Wolf King Lan raised his halberd.
Swarming him were several large insects; some were of their usual small size, others were as large as cats.
Some of these insects had hard carapaces, others had soft bodies.
Together, they shook the air with the beat of their wings, and others churned through the soil.
Like a small cloud, the insects pushed forward.
"Wolf King Lan, you will meet your ends at my feet! Suffer a death no better than an ant crushed by my boot!"
Thrusting his halberd forward, Wolf King Lan stabbed into a large beetle-like insect, and the carapace rang with a metallic tone.
Sweeping horizontally, he severed the soft body of a flying fat worm and a large jumping ant.
Running to the right, Wolf King Lan avoided the exploding ground as a grotesque earthworm burst forth.
'Such a mockery of our Dao Arts! Such belittlement is unforgivable!'
With his halberd raised, Wolf King Lan slammed the ground and raised a great dirt cloud.
"Such obstruction is pointless!"
Life Taming Monarch did not hesitate in his orders, sending the swarm of insects into the dirt-filled air.
Running through was Wolf King Lan, who cut through the myriad insects with ease.
'The insects can no longer rely on their own vision and capabilities, forcing that fiendish Life Taming Monarch to control them personally. I will wear out your brain, and kill you at your lowest!'
'That is the only end befitting you!'
A sheer veil of Qi surrounded Lan's body, tufts of Qi lifted to resemble the visage of a wolf.
Dao Art — Streaming Wolf's Charge!
Inspired by the Mystical Streaming Wolf King, this Dao Art was a personal creation of Wolf King Lan.
Lan's speed increased as his body was protected by a veil of Qi that resembled a flowing stream.
He smashed through the insects, and the flowing Qi washed away the splattered innards and different colours of blood.
"You wish to approach me? Do not be so audacious, Wolf King Lan!"
Pulling something from the inside of his wide sleeve, Life Taming Monarch threw out a totem.
"You dare!"
"Witness! The supreme beast of your beloved heritage!"
The totem was made of green stone. Wolf King Lan recognised the visage of the totem, a sea beast which was only found in the Eastern Seas and Isles.
Shining with jade green light, the totem swelled with power.
Its size, which was initially palm-sized, grew to a length of five meters and a width of three meters.
It was a stingray. The body was pale grey. Wolf King Lan recognised the white patterns on its back, which symbolise one's power to cut through the ocean waves.
It was a majestic sight, one that birthed both reverence and pain in Wolf King Lan's heart.
"You dare to use my family's heritage right before me! You damned monarch! I will see that your end is painful and slow; I will have you fed to those disgusting insects, your bloody corpse strewn across the soil, reduced to nothing more than a stain!"
"I thought of giving you a chance to prostrate yourself, but so be it! Come forth! Face your beloved heritage and die by its tail!"
Silently, the stingray cut through the air, its massive body carrying incredible power.
Wolf King Lan rolled to the side, raising his halberd to block the whip of the stingray's tail.
'Within the tail is its spine, if what I remember is correct, it carries a terribly violent toxin which requires a Dao Art of high level Clarity to mend.'
'I can not fight back, I do not wish to destroy it, so I have no other choice but to defend against its attacks.'
'But... as long as I reach that damned fiend, I can kill him and deactivate the Dao Art... When I get that totem back, then I have secured part of my family's heritage.'
While diverting some of his attention to his internal thoughts, Wolf King Lan spared the rest to his battle with this stingray.
Its battle strength was comparable to Spirits, which made it an equal opponent to Wolf King Lan.
However...
"Do not think that I will simply stand and watch!"
A chain was flicked from Life Taming Monarch's wrist, which was batted away by Wolf King Lan's halberd.
The clash of metal rang through the silent night.
Whipping chains into the fight between Lan and the stringray, Life Taming Monarch began to apply pressure to his enemy.
Expectantly, Lan was overwhelmed by the dual forces of the Monarch and stingray.
In response, he slammed a powerful strike into the ground with his halberd, raising a large cloud of dirt.
"Again with this trick, you know that it is pointless to do so!"
Life Taming Monarch began to control the stingray more intricately, compensating for its inability to perceive through the dirt-filled air.
'How about I add this into the mix?'
Raising his hand, the remnant insects of his initial swarm also join the fray, similarly controlled by Life Taming Monarch.
'I just... need to hold on... for a moment longer!'
Stepping, strafing, retreating.
Slashing, bashing, defending.
Wolf King Lan displayed formidable defence as well as great offensive power.
"I will praise you, Wolf King Lan, you have withstood my attacks until now! Such battle strength was unexpected from one who enslaves, like me!"
"How crude... to call it enslavement, it is the utmost of arrogance!"
"Seethe, for you will meet your end soon. You were foolish to have tried me!"
Waning, the dirt cloud's thick obscuration was thinned.
Life Taming Monarch eased his Immersion and lightly touched his forehead.
Having exhausted his mind to the fullest, he felt the subtle fatigue weighing down his thoughts.
That was to be expected; controlling several beasts so intricately was tiring, especially for his wounded state.
"I will appraise you once more, Wolf King Lan, you proved tenacious, but now you are one foot into the grave."
The Dao Art — Streaming Wolf's Charge — began to disperse.
Light but plentiful wounds had scarred Wolf King Lan's body. The worst injury was the necrotic flesh plaguing his left hand.
"Would you like to die by my hand, or should your death be caused by the toxin of your beloved heritage?"
"Rot, you fool."
With a questioning gaze, Life Taming Monarch watched as Wolf King Lan severed his forearm, thus ridding his body of the further spread of the toxin.
"So by my hand it will be. Yes... I told you before, did I? You will meet your end at my feet, crushed like an ant under my boot! Hahaha! That will be the cause of your death!"