Dancing Blade

This spell allows the wu jen to animate any nonmagical sword, causing it to spring into the air of its own volition, hover, and fight for the one designated by the caster.

The sword must be usable by the protected individual's character class, and cannot be a sword in the possession of another. The sword always stays within 5 feet of the individual and should that character be slain, the sword drops to the ground. Controlling the sword requires no concentration and the protected individual can fight with another weapon at the same time. The sword has the same number of attacks and chance to hit as the protected individual. It inflicts normal damage, not gaining any Strength bonuses the designated individual may have.

The material component for this spell is a tiny stick puppet waved in the direction of the individual to be protected.

Notes: Common in oriental settings; very rare elsewhere.