Titan King: Ascension of the Giant

Chapter 1499: Fourth Prince of Stoneheart

"Die, you wretched crawler! You won’t escape my Frost Star Ring!"

The freezing mist solidified instantly. Kaelen found himself encased in a contracting sphere of absolute zero.

Layer upon layer of ice condensed around him, forming a prison designed to bind, freeze, and entomb. Glacial Dragon Jorik wasn’t holding back; he had opened with a finishing move.

A rasping sound filled the sphere as frost began to creep over Kaelen’s skin. Even his armor groaned under the thermal stress, becoming a leaden weight.

"Damn it," Kaelen growled, his breath misting. "Who are you calling a crawler?"

He was a bona fide Insect King, sure, but he was also a Prince of the Stoneheart Horde. Being insulted by a lizard was one thing; being frozen like a side of beef was another. If he let this slide, he’d be disgracing his father and the Horde.

Diplomacy was dead. It was time to let the fists do the talking.

CRACK!

Kaelen’s armor didn’t just break; it detonated. From his back, six massive, spectral appendages burst forth—the active effect of the Serpent-Demon’s Grasp.

Combined with his butterfly wings and the royal aura of an Insect King, the visual was undeniable. If Kaelen tried to claim he wasn’t the Dragonlouse King now, Jorik wouldn’t believe him if he signed a confession in blood.

But the power was real.

As soon as the six draconic claws materialized, they went to work. They tore through the Frost Star Ring like wet paper. The massive ice sphere shattered, sending shards raining down into the sea.

The Serpent-Demon’s Grasp was a Legendary-tier artifact, fit for an Archlord. Jorik was merely at the peak of the Legendary rank. The gap in their gear was a chasm.

"Now... who’s the bug?"

It was a nightmare scenario for Jorik.

One moment, his enemy was frozen. The next, the ice was dust, and Kaelen was hovering inches from his snout. The six spectral claws fanned out, their tips pressing against the dragon’s throat scales.

Jorik tried to recoil, to snap his jaws, to do something, but the pressure on his neck tightened.

He knew, with the instinct of a wild animal, that if he twitched, his head would be severed from his shoulders.

"I asked you a question," Kaelen whispered, his eyes flashing with a blood-red hunger. He was fighting the urge to squeeze. "Who is the parasite here?"

Jorik couldn’t speak. He couldn’t even telepathically project. He was paralyzed by the suppression—the innate, biological terror that a Dragonlouse King exerted over dragonkind.

THWIP!

Just as Kaelen was interrogating the dragon, the earth below exploded. A blur of motion shot upward, aiming like a sniper’s bullet for Jorik’s exposed chest.

Kaelen’s reflexes were godlike. His spectral claws yanked Jorik sideways, dragging the massive dragon out of the kill zone.

But not fast enough.

SNICK.

Blood sprayed across the sky. One of Jorik’s wings and a foreleg were sheared off cleanly at the joint.

The attacker hadn’t been aiming for Kaelen. It wanted the dragon dead.

"Why save the meat?" a chittering voice buzzed. "Kill it. Kill the heathens."

Kaelen blinked. The audacity was almost funny. A bug was giving him orders?

He ignored the creature hovering there on mosquito wings and turned his attention back to the maimed dragon. Kaelen smirked.

"See that?" He gestured with a claw. "That is the Dragonlouse King you were looking for."

Kaelen retracted the Serpent-Demon’s Grasp and dropped Jorik.

Minus a wing and a leg, the Glacial Dragon was no longer a threat. He was just a spectator. And Kaelen had a policy: he didn’t stomp on cripples unless he had to.

"Were you... questioning me?"

Kaelen turned his gaze to the newcomer.

The Dragonlouse King was hideous. It had twitching antennae, a mouth full of needle-teeth, and translucent mosquito wings. Its limbs were covered in barbed hooks—the same hooks that had just amputated a dragon’s limbs like they were twigs.

Kaelen noticed the rows of smaller, secondary claws opening and closing along the creature’s abdomen.

It was a true Insect King. Purebred.

"You smell like an Insect King," the creature clicked, ignoring Kaelen’s tone. "Why spare the lizard?"

Kaelen’s expression darkened.

He was royalty. In the hierarchy of the swarm, there was no debate, only obedience. Subordinates who talked back didn’t get a warning; they got dismantled.

"Die."

Kaelen didn’t hesitate.

He hadn’t killed Jorik because of the alliance between the Horde and the Dragonflight. But this thing? This thing was just XP waiting to be harvested.

Kaelen vanished, reappearing instantly in front of the Dragonlouse King. He reached out with his bare hands, intending to tear the creature in half.

ROAR!

The Dragonlouse King opened its maw and unleashed a point-blank blast of pure Dragon Fear.

It was a stolen power, harvested from its victims, but potent nonetheless.

Kaelen brought his spectral claws forward instantly, creating a shield against the sonic impact. He weathered the blast, but when he lowered his guard, the creature was gone.

"Dragon Fear... heh. Cute."

This was the first worthy opponent Kaelen had found since descending to the Titanion Realm. A fellow Insect King.

A thrill of the hunt electrified him. This continent was his playground.

"Again!"

Kaelen blurred forward, closing the distance in a heartbeat. The Dragonlouse King’s compound eyes widened in shock as Kaelen opened his mouth.

ROAR!

This wasn’t the scream of a dragon. This was the bellow of a Giant.

It was the roar of a Stoneheart Titan.

A visible shockwave of blood-red energy erupted from Kaelen’s throat, vastly more violent, explosive, and malevolent than the Dragon Fear.

The sonic boom hit the Dragonlouse King like a physical hammer. Its delicate mosquito wings shattered into dust. The chitinous armor across its body cracked and buckled, oozing dark ichor.

"Having fun yet?"

Kaelen’s voice was cold, mocking—the last thing a prey animal hears before the end.

"You... are... not... Insectoid!"

The Dragonlouse King shrieked in realization.

If it had known Kaelen wasn’t a purebred kin, it never would have broken cover. It had attacked Jorik assuming Kaelen would naturally side with the swarm.

"I’m whatever I say I am. Hahaha!"

Laughing maniacally, Kaelen unleashed all eight limbs.

It was a butchery.

He disassembled the Dragonlouse King in mid-air. And he didn’t let the prize go to waste. Kaelen’s jaw unhinged, and he devoured the falling biomass, swallowing the essence of the King whole.

"You..." Jorik wheezed, clutching his severed stump. "You really are the Giant Prince of the Stoneheart Horde?"

Four heads, eight arms—metaphorically speaking. The spectral silhouette Kaelen cast was the undeniable signature of Orion’s bloodline.