The excitement from defeating his uncle took away his ability to keep a straight face. He was glowing with joy. Being able to defeat his uncle who had assaulted him for as long as he had known was great; but the look of shock on Cedric's face as he wondered how Derrick was able to knock him down was priceless.
Yet the question became 'how was he able to fight like that?'
It's not like he had been getting better overtime and he had definitely not awoken a heavenly pact so the only thing that crossed his mind was the strange prism with a glowing stone he had found by the demon's gate.
Angelina was so excited after the sparring, she bombarded Derrick with a lot of questions. Most of them, he couldn't give an answer to.
To be very honest, he didn't know how it happened; for some reason, his eyes saw his uncle's movements and his body was quick enough to respond.
He was even able to get his grandfather to smile with him. Ronald approached him casually, saying that he might be interested in sparring against Derrick in the future.
Derrick laughed in response, though he was afraid to face his grandfather as he knew he couldn't win in such a fight.
Later that day, after Ronald and Angelina left, Derrick gave in to his curiosity and went back to where he had picked up the prism, near the demon's gate. His search overwhelmed him, preventing him from taking notice of his surroundings.
"Look out!" A voice called out to him.
Before he could process what was happening, something large hit him in the back causing him to fly a couple of feet. He got up as fast as he could and turned to find himself facing a demon.
He was just about to run away when he saw two more just like the first come up against him. They were just about half his size, with dark black eyes and each one of them held a sword of about their height.
Compared to the demons he saw on New Years, these ones weren't nearly as intimidating; but even still, Derrick felt he was nowhere near ready to face a demon.
The boy who had shouted earlier was young, about Derrick's age with orange blonde hair and blue eyes. He seemed to have been fighting the demons so Derrick assumed he was a hunter.
Without warning, one of the demons came up at his back and hit him in the back of his head causing him to stumble forward and his head to bleed. He had tried to move away but it was too fast.
It suddenly became clear to him that the demons were more interested in him than the hunter as they left the hunter to focus on fighting him.
Derrick did his best to dodge their attacks but he couldn't handle three of them at once.
He dodged an attack from one only to get hit in the back of the head by another. He fell to the floor. He did his best to get up but his consciousness was slipping.
He managed to get back on his feet only for one of them to whack his face with the flat side of its blade.
That did it.
He heard this agitated voice in him and he felt like there was something that had been lurking in his mind, waiting for an opportunity to come out; and when he fell unconscious, it found that opportunity.
When he came through, he saw himself hold the head of one of the demons and the other two on the floor with their bodies scattered.
Out of pure shock, he screamed as he threw away the head. When he turned around, he saw the hunter staring at him with shock and admiration written all over his face.
"What rank of a hunter are you?" The boy asked.
"What? I'm not a hunter." He responded
"Then how did you just do that?" The boy asked, referring to the demons Derrick had just slaughtered. "And what happened to your markings?"
"I don't know what you're talking about. What markings? What happened?" Derrick asked with a hint of frustration in his tone.
"You don't remember?" The boy asked with pure curiosity.
"I have no idea what's going on." Derrick responded, his voice raised to a shout. "Last thing I remember, I was knocked out by a couple of demons. Next thing I know, I wake up to all of them dead and a demon's head in my palm."
"That explains it. It felt like you were a different person. Your attitude, your aura, it was almost like…" The boy said trailing off.
"Almost like..?" Derrick asked, desperate to get an answer.
"Do you have a heavenly pact?" He asked sternly
"No I don't." Derrick responded plainly
"Have you had an encounter with any demons before now?" He asked.
"I was the countdown when they first arrived. Other than that, none that I can think of." said Derrick. "Is something wrong?"
"Not necessarily. It's just strange how someone without a heavenly pact could be like this." The boy said pensively.
He stroked his chin for a while then hit his fist against his palm. "I know what to do. Let's go see my teacher."
"I don't follow." Derrick responded but the boy had already begun heading off somewhere.
"Tsk." He muttered to himself as he followed the boy.
Seeing that Derrick was following him, the boy turned back and said. "I'm Joshua by the way; Joshua Wixx."
"Derrick Angels" He responded with a sigh.