49: Shisui vs Fire Lion.
"Your weapon shouldn't hurt me that much," the spirit lion snarled, as he shot a cautious glance at Shisui, or more precisely, at the spear in his hands.
"You think we humans have no methods to deal with dark spirits like you?" Shisui asked, chuckling as the super-condensed water droplets swirled on his back, giving the sage a somewhat ethereal appearance under the moon's dim light.
"Just a little snag!" the spirit shouted before crouching down as all cats did before attacking.
Although Shisui still had a smile on his face, he was very alert; his muscles were taut, alert, and ready for any action the spirit might take.
His vigilance was rewarded when the Spirit Lion leaped towards him in a swift sprint, something that a normal human would not be able to properly perceive except as a simple blur.
But Shisui was no normal human, ice spikes constantly erupted from his foot and shot towards the spirit, not trying to hurt him, for they constantly bounced off his fur, or the purple flames melted the chunks of ice faith.
It was meant to slow his movements slightly and obscure the spirit's field of vision, giving Shisui a chance to prepare.
With a small cry, the man's muscles began to swell, his veins swelled and cold air was expelled from his body, shaking the snow around him.
His muscles were stimulated to a level that a human could normally reach, even his skin was bruised from the damage he had suffered, but that was no obstacle for Shisui.
The pain was nothing compared to the physical advantage he was gaining. Pushing past the mental limit and accessing the power usually hidden by humans, Shisui thrust his spear forward, causing a hissing sound.
His attack caused a sonic boom, and his spear, its tip emitting a strong golden glow, struck the Spirit Lion's body directly, pushing it back again.
Dark spiritual energy poured out of the new wound as if it were blood, and strands of purple flame and hair fell to the ground. The wound, a large hole in the spirit's neck, would be mortal for any natural creature.
Too bad he was fighting not only a spirit not governed by certain biological conventions, but a being corrupted by Vaatu's chaotic spiritual energy, something that empowered him.
This empowerment was not only more energetic power but also better defense and recovery. If it had been a normal lion, it would have been completely pierced; if it had been a normal spiritual lion, this wound would have been enough to make it flee.
But not now, it just made him angry, and the lion roared with a will to go, but there was much more caution and scrutiny in his eyes. The lion had not expected a human to be so powerful, so his attacks had been instinctive, attacking directly, not taking the man in front of him very seriously beyond the fact that his weapon could do him some damage.
The lion now felt an unusual searing pain in the two wounds he had, which, though they seemed to be gradually closing thanks to the dark energy, was more of a facade than true recovery.
The spirit could feel the emptiness in those areas, the increased drain on his energy as small traces of alien energy tried to spread further through his being.
Were he not a skilled mind, able to maintain his sanity even under Vaatu's direct influence, he would not have been able to use his power to contain the invading energy.
But this only caused him to expend more energy and focus more of his attention on those areas of his body to prevent the foreign energy from spreading further into his body, and not only that, the man's unusual physical strength scared him a little.
'Weren't puny humans too dependent on their elements or crowds? Why is he so strong? Why is this human so frightening?' thought the Spirit Lion, but he received no answer to his deep and disturbing doubts.
Although this whole thought process seemed to take a long time, it was only a process of a few seconds as the lion repositioned his body to prepare himself, but Shisui would never let an opportunity like this pass him by.
With great speed, he approached the spirit and with a twist of his spear, he held the spear shaft and struck at the lion's head like a club. Then he lifted his weapon high and let it fall on the creature's head.
The blow made a terrible sound, but not only that, the power of the blow pierced the lion's body, all controlled by Shisui's skillful technique. Thus, not only the lion's head was damaged, but also its entire being.
Even the snow on the ground was blown away by the power of the lion's movements, but Shisui didn't focus on trivialities, but on something very special that he noticed: this spirit had no experience in fighting humans, so it could take advantage of so many opportunities.
So he decided to take advantage of his enemy's disadvantage, constantly hitting it with his spear, avoiding touching its flames or the dark energy it constantly emitted as wounds grew on the spirit's body.
No matter how much the spirit lion tried to resist, Shisui treated it like a small cat, not even bothering to use waterbending, just using his ice spear to 'purify' the corrupted spirit.
It was obvious that his actions worked quite well, as a faint golden glow began to appear on the spirit's darkened body, and even its movements were hindered, and its face showed an unusual expression of pain.
The dark energy coming from Vaatu was fighting against the purifying glow of energy that Shisui was introducing into the spirit's body through his attacks. Soon, the creature fell heavily to the ground after Shisui stabbed it hard in the chest.
Shisui's chest rose and fell due to the strain on his body, but a smile appeared on Shisui's face as he realized that he could continue to tap into the hidden power in the human body.
As the spirit body continued to glow, Shisui turned his spear into water that surrounded him. The water began to emit a blue glow, healing all of his muscle wounds and the small cracks in his bones due to the use of such power.
After the water in his body evaporated and dried him out, he looked at the spirit with disdain. The spirit was strong, very strong, but it did not know how to use its power for anything, so it simply began waterbending to cleanse itself thoroughly.
The snow and ice turned into water that surrounded the lion on the ground. The jets of water began to glow with a golden glow similar to that of the spirit. Under these actions, the deep dark energy that still stubbornly remained in the spirit being was gradually expelled.
"Meow~" Musu approached and watched the process with great interest.
He had seen the fight, or rather, the beating that Shisui had given his former partner, and even though he didn't feel any empathy for the lion, he felt that Shisui was unusually brutal, so he gave Shisui a doubtful look.
"You wonder why I beat him so badly? I thought he would learn from my blows and make the fight more interesting, but he just let himself get hit and tried to burn me with his flames," Shisui complained before simply shaking his head.
"It seems he wasn't a spirit with much fighting experience, which is a big waste if I were a spirit..." Before Shisui finished speaking, he looked seriously at the lion's position, but in the air.
The dark energy, which should normally dissipate harmlessly into the environment, had gathered unusually at that moment, and as if sensing Shisui's attention, dense red lines appeared in that dark mass, forming what appeared to be an eye.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA! Wise Shisui, I guess sending such a young and inexperienced creature with my power was not as useful as I thought," the shrill, deep, and dark voice of Vaatu echoed in this desolate area of the South Pole.
As if in response to Vaatu's intrusive presence on the earthly plane, moonlight gathered over Shisui, and a vague Yin-Yang-like emblem appeared over Shisui, protecting him and Musu from the corrupting influence of the ancestral spirit.
"Tu and La, good to see you again. But I'm not here to chat with you, I'm here to chat with the sage, did you say something about what you would do if you were a spirit? I could help you with that, you know," Vaatu's voice was unusually soft and his demeanor gentle, but there was temptation in every word he said, even when using such a medium.
"I can become a spirit myself, Vaatu," Shisui pointed out, ignoring the spirit's suggestion, but his words made the spirit laugh.
"You're joking! You're bordering on water concepts, an achievement limited to a few. Even in the time before it was closed, not many people did that.
Wouldn't it be easier to take a shortcut? It is the essence of life to seek comfort, it is the essence of nature to seek the state of minimum energy, and minimum effort. Why force yourself to walk such a thorny path?" Vaatu's words were unusually true at the moment, but that was what made them dangerous.
Vaatu was a spirit who understood the chaotic nature of being human, so he knew that he couldn't convince Shisui with normal methods, especially since he seemed to be getting Tu and La's attention, so he decided to take the easiest path, 'sincerity.'
"Because even though I would like a smoother path, I know that it is essentially best to enjoy the process, not the end. As arduous as the path may be, I will learn more by walking it for my body than by simply taking shortcuts or being guided by powerful beings like you.
If I just follow in your footsteps, what will be mine, and what will be yours in the end?" Shisui replied, and as if these words resonated with something, Shisui felt the chi in his body, which had been agitated since the day he had attained enlightenment, calm down a bit, being able to control it more effectively.
"Boy, just shave your head and put on Airbender clothes," Vaatu, audibly annoyed by Shisui's words, blurted out before the 'eye' formed by his energy looked into the distance.
"Oh? HAHAHAHAHA Tu, La, it seems that Shisui is not the only interesting waterbender. How much bloodlust, how much anger, how much pain...
Shisui, although it would be great if we could strengthen our relationship, it looks like I'll have to say goodbye this time," the red eye formed by the dark energy finally succumbed to the purifying glow Shisui had maintained, but Vaatu's words alarmed Shisui a bit.
"So... what happened, and why are you helping me?" Shisui looked up at the Yin-Yang symbol hovering above him, but it simply spun twice before disappearing.
"Ah, looks like I'll have to travel to the North Pole in the future..." Shisui said with bad humor, before kicking the Spirit Lion who pretended to be asleep.
"Let's have a serious conversation, you and I," Shisui said, looking at the lion, who had an angry expression on his face.
...
"So, if I get this power... Will I be able to do Blood Bending without relying on the full moon?" Under the dim light of the flames, an elderly white-haired woman was talking to a raven that was emitting dark energy.
"Yes, all you have to do is accept the gift of Vaatu, the Greatest Spirit," the raven said proudly, causing the woman to ponder.
"Well..." she said, slurring her words.
"Never more will you suffer, Hama, never more," the raven said in a different voice, and dense red lines quickly covered her body, some of them forming a crimson eye on her chest.
"Nevermore," Hama repeated with a strong thirst for blood, and as she looked around at the desiccated corpses with pained expressions, but wearing clothing that indicated their affiliation with the Fire Nation, Hama's resolve grew stronger.
Nevermore.