Boom!

With his arms crossed over his chest, Arthur received Cisse's punch. Unable to withstand it, Arthur was sent flying through the Tribe Manor's front door and into the air. However, before Arthur could get over the shock of the blow, Cisse appeared right before him in the air with another punch.

Boom!

With a ridiculous amount of force, Arthur was sent hurtling towards the plains just a distance from the tribe's wooden walls. However, before Arthur hit the ground, the white streak in his golden hair turned green as a strong gale encircled him slowing his descent.

Softly landing, Arthur took a brief moment to asses the damage. Though the bones in his arms weren't broken, the skin around his forearms was beginning to turn shades of blue and purple.

So this the power of a bloodline Terrestrial, huh? With a soft sigh, he released a small trace of golden aura, healing his arms.

With a soft thump, Cisse landed a few meters away from him.

"Not bad, not bad at all," he said with a laugh.

Crack!

The ground beneath Cisse's sunk, as the muscles in his legs bulged and tightened. Without warning, he leaped towards Arthur.

Properly prepared this time, Arthur didn't plan on dodging or blocking. Instead, he channeled a pocket of condense air at the soles of his feet. With a pop, he released the condensed air and dashed to meet Cisse's incoming fist.

Step.

Just as they were about to make contact Arthur suddenly disappeared and reappeared behind Cisse.

If he had learned anything from Cisse's initial attack, it was that he was no match for the tribe's chief in terms of pure strength. But the one thing he excelled at was speed.

Caught off guard by Arthur's sudden maneuver, Cisse managed to only turn his head, catching a glimpse of a red streak.

Boom!

With a sudden impact from behind, Cisse was sent flying into the ground, creating a short ditch through the grassy plains.

Bathed in red flames, Arthur proceed to generate a massive fireball.

Condensing it, Arthur held it in the air as his hairstreak returned to green. Enshrounding the fireball in a dense concentration of air, he sent it flying at Cisse, who was slowly rising to his feet.

Boom!

A massive explosion rocked the land, flooding the surroundings with light and heat. Everything seemed to suddenly quiet as flames licked the now charred earth. But then-

"Ahahaha!"

Cisse's laughter suddenly appeared from the epicenter of a ten-meter crater.

Whoosh!

An intense burst of air surged from Cisse's location. As Cisse appeared, Arthur couldn't help but take note of his unblemished appearance and rising power.

Putting the pieces together, Arthur couldn't help but ask," your bloodline isn't at the basic grade, is it?"

"Correct," responded Cisse with a smile. "The thing about Asante was that he was a talented genius. Losing the original Warrior King Bloodline Seed was a catalyst for his growth. From blood, sweat, and tears, he managed to recreate a bloodline seed, and before his death, he even managed to elevate the bloodline grade to intermediate. Pity, no other genius arose from his descendants. Nevertheless, it is because of this increase that we have managed to maintain our way of life within this region. Afterall might is right."

As Cisse's words fell, his power continued to rise. His now red tattoo-like markings continued to deepen, reflecting his rising strength.

One should note, between the Celestial and Terrestrial Path, the Celestial Path, in comparison, is superior. However, the Celestial path encompasses a very select group of people, while the Terrestrial Path comprises of everyone else. But if one was to pick amongst the people of the Terrestrial Path to rival the Celestial Path, it would be bloodline holders. From basic to imperial grade, bloodlines hold immense power and secret biological codes. As for the difference between grades, for simplicity sake, say an intermediate bloodline holder met a basic bloodline holder. The intermediate bloodline holder can easily suppress the basic bloodline holder with his bloodline aura alone.

As for the comparison between a Terrest with a bloodline and a Celest. It is actually a bit complicated and depends on the specific individuals in question. The only real comparison would be between the Celestial Object stages and the Terrestrial Tiers. Which basically categorizes individuals into their current power capacity and output. A Celest's actual abilities are determined by their rings, while a Terrest's bloodline grade aid in empowering and the likelihood of breaking through tiers.

Nonetheless, as Arthur watched Cisse's rising aura, he couldn't help but frown. Cisse's current aura undoubtedly surpassed tier 0, for sure succeeded tier 1, and was about to reach tier 2 – Lunar mantle equivalent. Though Arthur was strong for his level, he was only at Lunar Core state. With no rings to even give him a shot at victory, his frown couldn't help but deepen. Nevertheless, as he watched the scene, a feeling of unyieldingness began to surface. With his head held up and braced himself for what is to come.

Boom!

Cisse's aura finally stabilized at tier 2. He then roared, "Ohene and Ohenemaa, Bra'Ha*."

[*King and Queen, come here. Translated from Akan.*]

With his arms spread open, two battle axes whistled through the air and landed in his hands. They both had golden blades with a deep red-wood with vivid black knobs that seemed to reflect stars depending oh how the light hit them. Somehow, the twin axes seemed to give off a different feeling. The one in his right hand felt masculine, while the one in his left felt feminine.

With his axes in hand, Cisse grinned, "that was a good warm-up, wouldn't you say. Let's start the real fight."

Boom!

Sensing danger, Arthur immediately called out, "Excalibur!"

Clang!

Just in time, Excalibur appeared in Arthur's hand, as he blocked the descending axes. However, from the impact alone, the ground beneath Arthur's feet cratered.

Seeing his attack blocked, Cisse followed up with a horizontal slash.

Another clang sounded as metal met metal.

Unable to withstand the hit, Arthur was sent flying. When he landed on his feet, Cisse was already there waiting for him.

Bang!

Like this, Arthur was placed into a passive defense. Clash after clash, he could do nothing but only block Cisse's incoming attacks. As for his reward for such excellent defense – numb arms.

However, unknown to Arthur, the residual energy from those clashes were continuously being absorbed into his Lunar Core, slowly rising to the Lunar Core boundary.

One should note that there are a few ways for a Celest to gather energy to promote celestial objects. There is passive absorption, which allows one to gather realm energy in a meditative state. Though not the most efficient, it is still a method. Another method is the expending one's energy fully and waiting for it to naturally restore. When Arthur evolved his Celestial Seed into a Celestial Core, this was the method he utilized. From expending his energy to create the water system, he left his celestial object completely depleted, thus allowing it to swallow Realm Energy at a much faster pace to restore itself. Once fully restored, a person's overall energy would be slightly higher than before. Another method to cultivate celestial objects is to slay inhabitant of the realm.

Everything withing Pandora stores to some extent Realm Energy and upon death releases that energy. All Celest have a body composition that allows them to absorb that released energy, albeit only a percent of the released energy will flow towards the Celest. Of course, how much of that percent that can fully absorb is all up to them. As for the last method, it is incredibly rare. Some unique Celest have a body composition known as [Devourer-Body Composition], when awakened, it allows a Celest to absorb all forms of Realm Energy such as the residual energy from combat. However, the only catch is that [Devourer-Body Composition], acts randomly and of its own accord. Pity, though, if it could be controlled, one could walk the road to supremacy unperturbed.

Crunch!

As Cisse swung his dual axes upward, Arthur felt the bones in his arm break as he was sent flying. At this point in time, his condition was pitiful. Blood trickled down his lips, his sleeveless black leather armor was in tatters, and his body was covered in various cuts.

Seeing this, Cisse wasn't bothered in the slightest. As someone with the Warrior King Bloodline, his thirst for combat would only be sated when his opponent fell before him, or he fell before his opponent. Since Arthur refused to fall, he would do everything within his power to crush him.

If he had to admit something, it would be that the lad was durable. Even when outclassed in pure power, he refused to fall, and with every clash, he also noticed that the lad would continuously find openings in his attacks to exploit. Regardless, despite the lad's tenacity, the battle was over. It was time to finish it.

On Arthur's side, he was continuously running through ideas in his mind on how he could possibly come out victorious. So far? Nothing, nada, zero. Every idea he could come up would simply be him washing his neck and offering it to Cisse.

With a sigh, Arthur looked down at his limp arm at the downward facing Excalibur. "Hey Cal, any idea why I'm having this feeling of losing everything if I lose?"

After a slight pause, the floating crystal pommel of Excalibur glowed. "You've chosen to pursue the path of the Sovereign. A Sovereign under no circumstances is allowed to fall. If they do….I believe you know the consequences. It's simple, you can't claim to rule others if your knees fall before another. Now, are you going to take a look at what's been happening to your body or wait for your knees to kiss the ground."

Confusion flashed in Arthur's eyes, "what are you talking ab-"

Arthur then suddenly felt as though a river had washed over him and began to push him forward. Suddenly, Arthur's consciousness dived into his Aura World and was immediately dumbfounded by what he saw.

Within his Aura World, the floating golden orb in the sky had grown to the hazy boundary that once enshrouded – peak Lunar Core. But that wasn't what caught Arthur's eye, and to be fair, why would it?

Before Arthur was the outline of a translucent giant man that was who was single kneeling seemingly carrying something on his back. Looking closely, Arthur noticed a thin outline of a sphere, and within it was another outline which then led to the fully filled Lunar Core boundary. Upon seeing this sight, Arthur couldn't help but feel a slight shiver down his back, as though he seeing something forbidden.

Flash.

Reappearing back within the flat plains, Arthur couldn't help but ask, "what was that?"

Cal's pommel glowed again as he began to speak. "If I am not wrong, what you saw should be a Terrest Soul Body."

"What!? But how?"

"Take a look at your skin."

Looking at his purple and blue arms, Arthur unleashed his golden aura to fully restore his condition. Initially, he wanted to wait out Cisse's bloodline empowerment. Once it ended, he would renew his state. But as the fight kept going on, he realized that it wouldn't yield his desired results. For one, Cisse was a whole level stronger than him, and even if he overexerted his bloodline power, he would undoubtedly have a trump card. And throughout this entire time, Arthur couldn't help but feel that Cisse was holding back and was simply pushing him to his limits but maintaining a fine line not to go over it – like a master probing the potential of his student.

Whoosh!

A rush of power burst from Arthur as his wounds started to heal, and his energy rose to new levels.

Cisse, who was about to leap into an attack, couldn't help but stop and frown. What's going on? Wait, is that the energy of a Terrest Soul Body? But how?

After a slight pause, he couldn't help but smile. Though he couldn't help but lament the favoritism the universe had at times. Arthur's transformation was a good thing, and it further cemented the fact that he would rise to the peak of the realm.

When Arthur's aura stabilized, and his golden aura receded, he once again looked at his arms. His originally bronze-like skin now had a golden hue. With his condition restored, Arthur became fully aware of his current condition.

Excalibur's crystal once again glowed. "Devourer Body Composition, if I am not wrong, it should be why you were able to awaken a Terrest Soul Body. The residual energy from your fight with Cisse was absorbed by your body hence the current results. But still…?"

"But still what..?

"You…your existence shouldn't be possible. I thought Old man was a bit dramatic when you awakened the ability to control the four elements on top of restoration. If anything, they didn't directly correlate with strength but made you extremely adaptable. But what you have now…? Regardless let's talk about this later. Your opponent still stands.

As Excalibur's words fell, Cisse, who was standing in the same spot, spoke. "It's alright, I surrender. The point of all this was to test your potential."

Surprised, a look of confusion couldn't help but creep onto Arthur's face.