I don't understand, is this truly the limit of an Apex's strength?

The man with two swords continued to persist, blocking and parrying every attack Altruen sent his way. And it was so disappointing.

Altruen had decided at the start of the fight to adjust the strength of his overtoned body to the might a competent terrestrial warrior should possess, then ramp up over the course of the battle. He didn't even bother using any of his weapons, as he felt they would end the conflict too fast for him to collect usable data.

From the start to now, the swordsman used only the black and disfigured skysteel blade. Even that, Altruen thought, was disappointing. Amid their myriad blows, parries, and slashes, the man landed several hits on Altruen in the first minute of the fight. The swordsman slashed his arms three times, his shoulders twice, and got his side once.

The man's blade was dull.

His body, he hadn't expected to be cut. Likely nothing short of a razor-fine edge could hope to split his skin, but he had at least expected the blade to be capable of cutting his uniform made from regular cloth.

Sure, the man's strength was a great deal above the average, but his technique was sloppy and his blade was blunt. It was almost enough to make Altruen second guess his assessment of the man. Perhaps he was simply a fraud.

No, the feeling I get from that other blade of his is real. But why doesn't he use it? Perhaps he can't truly control it.

Altruen spared a glance at the roof of the car behind them and saw the dwarven woman reach down and pull his subordinate out by the hair and fling Eun in an arc over her head before smashing her back down through the roof planks. He and the Apex had spent the entirety of their duel on the roof of the car ahead.

Aw man, that dwarf is stronger than I anticipated. I'm starting to lose confidence in that woman. I guess she's done well enough for a scout. I suppose perhaps I placed too heavy an expectation on her. Time to wrap this up.

Altruen turned back to the Apex and narrowed his gaze. He still wouldn't use any weapons, but he'd employ his full strength.

He dashed in close to the swordsman and sent a barrage of punches at the smaller figure. The swordsman flailed his blade around desperately with a single hand on the grip, batting away most of the blows. One managed to slip past his guard and plant itself firmly in his gut. The force of the blow sent the man flying backwards off his feet. Perhaps he would have flown a full car ahead, but the wind buffeted his airborne figure, greatly slowing his momentum. He managed to fight against both the force and the gust to land on his feet, a bit unsteady but not too shaken.

"Is this truly it? I'll end it now if you've nothing else to show." Altruen said over the wind.

"I'm curious," the swordsman said in response, "Are all among Those Who Follow The Heavens as arrogant as you? It's starting to seriously wear on me."

"Arrogance is the privilege of the strong. If it irks you then you should rather curse your own weakness."

"No, you're wrong. Arrogance is simply arrogance. If anything it belongs to the weak, those who lack the strength of character to see it for the worthless display of bravado it is."

"Does your chatter serve any purpose? Stalling for time won't save you," Altruen said, starting to get annoyed that the swordsman would spout such useless drivel. The man's very presence had begun to irritate him.

"I've been quite interested in your organization for some time now, so I wanted to take this opportunity to see how much of what I've heard is true. I sincerely hope the ones above you aren't as shallow, otherwise you'll have thoroughly disappointed my expectations."

"And? If you have nothing worthwhile to say then I'll end this now."

With a sneer, the swordsman said, "You truly are hopeless. Even now you don't seem to realize, or maybe I should say can't seem to comprehend, a basic facet of combat. Up till now, you've steadily risen your level of effort, trying to feel me out and gauge my strength, yes?"

"What of it?"

"It's almost comical that you haven't realized I've been doing the same," the swordsman says, placing his free hand on the pommel of the sheathed sword at his hip.

Ah, finally. I get to see him use that mysterious blade. So what if you're a bit stronger than this? I haven't even begun to display true might.

Altruen waited, but the man made no move to actually draw the sword. Altruen sneered.

Bastard, is he trying to imply I'm not worth using that blade on?

Altruen snarled and stepped forward in a burst of speed that left ripples in the air around him. With his unbridled strength, he punched forward with the intent to blow a hole in the ignorant savage's chest cavity.

He couldn't believe his vision when the swordsman moved with the grace of water and stepped around his supersonic attack. The man's black sword cut through the air with a sharp whistle as it snaked under Altruen's outstretched arm and smashed into his chest.

Altruen's boots dug into the flimsy wooden roof as the force of that blow pushed him back. Just as his backwards momentum was about to stop, the planks constituting the roof gave way beneath his weight, sending him falling through the wooden structure into the car below. A glance behind showed a rather odd stalemate between his subordinate and the dwarf, but he quickly cast the sight from his mind. He had more important matters than Eun's failings.

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The Apex swung down from the side of the roof into the car as Altruen gathered himself. "Huh," the man said, "So that's the source of your power. I thought you seemed off, and now I know why. None of your strength is really your own, is it? It was simply imprinted on you, through those leylines."

Widening his eyes in surprise, Altruen looked down at his chest and realized with a start that it was bare. The uniform that represented his homeland, his pride, was split clean down the middle, revealing an intricate network of tattoos, almost completely blanketing the natural hue of skin. Confusion and anger clashed within him.

"You… I thought that blade of yours was dull?"

"Hm? Why would anyone carry a dull blade? I cut that which I wish to cut and naught else."

Altruen's mind reeled. He isn't using magic, which means that ability must be based solely on conceptual mastery.

The terrestrial's interpretation of the strength of base concepts was a gross misunderstanding. It was thought that base concepts 'bottomed out' sooner than more intricate concepts. They thought that conceptual mastery of a base concept was inherently more limiting for growth than unique ideas. In truth it was the reverse, but it was simply harder to comprehend the profound nature of base concepts, and so those with an inadequate understanding of the world were inherently unable to ever approach true mastery.

To have mastery of such a base concept, to take it beyond the limitations of what these savages should be able to understand… But that doesn't explain how he can exert such a mastery without the use of magic or a domain.

Everything about this man suddenly seemed very wrong to Altruen, but he couldn't tell why. He was absolutely certain that the man had been struggling to keep up physically as the fight had progressed, but then suddenly it was as though his strength grew by multitudes in an instant. All he had done was place a hand on the pommel of that sword, but even looking at the man felt like staring down a completely different entity than before, his overconfidence had simply prevented him from noticing.

Before Altruen can decide on his next course of action an unfamiliar voice sounds out a ways behind him. So lost in thought he at first pays the voice no mind, until he feels the sensation of a domain encompassing him and an alien sensation of pain in his chest.

"To think that such a disgusting presence would show itself here," the swordsman spoke with a disdain as deep as the sea in his voice, a voice that suddenly seemed to permeate his being, sending an electric jolt down his spine. The man's hand gripped the handle of the sheathed sword and suddenly exuded a pressure that was impossible to ignore. Even without turning around Altruen knew that the swordsman was now the sole focus of every individual on this train.

The man pulled the sword from his belt, sheath and all. "Begone," was all the man said. Paying no mind to the fact that his blade was still unbared he raised it above his head and made a simple downward slash.

A sense of clarity returned to Altruen as the man slotted his sheathed sword back in his belt loop, seeming content to have done nothing more than slash the air. However, that sense of clarity was accompanied by a deep sense that something was very wrong. He felt the still pervasive domain close, ridding his mind of its presence and then he realized why he felt something was wrong.

Even before the foreign domain had been closed the pain that had accompanied it, presumably caused by the bearer's projection, had been missing. He turned his head and saw the figure of a man he'd never seen before leap off the train, a look of abject terror on a horribly mutilated face. As he turned back to the swordsman his mind put together the information in a shocked daze.

An interloper had appeared and expanded a domain, which was something Altruen hadn't anticipated. Either the man's very presence or the effect of the domain had caused the Apex to lash out in anger, displaying a power he'd not deigned Altruen enough of a threat to unleash. The effect of the projection, or rather the projection itself had ended before the domain was withdrawn, meaning this man had done something. Something that was, by the laws that governed this world, impossible.

As his eyes landed back on the swordsman before him the figure asked, "Are we done?" Where before there had been inquisitive, then annoyed, then condescending eyes there was now simply the gaze of a predator. A predator Altruen knew he would never be anything more than prey to.

Without even the will to respond he whirled around and leaped over the space connecting the two train cars. By now both Eun and the dwarf woman were both back on their feet, giving each other death stares. Altruen walked straight past the dwarf, kicking through wooden rubble as he walked around the hole in the floor.

He placed a hand on Eun's shoulder and walked past, indicating that they were done and she was to follow. She gave him a look before falling in behind.

Stepping to the edge of the car he broke the handrail with a casual swipe before leaping off. He landed on a section of wooden scaffolding a ways away and above the train. Eun couldn't quite make the same distance and had to make a secondary leap off a nearby boulder.

Altruen sat at the edge of the wooden platform and watched as the remaining train cars passed by. He heard the rattle of boots on wood as Eun landed nearby.

"Sir, I'm sorry I-"

"Forget it," He cut her off, "It was my mistake to push us into that. I hadn't expected a human to be able to possess such inexplicable power."

After a brief hesitation Eun asked, "Sir, what was that, at the end?" She was obviously speaking of when that man had used the sheathed blade.

Altruen didn't immediately answer her question, and when he did speak he said, "When we return you shall need to update that man's profile. His threat grade, specifically. Elevate him from B to Special S."

Eun looked confused, "Sir? The grading scale doesn't go that high. Even if it did, I'm only authorized to assign A grade or below."

"Oh, right. I'll have to do it myself then. As I'm sure you know, grade S is considered a substantial threat to the stability of a biosphere. The grade Special S isn't truly meant to be assigned to creatures but rather events. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

She stared at him, stunned, "You mean that man's existence is akin to the danger of a Criticality Event? How is that possible? The last time one of those even happened was…"

"That fiasco seven hundred years ago, yes."

"Then isn't it our duty to eliminate him before he becomes a problem?"

"Cool your guns there, scout. While the grading was never meant to be applied to anything other than events there are two others that currently hold that grade as well, and I think you might understand better the caution required when messing about with such an entity knowing the other two. One is the God that should not be, and the other is those damned things."

Eun looked like she almost wanted to laugh at him, "You mean that man has the power to equal a god? I'm sorry sir, but that just doesn't seem possible."

"Fool, don't you understand what he did back there? If that man has the power that I think he does, he could likely cut anything in all of existence. If we test him and find his patience wanting then he could rend the very Heavens."

Eun still looked skeptical, but he didn't truly care what she thought. A mere scout could not understand the truth of what they had witnessed.

But still, even if he can truly cut concepts that does not explain how he does it without any mana manipulation whatsoever. That should be absolute, for gods and men. Could it be he's somehow hijacked the domain of the world, to use it as he wishes?