“How is this possible? Jacob said that the First Martial Saint has not even been born yet!” Joseph was dismayed by the appearance of the self-proclaimed First Martial Saint.

Time shenanigans, I guess. Jacob’s fault, am I right? That guy’s a mess, pal, the First Martial Saint casually said. But yeah, it appears my soul traveled back to the past? Interesting. And the one person who gets my inheritance is alive when I’m not even here yet. Wild. Anyway, nice to meet you, Joe. I know a lot about you since I’m just a soul fragment in your mind. I’ve been watching you for a while. My name’s Tommy, pal, and I’m the First Martial Saint, or that’s how some people like to call me.

“How—how,” Joseph was speechless.

Listen, if Jacob didn’t have to explain how he got back to the present time in his old body, why worry about me? What, do you fear I’m like a Devil impersonating myself—oh damn, I could totally be, couldn’t I?

Joseph had not thought for a moment that the First Martial Saint could be a Devil, to be honest. He didn’t even know Devils could do this stuff.

Yeah, Devils can do all sorts of nasty stuff. Mind-control is not their specialty, though. They mess with Soul Contracts and, more in general, Souls. Weird fellows, if you ask me.

“What the hell are you even talking about,” Joseph replied.

Young man, some manners! Oh, always wanted to say that. Anyway, you are my inheritor, so, by the powers vested in me by—myself? Yeah, that—I declare you my official disciple. You may now rise.

“I’m not kneeling,” Joseph answered, confused.

Then, you may keep standing. Are all the humans so stiff like you are, disciple? I lived alone for many years, and I swear I could have more fun by myself than by talking to you. Well, this—master? How do you call me? Teacher? I like to master, to be honest. What do you think?

Joseph thought that he needed to go to sleep and stop hearing voices.

Isn’t that rude? I’m here to help you. Your talent is absolute horsecrap, pal—disciple. And I, the great Martial Saint, I’m here to help you. I do feel kind of tired, too, in any case. But, you know what, let’s go to sleep, we’ll catch up tomorrow.

Joseph heard a yawn in his head, and the voice disappeared right after. Whatever had just happened, Joseph didn’t want to confront it right now. Maybe the best option would have been going to talk to Jacob, but Joseph didn’t want to deal with the problem at all at the moment. And, to be honest, he was kind of ashamed of having to ask Jacob every single time. So, tomorrow he would try and solve it on his own.

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…

Wow, that is terrible form.

Joseph was doing some exercise in the morning while the First Martial Saint commented.

“The first stance of your stupid Martial Style is just tripping forward!” Joseph said with an exasperated tone.

I’d argue it’s more about bowing, but yeah, I tripped forward all the time while fighting, at first. And then I thought ‘it has saved my life so many times, let’s make it into a proper dodge!’, and that’s the story of how the strongest Martial Style was born, disciple. You are welcome.

Joseph could tell from the First Martial Saint’s tone, Tommy, that the man was enjoying making fun of him a lot.

Yeah, I do love having a disciple to bully a little bit. But, mind you, pal—disciple, I am not lying. The technique is just a quick forward dodge to advance all the time. First, enter in your enemy’s guard while twisting, bowing, pivoting, and tripping forward. Then, when you are close to hitting the ground for real, use some Qi to rebound and hit with twice the strength and a surprise effect. Do you know how mad Demonic Beasts and humans get when they look at you tripping around, and then you uppercut them to oblivion?

“That does sound very irritating, I guess,” Joseph knew this was a big opportunity for him, but the Saint’s attitude was pretty offputting. “I just don’t understand what you mean. I’ve tried using this Martial Style in combat, but it always comes out half-baked. I even killed Charybdes with some moves, but I—”

You killed what? Charybdes? With your current form? How are you even alive?

“I mean, we used spears mostly, since they are compatible with the Martial Style, and I mainly used the Fifth Stance,” Joseph went on the defensive.

Do you mean you went battling the Charybdes with the Dodge and Hit Stance as your only weapon? Wow, pal—sorry, disciple, that sounds extremely dumb. I mean, when I killed Charybdes, they usually came at me. Not the other way around.

“Well, the city was in danger. And shouldn’t you know this stuff? You said you are in my goddamn soul or something and that you can read my mind?”

I don’t know. I’m no Karma and Soul expert. I could barely pass my inheritance, and I think I can only have one disciple. Once I awaken with someone, that’s pretty much it. No returns, no second chance to pick a better disciple. Or one that doesn’t fight Charybdes with one stance.

“Well, if your stances weren’t so absurd, maybe I would be able to practice them better!” Joseph was pretty infuriated. Even Jacob had praised his proficiency in battle, and now the First Martial Saint had just been tearing into him for the past thirty minutes.

You know what? I’ll just show you what I mean so that you can better grasp the first stance and the others too. No visions, though, they are better for some future insights, not to learn a proper style. I’m just a soul that depends on your wellbeing, but I should be able to take control of your body for a minute if you let me. Oh, pal, you know what? Let’s make this fun. Get Jacob and tell him you want to spar a bit bare-handed, that you want to test your own limits. Tell him that you will hold back your strength, and it’s just about technique.

Joseph was suspicious, but he ached to be a better warrior and accepted nonetheless.

Somewhere else in St. Peter, Jacob sneezed.

“Uh?”