A/N: Chapters in advance in Patreòn
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(20+ chapters in advance)
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Chapter 42: Negotiation

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The Evil Lady looked at me nervously, probably guessing what I had in mind. 

"Who said I am going alone?" Fighting such strong spirits could lead me to my death. "You know that sabotaging me could lead to your death. Don't test me again."

She nodded. "I wasn't in any way implication to put you into danger. But simply giving you a choice."

Smart. She had already found a loophole in the contract that I hadn't thought of. Well, it wasn't that big of a deal, as something like this couldn't have harmed me, because she would have to not withhold any important information from me. But, maybe she could have said the information just when I was about to jump through and that would have technically been; 'Not withholding information from me'.

Well, the latter was a clause I had intentionally put in. Knowing that she would find another way to withhold information from me, like deleting her memories. That would also be okay with the Gias contract.

"Anyway, you are coming with. Show me which one of the portals leads to the strongest spirit," my words were neutral and didn't have any emotion in them. 

She knew what would happen after this was over. By failing right now, she had just pushed her time of death closer.

There was no need to get angry over this small trickery. I predicted something like this might happen.

[Intelligence increased by 1 for predicting your enemy's carefully thought scheme.]

This was also one of the reasons I was willing to put up with it. She was an intelligence stat grind, always keeping me on my toes while making me stronger.

When freezing the river, I knew that my Chi, or as it is represented in my Status Page as MP was above what most masters had. Meaning I could control a large amount of water. 

It would have taken at least three waterbenders to do what I had done to save the village.

"Seems like your friends flew off," the Evil Lady said with a confused look on her face. She then looked me in the eyes. "What are you?"

No wonder she was confused, having seen my water clone with them.

"Maybe I will explain it once you give me something useful," I chuckled and offered her my hand.

She then pointed towards one of the portals. "That leads to the Spirit of Endurance, Namean, the strongest spirit I have been able to trick into a contract until now."

"What are its powers?"

"Physical invincibility," she said casually. "No arrows can pierce his skin, no fire can burn him, no weapon can even scratch him. Also, its strength and speed are quite powerful. Even I would have a hard time protecting myself if he attacked."

Looking at her eyes, I saw that she seemed to be hiding something from me. Well, I couldn't read her expression, but going logically the Evil Lady still would try to trick me. "If you hide something from me, the contract will kill you. Do you want to test it without thinking things through?"

"Damn," for the first time she swore and winced. Finally, her true feeling slipped through, she was annoyed. With a resigned sigh, she added. "Even its eyes have a layer around it and can't be pierced," 

Well… that was some critical information. After all, when she worded it by saying that the lion had strong skin, most would attack its eyes. Which would be the weak point of any creature.

"Do you know any weakness it has?"

***
-Evil Lady POV-

What a fucking smart bastard. It was hard keeping my expressions straight. How can a human who is so young be able to keep up with me in a battle of minds?!

It annoyed me to no end. But this scumbag was winning. I had no more tricks to pull.

"No, I don't know how to beat it. While it won't be able to actively kill me due to the contract I have with it, you are a whole other deal," this time deciding to be careful, I told him everything and didn't try to withhold information.

Damn it!

I thought that during our first meeting he would have his guard down and think that I wouldn't try to get out of the contract so early. Should I have acted more panicked when we met? No, he might be my enemy, but he was smart enough to see through such acts. 

But Namean was my only chance to try and kill the brat. I tried all my cards in this meeting and it failed. 

Now that he knew that even I couldn't beat Namean in a straight battle, he will most likely refuse to fight him too. 

Fuck. When was the last time I played like this, even Vaatu wasn't this troublesome? Amongst spirits, rarely would anyone be able to keep up with me. But this slimy bastard was doing so casually.

"Okay, we are going to fight the Spirit of Endurance then. His name was Namean right?" He said suddenly.

Happiness blossomed in my heart, this was the happiest I had felt in a long time. Excitement aspired within me that it was hard to keep a straight face. But somehow I was able to do so and nodded at Sokka. "Okay, then I will try and restrain him to the best of my capabilities."

Screw that, even I wouldn't be able to restrain Namean. Because while he might be a relatively young spirit, only a dozen hundred years old, physically he was almost unmatched by any other spirit.

Even though this brat might be smart, he wasn't anything special in the end. His young age and arrogance got the better of him. 

Yes!! This was it! A short-lived human would never have the patience required to handle someone like me. 

I grasped his hand and we walked through the portal. As the darkness around us twisted and turned, I made sure that Sokka wasn't hurt in any way, even by accident as that would kill me. 

How the hell did a brat like this get such a contract? I could still feel the shackles in my soul. After he is dead, I will investigate his life and see what happened. Wait… I can't do that. Because the contract he had would still be in effect even after his death.

Oh well, I was happy right now as this pest is about to be killed.

As we landed on the other side, we entered the spirit world. There were a dozen mountains around us, while we were in the middle of a flat field. A lion about the size of an elephant, he had yellow, gold-like skin, and each strand of his fur seemed like it was made of gold. The lion lay on the ground, sleeping.

Sokka looked at his hand and waved it, and then smiled. "Does bending work here?"

"Yes," I said. We were transported physically here. So it would work. Was Sokka a bender? Well, it didn't matter either way. 

While observing him he had been under my watch most of the time. He was lucky, but his luck was just about to run out.

"Do you want me to try and restrain him?" I asked Sokka. While sabotaging him was against the contract rules. If he told me to do it, then it would be okay. 

He shook his head. "No," then he looked at me with a gentle smile on his face that was a little creepy. "By the way, you are really smart. Sadly, living for so long has breed arrogance, and blinded you in one eye."

Heh, brat. Keep talking. I wanna see you die a brutal death. 

"By the way, after this, you will receive a punishment."

That didn't matter, but I still nodded towards him, trying to act as submissive as possible. "Yes."

"Good, at least you understand," he then walked towards the lion and when he was just outside of its reach he waved his arms. A surprisingly huge amount of water was drained from the plants around us and it moved into an arc. 

Namean remained sleeping, as someone who couldn't be injured, his instincts had suffered quite a bit. But that wasn't a problem, since no predator would be able to defeat him anyway. 

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