Individual Training

"Why is it always me... I was stopped before I could even do anything anyways!" Vadh was screaming to himself, only ten minutes having passed since Velios decided to give him a punishment. Vadh was wearing a tight blindfold infused with magic to make sure he couldn't see anything infront of him. Not only that, but he was going to have to fight Ajagar and Ragaja at the same time. If any of the two got tired, they were allowed to be switched out with someone else but Vadh had to continuously fight without break. If he were to die, then Velios would just summon him back right after. If Vadh broke any of the three rules, no use of weapon, no use of offensive magic and fighting while blindfolded, then Velios would have someone even stronger fight him. Vadh realised immediately that whatever it was that Velios was planning to summon wasn't anything that he wanted to fight. Velios even referred to it as something he almost lost to. That thought alone scared the shit out of him. 

Vadh resumed a fighting stance, protecting his body with mana as much as possible before the fight had started. No matter what, he knew that he had no way to defeat either of them with blindfold on and he had to face two. "Alright guys, I have some business to attend to so I'll leave the fight to you." Velios looked upon them with a smile on his face. Not because he was excited to see them fight, but by the fact that whatever "business" he had planned seemed to be much more fun. "Master!" A happy voice shouted, waving at his direction to try and get his attention. "Can you buy that ice cream that was in the city on your way back?" She shouted casually, enough to get his attention. "I'll be sure to stea- I mean buy some on the way back. Have fun, okay?" Velios waved goodbye before instantly disappearing. It still shocked Ragaja how casual he was while teleporting but Ajagar didn't seem to mind it, smiling until he was gone, the smile remaining for a few seconds.

"How fortunate." Velios stood on an ocean, the waves around him instantly flattening as if the wild and deadly sea was nothing but a mere playground for him, something he could easily control. The water around him didn't move anymore for multiple kilometers, remaining flat while the water outside of that range was still as fierce as usual. "Well, I know Yotsuya warned me not to cause any catastrophes, but I might aswell have some fun while I'm here." Velios started stretching, removing the multiple magic circles that still remained on him. "As for my warm-up... I'll summon in that white monster again. I'll probably have to give him a name soon, but I wouldn't want to pass out before our fight." Velios released the constant suppresion of his mana, knowing that it would be no problem as he was the only one there.

A large circle appeared under him, tons of mana puring into it to feed it with enough energy to make it awake once more. Although Velios didn't know exactly how much, he was continuously growing stronger at an increasing rate. His growth was no longer linear beause it truly had never been. Velios' growth was now exponential, the markings on Velios' body growing brighter and fiercer than before as the summoned creature appeared from the dark pit that had opened up in the middle of the water. Velios looked at it with a smile on his face, ready to truly give it his all while fighting it, no matter if it took minutes, hours or even days. "Creature! Rise up and fight me once again. You may be but a mere demon who sacrificed everything, including your own sanity for more power, but I'll guide you. I'll give your new form, no, your new life a purpose." 

Vadh stood utterly no chance in their fight, getting flung around like he was a punching bag. Even without their usage of mana, Vadh had seemed to forget just how terrifyingly strong the two of them are individually. Vadh had not yet found a way to even begin to react to their attacks, but he had already died two times, his third attempt still remaining. The only thing which saved him was his healing and defensive magic. It was at a time like this when he got mad at himself for not listening at Velios' instructions more clearly. It would be an understatement to say that they had grown from their previous fighting and training with Velios and the others. Despite their physical capabilities, what truly hurt him was the fire. Wounds caused by fire was almost a direct counter to his physical regeneration. Not only did such wounds take much longer to heal, but since he is an intelligent monster stemming from the dangerous forests where he originated from, fire had always been hard for him to fight against.

It didn't matter if he tried to fight back. If he got hit he'd try to punch towards the direction where he knew one of them where only to get hit by the other. They were a perfect duo, already having adapted to each other's fighting styles. A sword swung from below narrowly missed his head, slicing off his arm before he could feel a hand touching the back of his head, flames instantly igniting causing major damage. The two's attacks were too powerful to heal from instantly and the fast-paced battle caused him to screw up several times. Although he could heal his wounds, there'd be no point if he'd just get hit again. Not only that, but Vadh noticed another problem. The two of them were becoming stronger by the second. It wasn't the kind of strength that Velios possessed, but something more natural. Almost as if they were continuously adapting to their innate mana capacity and talents as dragons, further learning how to use it.

Velios was smiling, the creature having instantly adapted to the water beneath them, standing on it aswell. The two were fighting furiously but much more equal. Velios was continously exchanging blows, dodging most of its attacks. The monster schreched with murderous intent, mana now surrounding its body. A powerful storm had started to brew as a result of the intensity of their clashes, the water under them flying everywhere as it created a beautiful scene. Velios reached out his hand, the demonic creature instantly stopping not because it didn't want to attack, but because it couldn't. A mere second later, parts of its body went missing, perfect rectangular holes remaining in its body as most of it was missing. A few limbs, a few organs, parts of the head and some parts of the rest, pieces of it had completely disappeared, the blood on the walls of the wound beginning to fall down into the sea below. 

"I see... This has proven to be more useful than I thought. Who'd thought fine tuning the teleportation magic could make individual pieces of someone teleport away, but not themselves? I guess no matter what kinda freaky creature you are, you're still made of someone. Whether it is a specific set of atoms, molecules and the 'like, it's all just complicated information in the end. As long as you know all of that information, you can freely manipulate it. Quite useful, but it drains me so much." Velios imitated crushing something in his hand, the next second, the durable creature slowly changing the shapes of itself, compressing into a tiny little cube, its blood exploding everywhere before it was just a cube of mostly its flesh and organs. "I hope you manage to adapt to that soon enough. If you manage to do that, I'll give you a reward later, okay?" Velios smiled, the mana around him growing in size as he couldn't contain it idly within his body.

Vadh was still getting beat up, but something was different. The change in his mana was largely noticable and wasn't at all what he had truly changed, but something was different. It was as if instincts he didn't have were returning, or rather, something about him was changing. His accute sense of hearing and smell, specifically for hunting and killing humans had been forcidly surpressed due to a certain human killing him if he tried anything. He had unknowingly gathered information about how they moved, what patterns they would take, what kind of attacks, but also pick up the faintest of sounds or faintest of smells.

That ability only grew as the fight continued, Vadh remembering that it didn't matter if he died or took damage. He finally understood just a single of the things Velios had said to him before. "You fight too narrow-minded, Vadh. Have you ever thought about what would happen if you couldn't see in a fight?" Velios said so confidently, but Vadh shook it off at the time. When would I ever fight blinded? My eyes heal basically instantly anyways, a thought that reminded him of something that had held him back.