Zephyr

Zephyr is a boss encountered in Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. He masters the art of time stopping and uses knives in battle.

He also appears in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin as an optional boss.

Game Appearances
Zephyr encounters Soma Cruz in the Cursed Clock Tower and demonstrates his power by destroying all the lamps in the room before Soma can even move. His attacks mostly include using his time-stopping ability to do certain moves. His weakness is actually the fact that he stands or walks a lot without attacking. At this time, the player can easily keep hitting him with Killer Clowns or a different ranged soul or weapon. The only thing the player has to be careful of is not to attack him if he has an aura around him. If the player does, Zephyr will stop time and slash him. Once defeated, Zephyr's power over time goes out of control and causes Zephyr to age rapidly until becoming nothing but bone then dust.

Zephyr also appears in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin in the Nest of Evil and is said to be a good friend of the Chronomage.

Battle Tactics
Zephyr fights with the power of time manipulation (chronokinesis). He also wears a strapped claw on each hand and throws knives at his enemies. His main attacks include:
 * Throwing a knife in a straight line, in Portrait of Ruin this becomes three knives at once.
 * Jumping off the walls and ceilings whilst throwing knives.
 * Slashing his foe with one of his claws should they get too close.
 * Using time powers to make himself faster and performing a charge followed by a claw slash.
 * Freezing time and placing some knives above his foe, upon unfreezing time the knives would fall.

Strategies
In Dawn of Sorrow, you should get away from him when he murmurs to himself because if you are close to him he will charge. You could equip the Dead Pirate soul because you can double jump over him and hit him from behind with a polearm, which is his weakness.

In Portrait of Ruin, he is far easier because you can hit him with the Flame Whip, which exploits his weakness, and if the player attacks Zephyr while he is doing his pose, and knives are set up in their positions, the Whip Skill 1 can also provide protection from them. You could also use the Alucard Spear which deals a lot of damage. Overall, Zephyr is just easier than his Dawn of Sorrow counterpart because, at the point you face him, you have a wide array of weapons and magic with which to kill him quickly.

Soul Data
The soul of Zephyr has the power to stop time. It isn't as useful as it sounds, however, and will most likely rank low on your most used list. It is an important component in the story, however, as it is integral in order to gain entry to the Silenced Ruins. The first time you reach the area, via the Subterranean Hell, you will witness a cannon firing at a pillar. Before the pillar is broken, however, time is stopped by a cheeky Chronomage. You cannot proceed without the pillar destroyed, thus you must go back. Once you have the Zephyr soul, however, you can turn the tables on the Chronomage by using it to counter the frozen time spell, which will allow the cannon to destroy the pillar and allow passage into the Silenced Ruins.

Trivia

 * In Dawn of Sorrow, Zephyr's skeleton is sucked into a vortex upon death, while in Portrait of Ruin, his skeleton crumbles.
 * Zephyr is based on Dio Brando from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and uses similar attacks, i.e. knives and time freeze. One of his Japanese voice clips even echoes Dio's famous "Toki yo tomare!" ("Time has stopped!"). His fight on top of the clock tower is a reference to Part 3 of the comic.