Standing behind her dad, Nana shot a inquiring gaze to which Thomas immediately responded with a light nod.
Seeing as both the earthly core lions and the water lion tribe were seemingly confused, he stepped forward towards the center of the crowd. "Sorry to break the news, but there is no need for your help now."
Seeing as he was the one being addressed, the water lion chief turned around and upon seeing it was only a young man he sneered. "Disrespectful cub!"
A burst of pressure came crashing down on him, but Thomas simply stood in place with a light smile in his lips. A bright flame lit up within his pupils. "Too weak!"
A cloud of dense, orange mist instantly manifested. It wasn't dense enough to form the pure, liquid demonic energy but the sheer amount of such energy scared all beast in the residence.
Kajaha, the chief of the Earthly Core lions gasped in this pleasant surprise.
Beast didn't have near a very powerful internal energy as most their power was concentrated in their bodies, yet he was still able to sense how scary was the concentration of energy around this man.
But this was just the start. Instead of retreated the Water Lion chief roared he brought his claw towards Thomas. Despite the water lions being famous for their weak attack and very strong defense, the claw which he received wasn't light at all.
Thomas leaped toward the old lion with a quick counter attack.
With just this short exchange, Thomas assessed the opponent in front of him.
'His body is soft yet very resistant. It's like he's made of slime. Yet his strength is not much of a problem.'
Thomas quickly recovered from the previous attack then swiftly send a straight kick followed by a upper cut which send the blue lion back to his previous place.
Both didn't use any fancy powers or skills, only their physical prowess and technique.
'This beast...' Seeing this newcomer overpower him this easily, Datir felt scared. With this person here coupled with Kajaha all his plans would end up useless. He didn't recall anything about a beast this strong being a guest of the Earthly Core Lions.
For a moment he went into deep though. Through his nose, he clearly identified Thomas to a lion around fourteen to sixteen of age which was why he initial called him cub. Yet upon having a good look at opponent, he clearly shared the same smell as those from the Earthly core tribe but his looks... He looks like a member of the ape lineage, doesn't he?
"I didn't really expect this... Lion Monkey to be here today. Fine, I guess there is no need for further discussion." With his mind in a mess, Datir didn't want to waste anymore time and left as quick as he arrived with plans of gathering further information about this new expert.
Seeing as the Water Lions all left, the crowd of yellow lions cheered as they rushed to Thomas. Kajaha who already received a short explanation about everything arrived with a grateful look in his eyes.
He then knelt before the young man like any other father and not the leader of a tribe. "Thanks mister Ries for saving two of my daughters."
"No, no. There is no need for that, it's fine, really." Thomas didn't left him kneeling and helped him up almost immediately as he could feel how grateful this Beast felt at that moment.
He then turned to Lulu who was cheerfully taking with her mother and sisters, gave a look to the excited tribesmen las well the crow forming outside before saying to Kajaha. "We should find another place to talk."
"Oh, right. Come with me." Seeing how many beasts has been attracted by the disturbance, Kajaha as well the three young misses and their mother went to a room in the stone house.
Nana already told her family about the basics such as finding a heavily injured person close to the deadlands, how this person turned out to be a powerful expert and their quick journey to find the Sage and get the medicine.
Once again the father and mother thanked Thomas for saving their daughter. They spend several hours talking from which Thomas benefited a lot.
According to him, the strongest beast all of the island should be a 7-star beast of the seventh grade. At least a beast of this level shouldn't be that much of a problem given he was getting strong very fast.
They had a dinner together and Thomas came to appreciate something truly good for the first time since coming to this world that is a small pink plant called Tatapi. Most of the earthly core lions ate this as it had the same smell, texture and taste as beef and could replace meat in most cases.
True, synthetic or vegetal meat was way spread cross the human territory as it was too costly to raise cattle since the crisis of 2043.
As for Lulu's change, this was something none of them could understand. Kajaha and his wife nearly fell off when seeing her human form for the first time which came as quite the scare.
During the meal, Thomas recalled something from his conversation with the sage as he asked. "Oh, one more thing. Mister Kajaha, could you help me find any news about somebody?"
"Huh? You saved both my daughters so of course I would help. Who exactly is the one you are looking for?"
Thomas pondered before gifting a quick description of the Demon Prince Arthorias. A tall man in his early twenties, golden hair, pointy hears with a overhaul body structure and features quite similar to himself.
"I'll be looking into it tomorrow. Take your time and rest for now, my tribesmen will reach you as soon I find anything."
On that same night, Thomas went to sleep only to find himself standing a top of a mountain as pieces of light aligned, forming a stairway leading to the endless to the limitless sky.
waking through the rays of light he ascended beyond earth, the star system, the galaxy, walking through the nine planes of existence until finding himself at the ends of the universe.
When the billions of galaxies as well the entire universe were already way bellow his feet, Thomas saw majestic throne floating among the chaos. For a moment, Thomas was thinking this was just a normal dream when his vision stopped on the figure.
It's entire body was covered in darkness to which his eyes couldn't penetrate, but there was one thing which stood out, a single silver pupil stared back at him.
For a moment it was like the entire universe might simply collapse by this mere presence.
Suddenly, the surroundings changed and Thomas found out he was now in something like a courtroom.
Pa!
Light fell from the sky which shone right over him.
"Now we finally met, it's you who has been causing trouble after trouble to this Lord, isn't it. The first time was just a thought fragment which you have. Now I'm looking at you... you are different from the rest. Either way, there are only a less than a century left until all things return to chaos. Good luck."