WEAKNESS
Beast Races didn't have human forms, at least not in the normal sense. Though they could take human form, it was more like an avatar. It could exude some of their strength, but only a fraction of it. While executing more complex tasks, like... copulating, for example, was impossible while in such a form.
The image didn't really need to be painted, then. One could imagine what would happen to the human female slaves that this lion beast took in.
The most disgusting part to Leonel was that the Beast didn't even seem to be particularly sinister. It was still trying to act chummy with him as though what it was doing was just a natural course of nature, not something to get mad about.
And maybe that was truly the case. Ever since he had left Earth, he had learned more and more everyday of how much of a dog eat dog world he was in. There would be no one coming to save you... no one coming to save the Human Race.
So as the lion Beast lay there suffocating, a heart rending pain tearing through its body while most of its backside was nothing more than a rain of blood, Leonel had no remorse to give in his heart.
What made the situation worse was that as he listened to the fear-induced murmurings of those in the surroundings, none of them believed that he and Aina were human. Instead, they believed that they must have sensed something wrong, that the couple they were seeing were actually a pair of Half-Spirituals. They were certainly beautiful and handsome enough.
Leonel's ability to steal control over a flame the lion Beast had been nurturing since its youth only solidified this. Who could have more control of the elements than the Spirituals? Material © .
Leonel waved a hand and relinquished his control over the flames, prepared to walk away.
"Halt!"
A booming voice came from a separate location.
When they all spawned, the "bustling" city had been mostly silent as they all became accustomed to their surroundings. By the time the lion Beast started talking and then eventually roaring in agony, there had been some noise beginning to build up, but not enough that these sounds didn't still travel quite far.
Two men who seemed to have halos hovering above their heads made their way in from the distance. These weren't real halos, but rather a gathering of Elemental Force so strong that it formed a perpetual halo around them.
It was due to the appearance of these two men that most didn't think Aina and Leonel were Half-Spirituals at first. And judging by how fiercely they were reacting, it seemed that their assumptions about Leonel and Aina were probably wrong. There was no way they'd be so fierce with their own kind.
"What is going on here?"
Leonel looked between the two for a moment before ignoring them and turning to leave.
He knew what this was.
There were no "adults" in this place. The culling was just how Leonel described this Gathering, and it was more of an open secret than an outright truth. On the surface, the Gathering of Kingdoms still used the original guise proposed by the God Beasts of Creation, and that was to build camaraderie between the powers of Existence.
As such, the "rules" of this place were actually decided by the youths themselves. Or, more accurately, the most powerful of them. And, without fail, that council was under the control of Demi-God level Bubbles.
Technically, the council had yet to be formed for this particular iteration of the Gathering of Kingdoms, and as such the rules weren't firmly in place either. This starting period was a free for all, and even if Leonel started indiscriminately killing everyone in sight, they couldn't do anything about it.
That was, unless they felt themselves so entitled that they tried to carry over authority they had from previous Gathering of Kingdoms.
The two were smarter than Leonel gave them credit for. When they saw Leonel directly ignore them as though they were air, despite the fact their gazes flashed with rage, they seemed to realize that they didn't have the authority to do anything either.
They could only let their anger stoke as Leonel and Aina disappeared into the crowd.
"What happened here?" One of them growled toward another lion Beast.
The lion Beast's eyes narrowed in clear rage. Just because they didn't get their way, didn't mean that they would be so free with how they talked to everyone.
If they were so mad, they should have just directly attacked Leonel. There were no rules, after all.
But, obviously, since they didn't see the proceedings, they didn't dare to. Somehow, between the sound of the first roar and by the time they got here, the lion Beast genius had fallen.
Although he wasn't strong enough to enter the Finals, how many of them were? There were trillions of them and only a hundred would make it.
However, they could see enough to know that the lion Beast was of decent strength. It would at least make it past the preliminaries.
In the end, the two Half Spirituals got their answers as not everyone dared to be so flippant in responding to their inquiries.
"We'll report this matter," one of the Half Spirituals said. "It was said that there would be a powerful Human, we should have just run into him."
"And the woman by his side?"
"It was said he had a wife."
The two both had a flash of rage spark in their eyes. That was because they were privy to their higher echelons trying to marry the best of their Race to this human. How could they not be infuriated?
"Since he brought her, then that means he brought a weakness. He'll only be easier to deal with."