***

Eris, the Evil Lady, the Spirit of Strife, was quite ignorant. Though her outward appearance didn't say anything, I could guess what she was thinking about me.

Living long had made her blind in one eye. It was inevitable. After all, being strong for so long had made her underestimate humans instinctively. For so long, they were creatures below her and she saw them at a certain level.

Essentially, she had gotten arrogant enough to underestimate me... again. Even after I had just tricked and trapped her to essentially be my servant.

She probably thought this would help her get out of the contract after the lion killed me. But she forgot something... even spirits need to breathe. Most of them at least. If this didn't work, then I always had the boots equipped so that. I could teleport myself away and they had 9 uses left.

I slowly formed a giant bubble around the lion, at first even then he didn't seem worried and slowly opened his eyes. I pulled him up with the water, he tried to kick off the liquid, but it was impossible to do so.

Booom!!

He created a giant splash, almost breaking out of the bubble of water I had surrounded him in. But in the end, I controlled the water and had a lot of MP to keep this up. It would be a battle of how long he could keep his breath, or how long I could hold this.

Even then, I wasn't just standing around, as I rhythmically waved my hand. Almost like a dance, and waves of water started entering the lion through its nostrils and mouth, invading his body.

These spirits had forgotten how they were pushed by humans off their land. Because after the humans learned that they could use bending to bend off and kill spirits, they immediately started building settlements even with Spirits around.

I glanced at the Evil Lady Spirit, while the contract would kill her and destroy her soul if she broke the contract. It was better to be careful of her.

But she wasn't making any moves, just looking on in despair. Wait, did she just bet everything on this working? That was a good strategy as I might have had my guard down during the first meeting. Sadly for her, if I was in her situation, I would have done the same and that helped me predict what she might do.

"Be prepared to give me something good, offer something valuable if you don't want me to kill you after this," I told the Evil Lady, making sure to smile at her nicely. This would unnerve her.

Showing anger would worry her, but not showing any when I am angry would scare her. But... smiling when I was angry would terrify her.

I wasn't some master manipulator or anything like that. But as a man who had watched a lot of horror movies, and was a failed actor at one time. I knew how to give a good scare. Being angry was normal, even expected. A killer who chased after you was scary, but a killer who smiled at you nicely was downright terrifying.

With a twist of my wrist, I froze the water inside the lion spirit's body. Surprisingly, he only looked at me angrily as blood started flowing out of his ears, nose, mouth, and even eyes. Yet he still seemed to be okay.

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Shit. If he was at a lower level, I would have been able to see his Health Bar and just how much HP it had cost.

Honestly, in my last world, I had gotten many ideas on how to kill "invincible" enemies from movies, anime, books, manga, etc.

*ROARRRR!!!*

Suddenly a large roar scattered the water ball, within an instant he was free. For a split second, I almost panicked, but calmly, I used this moment to use waterbending to manipulate the water that had turned to ice inside his body. I turned it back to water and used it to get into his vulnerable lungs.

At one time humans used to eat spirits, so they probably had some internal organs too. Though I couldn't see where my water was going, I could feel it moving around the lion's body.

Sadly though, the lion spirit landed on the ground as I wasn't able to gather the water fast enough to stop him.

Boom!!

He kicked off the ground, and the air around the spirit seemed to crackle.

Damn. I can't see it at all. So within a split second, I opened my map and saw the red dot moving towards me. Tilting my body to the side, I was able to dodge his attack.

Fwish!

But one of my arms was but through, and so was half of my chest. Blood spurted out.

Over 70% of my HP was lost in a split second, and I was close to death due to the bleeding effect. But I stood my ground. Taking out a roll of bandage and with one arm, I bandaged myself. In the end, I was left with only 20% of my health as within a second, another 10% was gone due to the bleeding effect.

The monstrous lion charged at me again, I saw it on the [Map]. I used to think that I was quite fast, but those thoughts were now thrown out of the window. I couldn't even compare to this guy.

Going by stats, just how high would his agility be? 300? 400? Maybe even higher. No, definitely higher.

Click!

Still, I was fast enough to click my boots before he hit me again from quite a distance. No, I wasn't using them to run away, instead, I will fight using them.

Within a split second, I was atop the mountains. Looking down at the lion, who stared at me with red eyes, radiating an intense feeling of power.

Fuck. I was scared as hell. But, I had to keep calm. [Gamer's Mind] helped dull my fear by calming my mind, but it couldn't turn me into an emotionless robot.

"Hey, little cat, how about you come up here?" I smirked at it arrogantly. Even though my arm hadn't regenerated... wait, would it even regenerate? Well, it was no use worrying about it now. What had happened couldn't be changed. Also, this Lion Spirit needed to keep being angry at me. Because if it calmed down it might be able to think rationally and that would become an even worse situation.

I was close to death, in comparison, losing an arm was nothing. I will worry in the future about getting my arm back, right now, there are more important things to worry about.

Taking out my spear, I held it in one hand and [Spear Mastery] took effect. As long as I held a spear... I would have a boost in stats. Normally holding a spear would impede my waterbending. But I just got a new idea.

I bit into my spear handle, still technically "holding" the thing. So while it might look ridiculous. Now I could have the boost in stats while using Waterbending.

One-handed waterbending was harder, but I got used to it and instantly froze the water in the lion's lungs.

"…" I just looked at the lion, and outwardly it seemed like nothing strange happened. By the way, how the hell was it able to roar while in a bubble of water. Was that roar done just by using the little amount of air it had in its lungs while he was sleeping? Well, it seems like that roar was something I will have to look out for too.

Also, was this waterboarding I was inside his body even doing anything?

Fwish!

Once again, the lion charged, but this time the ground below it crackled. With each step it took, it became faster, as marks of its claws were left on the ground.

Let's see who amongst us will win. You damn overpowered lion with a cheat-like body.

It sounded kind of ironic for me to talk about cheat abilities.