Solo Training

The Archon isolated himself from society and any peers once more, if only to delve into practice of the acquired skills he needed to hone so much- or at least, try to.

Ever since he was taught by Usiel how to wield the power of that bladestyle, he would not cease to constantly practice it, to hone the ability to deflect enemy spells and dash through them without any harm done. Certainly, there were still imperfections in his technique, as evident by his fight with Lazarus-

As much as Archon was extremely fast, able to avoid and dodge any flames that were sent his way, he still ended up burned, no matter what. Something was wrong, and he had to fix that immediately.

But to practice, he would need assistance. You cannot simply practice a technique like that without any actual live experience; for such, he summoned a trio of lesser Demons to conjure up their spells and fling them against Zaruma. It's better than nothing, right?

It wasn'ttoo long until he took up the best stance he could muster, and the winds began to gather around Zaruma; much like the shield of afterimage that allowed him to grace against the wind easily, this time around he conjured it as protective means- also, the technique of Afterimage itself persisted, which is to say a wind shield to resist friction and atmospheric resistance.

Why? He would need to dodge, of course. Garuda mastery is not about simply deflecting, but being quick enough to dodge any large shots flung at him.
(Zaruma)

With such, the crimson eyes sparked up once more, focusing all of his mana solely on defence- he had to learn this technique as soon as possible, or else, he would never be able to best the likes of Ikkaku.

Such memory still lingered in his mind. Despite all the power, despite all the strength that he held as Archon, a simple human was able to best him. It was indeed the power of human resolve, one sort of philosophy that he kept repeating to himself, and yet failed to follow - the growth of the likes of Ikkaku could not be allowed, but it happened.

Alas. Now there's not much else to do but to reflect on that and disallow such thing from happening in the future- and to fix it now, of course.

"Fling all of your spells at me. Do not hold back. I want you to unleash everything you possibly can."

While it would typically intimidate the lesser Demons, and probably make them assume that it was Archon's trick to have excuse to kill them, their will was overridden by Zaruma's to compel them to attack after all.

With the shields raised, with the winds gracing his visage to defy both friction and atmosphere, and any incoming spell on top of that, he was truly ready for this.

Perhaps, all in soon time, he would master this technique.
(Zaruma)

The first spells were coming in.

With the grace of the wind, with the fury of Tempest, the first bits of magic that were flung against Zaruma were deflected with relative ease- there was naught but a slash of blade against the incoming spell, a gust of wind that would seemingly counter and dissipate the incoming attack, breaking any hope of actually damaging Archon.

Yet, Zaruma knew one thing very well - he could not allow himself to simply stand on one place as it happens, or he would become overwhelmed by the magical assaults rather soon. Usiel had a good point, Garuda is all about one's speed and ability to keep dodging incoming assaults.

And if he hoped to learn that, the Tempest had to utilize it.

There was a movement, smooth, graceful, much like the wind itself could work- certainly, being in possession of technique such as Afterimage helped him a lot, allowing for a great speed to surpass any bounds and simply dodge most of the incoming assaults.

And those that somehow made it through? They were deflected by the wind, regardless.

"Intensify your attacks. I said, do not hold back. I want you to attack me from all flanks, burn the ground beneath my feet, do everything you can to attack me from every single angle."

An order barked up to the summoned Demons, and without much wait, they began to attack much more aggressively against their master.

The true training began.
(Zaruma)

With difficulty clearly ramped up, there was tougher time with deflecting or dodging every single attack incoming.

While dodging any incoming projectiles, or slashing with the wind any incoming missile that would be impossible to dodge, he knew that he also had to take care of the areal magic that was placed mostly on the ground and attempted to damage him from below.

If it wasn't enough? There was magic coming even from above, pouring over his head like the deathly rain that sought to inflict great pain upon Zaruma. But he wasn't going to simply let that happen, no-

His feet no longer touched the ground, allowing the winds to carry him at required moments. He was bearing Usiel's words on this very well; he needed to maintain a proper distance and allow his winds to carry him, if he wished to avoid ground attacks, or else he'd be as good as unable to wield this technique.

For the strikes from above, Zaruma turned this into a clever maneuver. With each hit that he was unable to dodge, a part of his mana was focused to turn him truly transparent, if only for a moment, to turn him into embodiment of wind, of Ventus Demon, that he has always been.

Demons oft forget their roots with Ascension to Archon, but that wasn't the case with Zaruma. He knew how to exploit his advantages very well, and acted against every single attack with deadly precision, superior agility and speed.

One could almost argue that he's close to mastering this technique.
(Zaruma)

Yet, there was an issue regardless.

Stamina. As much as he was skilled with blade and speed, the constant attacks were something that he'd become overwhelmed with, and Zaruma found it harder to deflect any other incoming attack with each passing second.

He had to think fast. Running out of mana wasn't a promising option either, because that would mean he'd actually get struck with the magics of Lesser Demons that constantly attacked him, and ultimately, this progress would be almost for naught.

But there's a saying - best defence is good offense.

While maintaining his stance to deflect any attack with the wind shields, and carefully gliding as embodiment of wind upon any attack that he could dodge, as well as turning transparent for a split moment at convenient second, he decided that he needed to respond aggressively towards their assaults too.

A single slash, and one of the Demons was blasted away with the gust of wind. Another, and the second was taken out- it only took a skilful sweep to disable the third one, and the Demons were defeated.

Not that they posed a large threat to him, as they were mostly used as training practice for Archon, but nonetheless, it was something to reflect on.

Best defence could sometimes indeed be best offense too.

"--You're dismissed. Go." - a brief statement to the defeated Demons, before Zaruma began to head back to Aetherius.

The training was over.
(Zaruma)