figure stepped in front of her.
"First Soul Skill, Hell Power."
Fang Lin suddenly stepped forward, his arm muscles surging as he slashed his long saber forward in an instant. Countless saber shadows appeared, precisely striking every arrow. Ice crystals burst apart, leaving only the sound of saber edge colliding with ice arrows, and a scene of ice and snow erupted before the two of them.
Sheltered behind him, Dugu Yan breathed a sigh of relief, but then she frowned. "There's cold on these ice arrows?"
Unlike lightning- or fire-element Soul Masters, ice-element Soul Masters didn't possess fierce destructive power, but they could frostbite meridians and flesh, restricting an opponent's movements and slowing them down.
Strange, he doesn't seem affected...
Dugu Yan was just about to release her first and second Soul Skills to bolster him when she noticed that Fang Lin seemed entirely unaffected by the cold. Not only his body, but even the Tool Martial Soul in his hand bore no trace of frost.
The ice crystals dispersed, and the referee suddenly announced that Fang Lin and Dugu Yan's team had won. As it turned out, Lin Qing and Yang Chen had jumped off the platform themselves as soon as they finished releasing that wave of Soul Skills.
"Those two really can't stand to lose!" Dugu Yan gnashed her teeth in anger. What she had thought would be an easy victory had nearly ended with both sides badly hurt.