The people from the Astral Express, including Castorice, had all left.
Castorice wanted to stay by Derick's side, but she knew that remaining here would only give him another vulnerability. After all, given Aventurine's personality, he wasn't the type to fight fair and square without using any tricks. A sudden attack on her during his fight with Derick would have a significant impact on him.
So, she left with the others from the Astral Express.
Only Derick and Aventurine remained.
"Do you intend to stop me here all by yourself? The me right now is not so easy to deal with," Aventurine asked Derick.
Feeling the power surging through his body, Aventurine was now incredibly confident. So when facing Derick, even if his words were still somewhat polite, the confidence within them was crystal clear.
Derick nodded. "That's right. I'm also preparing to become an Emanator, so this is a good chance to see what an Emanator is capable of. You'd better take this seriously, or you might just get beaten by me."
Aventurine was confident, and Derick's tone couldn't afford to be any less so.
"Then I'll be going all out!"
With that, Aventurine snapped his fingers. As the sound echoed, two dice, each half the height of a person, shot straight toward Derick.
The speed of each one surpassed what the naked eye could follow. An ordinary person wouldn't even have time to react before being crushed to dust by them.
Derick wasn't about to fall into such a state. As the two rapidly spinning dice reached him, he had already positioned his long halberd horizontally in front of him, the blade tip and the butt end perfectly blocking the dice's attack path.
However, even though Derick blocked them in time, the power contained within Aventurine's dice wasn't so easily resisted.
After all, the dice didn't just have the momentum of their high-speed rotation; they were also imbued with Aventurine's own power.
A tremendous force slammed into Derick's halberd. Even though it was a weapon specially forged by Blade, its tip and butt end strained and bent under the impact, forming the shape of a drawn bow.
Derick gripped the halberd tightly, veins bulging on his arms, some even bursting. The energy imbued in the dice traveled up the shaft, attacking his arms.
The halberd was stained red as blood splattered.
But Derick still managed to block the attack. The force from the dice gradually faded, and they fell to the ground.
Meanwhile, Derick's halberd, truly worthy of being crafted by Blade, quickly returned to its original shape once the pressure was gone. His arms healed completely as well.
Seeing Derick's arms already healed, Aventurine was inwardly amazed by his astonishing regenerative ability and immortality.
The energy he had used in his attack was specifically designed to impede immortality and wound recovery, yet not only did it fail to disrupt Derick's immortality, it didn't even slow down his healing speed.
"Your abilities are truly special. If I can't defeat you and successfully reclaim Penacony, I'm afraid my fate won't be a pleasant one," Aventurine mused to himself.
Offending someone like Derick, who clearly had powerful backers and immense personal strength, carried a high price.
If Aventurine succeeded in taking Penacony, it wouldn't be a major issue. He could fight Derick and get away with it; Diamond or other high-ranking officials from the Interastral Peace Corporation would naturally step in to smooth things over for him.
Aventurine would be credited for his success, not blamed for his methods.
But if he failed to secure Penacony and only made a powerful enemy for no reason, the Corporation was hardly a benevolent employer. Punishment would be inevitable.
Anyone else in this situation would carefully weigh the pros and cons.
But the man Derick faced today was a quintessential gambler. Even for the smallest chance, Aventurine was willing to bet every chip he had.
Aventurine launched another attack at Derick.
Countless chips appeared behind him, infused with his energy, and rained down on Derick. The energy attached to each chip was less than that of the dice he'd thrown earlier, but their number was more than double.
Derick felt as if every part of his body was being targeted by these chips. If he remained stationary on the defensive, he would eventually be overwhelmed.
Realizing this, Derick no longer hesitated and charged toward Aventurine.
His current energy level was weaker than Aventurine's; he couldn't afford to clash head-on with his attacks.
However, Derick wasn't without his own advantages.
Namely, combat experience.
Derick's combat experience far surpassed Aventurine's.
The combat instincts inherited from the Strife Titan, his own hard-fought battles against powerful foes, the training from his teacher Feixiao, and the combat experience from the Flame Reaver's more than thirty million time loops had given Derick an unimaginable wealth of experience.
Now was the time to test the effectiveness of that experience.
Derick thrust his halberd forward and advanced. The chips flew toward him, but he didn't even glance at them. Just as they were about to hit, he effortlessly sidestepped and dodged.
As he ran, his energy formed a whirlwind around him, preventing the chips that had missed him from pursuing from behind.
The tip of his halberd, gleaming with light, closed in on Aventurine in the blink of an eye.
At this moment, the shortcomings of Aventurine's combat experience became apparent.
Although he had undergone some combat training, his practical experience was too low, and his reactions to sudden changes were not quick enough. Most crucially, the energy Aventurine wielded was not his own, but borrowed from Diamond. Using energy that wasn't his own was bound to have its issues.
It was only when Derick was right in front of him that Aventurine finally reacted.
A cascade of gold coins materialized in the sky and crashed down, completely burying Derick.
However, the tip of the halberd in Derick's hand still struck the mask on Aventurine's face. Their movements were almost frozen, the only sound coming from the continuous rain of gold coins.
The next second, Derick roared and burst out from the pile of coins.
He was now covered in blood, adding a strange sense of beauty to his handsome features. Gripping the end of his halberd, he thrust forward forcefully. Under the force of this thrust, Aventurine, who was still in mid-air, was thrown backward onto the ground, his mask sent flying.
To fight an Emanator to such a standstill without being one himself, even if this was a pseudo-Emanator, was an achievement Derick could boast about.
Of course, Derick wasn't satisfied yet. After knocking Aventurine down, he continued his attack, swinging his halberd.
After hitting the ground, Aventurine also reacted, casting aside any concern for his dignity. Not that he cared much for it anyway. He quickly rolled several times on the ground.
And it had to be said, rolling on the ground with Emanator-level energy was a speed Derick truly couldn't match.
He rolled quickly, then got back to his feet.
"You really are strong. It seems that after I defeat you, I'll have to make an extra trip to the Yaoqing Xianzhou to mend our relationship," Aventurine thought, feeling a stinging pain on his face.
Then, seeing Derick closing in on him, Aventurine simply gathered the energy into his own body and swung his fists at him.
Protected by Emanator-level energy, Aventurine didn't have to worry about his body being harmed and could focus on close-quarters combat with Derick.
And then...
...he found himself being beaten one-sidedly.
It was manageable from a distance, but up close, it felt like Derick was predicting his every move, dodging all his attacks. Meanwhile, Derick's strikes landed precisely on his vital points.
Even if they couldn't break through his defense, it was still incredibly frustrating for Aventurine.
"Isn't he only fourteen or fifteen? Even if he fought people every day, how could his combat experience be this rich?" Aventurine thought in frustration.
Across from him, Derick was also feeling a bit frustrated.
Aventurine's current power was absurdly strong; his own attacks couldn't break through Aventurine's defenses at all. It looked like he had the upper hand, but he couldn't maintain this offensive for long.
Once Aventurine counterattacked, it would be his turn to take a one-sided beating.
"If only there was a way to make him drop the energy shield around his body," Derick thought.
But that was an impossible wish.
Why would Aventurine drop his own defense?
"If this doesn't work, my only choice is to conserve my strength and stall for time until Acheron or the others arrive."
Just as Derick was about to change his strategy, he suddenly felt a strange sensation.
It felt as if his surroundings had been enveloped by something.
This sensation came from his right eye; his left eye and the rest of his body felt nothing unusual.
An idea seemed to strike Derick. He quickly switched the perspective of his right eye to one of his other clones, then switched it back to his main body's vision.
When he switched back, he found that both his and Aventurine's bodies and energies were frozen. Even everything in the distance had come to a standstill.
"Has Brother Sunday started pulling everyone into the dreamscape?"
Upon entering Penacony, everyone had been affected by Sunday's dream. But it hadn't been activated back then. Now, on the day before the Charmony Glee, he was truly beginning to pull everyone into the dream.
"Good thing I can switch my right eye's perspective to my other clones. The locations of my other clones are beyond Brother Sunday's hypnotic reach, which means I'm completely unaffected by this Dream of Oneness."
Derick thought to himself.
"In fact, this Dream of Oneness might even be able to help me."
As he thought this, his gaze shifted to Aventurine beside him.
"Now, the energy shield on your body isn't so strong anymore. My attacks... can finally break through your defense."
______
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