How long have I been dead this time? Evidently, I’ve been dead long enough for Lucia to finish her meditation. Her surroundings are different. Instead of being trapped inside of an enclosed room, she’s out in the open in an area abundant with spiritual energy. I might not have much experience with spiritual energy, but it’s quite obvious it’s everywhere: there’s a light mist filled with energy permeating the area, and the dew drops on the grass are tempting even me, a weapon spirit, to drink them. However, despite the temptation, I’m not going to drink the dew covering the grass. There’s a lot of bloodstains on the ground, and judging from the situation, they belong to Lucia.

What in the world has Lucia gotten herself into? She’s fighting a humanoid squirrel while five others watch. Well, they aren’t really watching. They’re sitting around reading papers, evidently waiting for their turn to take part in the violence. The squirrel Lucia’s fighting is stronger than her, way stronger. Every inch of his body is coated with spiritual energy, similar to the green glow the law enforcement chief used but not completely the same. Rather than being sticky, this squirrel’s spiritual energy is piercing. Every time Lucia clashes with him, holes are blown open along her arms and legs. Why is she even fighting him? Can this even be called a fight?

“Timeout!” Lucia said and flopped over backwards. The attacking squirrel’s fist froze, and he lowered his arm. There was a furrow on his brow as if some part of the beating he dished out to Lucia wasn’t satisfactory. If I were stronger, I’d come out of my weapon body and drive a sword through his heart. Unfortunately, I’m weaker than Lucia. She can’t even harm him, so what can I expect to do? I know I wanted to come to the immortal realm to reach higher heights, but I think I may have underestimated the difficulty.

Lucia exhaled and rolled around on the ground a few times. Then, she splayed her limbs out to the sides. She stared up at the sky with a blank expression on her face before letting out a sigh. The humanoid squirrel walked over and looked down on her. “Are you ready for the second round?”

“No.”

The squirrel squinted before clenching his fist. The spiritual energy in the vicinity swirled towards him, causing his hand to glow with a piercing white light. “It seems like all your injuries have already recovered,” he said before lunging forward and punching towards the ground, aiming his fist at Lucia’s shoulder.

“Gah!” Lucia rolled over, narrowly avoiding the strike, but bits of dirt and grass flew up. Like the humanoid squirrel’s arm, the fragments of earth were coated with a white light, and they pierced through Lucia’s arm upon making contact with her skin, causing red gashes and holes to appear all along her shoulder and elbow. Lucia scrambled to her feet and sprinted forward, distancing herself from the humanoid squirrel. With a smirk on his face, he stood up straight, fixing his posture before strolling towards Lucia.

I can’t sit around watching this. Even if Lucia does deserve to be beaten a little, this is too much. If Lucia and I work together, although we won’t win, I bet we can wipe that smug look off of the humanoid squirrel’s face.

“Ah? Durandal? You’re alive again?”

I don’t know why she has to ask when there’s no way I’d appear before her if I were still dead. “Give me a sword.”

“What’s this?” the humanoid squirrel asked and stopped in his tracks. “A weapon spirit? As expected of someone who’s part human. Why do you have to rely on an external tool?” Without any hint of movement, the humanoid squirrel appeared in front of me, his hand punching towards my chest. Although my body might not be fast enough to counter his strike, I can still avoid it easily by retreating into my weapon body. Recently, it feels like I’ve gotten better at retreating. If any other warrior saw me do this, they’d call me a coward, but shouldn’t I take full advantage of my natural abilities? Not abusing my ability to retreat into my weapon body at any time is like a crocodile fighting without using its jaws. It simply doesn’t make sense for me to handicap myself in the name of honor.

The humanoid squirrel stared at the blank space in front of himself. Then, he disappeared and reappeared in front of Lucia, his fist punching at her shoulder once more. It’s clear he isn’t trying to kill Lucia since he hasn’t aimed at any of her vital organs, but it doesn’t seem like he’s trying to help her either. Lucia gritted her teeth and hopped to the side, but her movements were a bit too slow. The humanoid squirrel’s fist clipped her arm, and a miniature explosion happened, causing Lucia’s arm to fall off.

“Gah!” Lucia gnashed her teeth and glared at the humanoid squirrel as a fleshy rod sprouted out of her shoulder stump, quickly growing into a new arm.

“Don’t look at me like that,” the humanoid squirrel said and let out a mean laugh. “The ruler asked us to put in extra effort during our sparring session today. Did something happen between the two of you when you ran away? She gave us permission to let you go if you wanted to escape, but when she brought you back, it was clear you had pushed some of her buttons.”

When I was stronger than Lucia, I bullied her through sparring. When she became stronger than me, she bullied me through sparring even to the point of killing me. Now that Lucia’s learning under a new master, she’s being bullied through sparring once again. She upset the ruler, so the ruler used sparring as an excuse to vent her frustrations out on Lucia. If the past is anything to go by, Lucia will surpass the ruler, and eventually, everyone who bullied her will be bullied by her. Is this the cycle of karma? Why does it feel like I’m onto something? Can I somehow use this revelation to create a new technique? It’s not like I can do anything to help Lucia out. Right, I have to help myself before I can help others, and that means I can only leave Lucia to endure on her own for now.