Lila didn’t like leading troops in battle. It wasn’t a problem of ability, she merely didn’t like the responsibility attached to it. She wished she could go back to the days where she was only responsible for herself, but she knew that was pointless. At best she had ignored her responsibility for others or not cared. Since she couldn’t do that, she hoped to go back to where she was only responsible for teaching instead of worrying about people’s life and death.

The worst part was she had to worry about enemies as well. William had infected her with his stupid idealism… but it was true that the normal gevai soldiers weren’t really responsible for what was happening. It would have been easier if she could just kill everyone without feeling bad about it… but then she would have been part of the problem.

Regardless of what she wanted, she still had to win battles. While she could implement strategies that would minimize overall loss of life- which were good for their own troops as well- she wasn’t going to stop throwing fireballs into enemy formations. William might be able to make people go unconscious just by walking near them, but she didn’t have that option.

“Headmistress!” The captain working under Lila entered the tent and saluted.

“Yes? Are there enemy troop movements?”

“The fort shows signs of mobilization- but the scouts have spotted wyvern riders coming from behind.”

“Of course they are.” Lila shook her head. She didn’t remember everything about her previous life, but she did remember there had been wyvern riders in the battle where she died. That was just against a fairly average demon lord. She shook her head at how weak Ostana had been… and even she herself, though she thought she was strong. That said… she had better ways to deal with wyverns now. “Prepare the archers, and keep watch on that fort.”

She picked up her staff and walked out of the tent. The wyverns almost looked like a flock of birds at their current distance… but they would look just like the large winged lizards they really were soon enough. They didn’t have front legs and they had poisonous stingers on their tails instead of breathing fire- or using other magic- but they somewhat resembled small dragons.

“You two-” Lila pointed to a pair of mages, “Take a squad each and prepare for delta formation- starting two gross yards to each side.” Each squad would cover a few dozen yards in every direction from the end points, which left just enough mana in each area for them to cast some spells. The much larger area in between the squads was there because that was the most efficient. Lila watched as the figures rapidly approached, as she stood in front of the archers. “Get ready!”

Lila began chanting. She didn’t have the experience and finesse that Lorelei did, but Lorelei had lived at least a half dozen times longer. Even so, Lila knew she wouldn’t lose in a contest of pure power. Lila wasn’t sure how they managed to get an entire company- three gross- of trained wyverns… but they were going to regret sending them out alone. “Headmistress! They’re turning. They must have seen we were ready!”

“I know! Fire- at- will!” There was a hand signal that could have been used as well, but Lila didn’t need to worry about ruining her chant by saying whatever she felt like, though she still liked to keep a certain cadence to her speech.

The wyverns turned to fly away, but they had underestimated the archers. Normal bows would have left them in a safe range, but these were the elite archers. Jordan had predicted that the wyverns would most likely be sent to deal with the smaller contingent of units, and had been correct. The hail of arrows only took down maybe one in six wyvern riders, but that was already a significant amount.

Then, a large section out of the middle suddenly started falling. They hadn’t been hit with arrows, or at least not enough to cause any real damage, but they were falling nonetheless. They fell, and those behind them fell as well, plummeting toward the ground as the air was literally taken out from under their wings. They had fallen halfway in only two seconds before Lila could not keep up the magic anymore. She let go of the spell… but the aftereffects were also part of the plan.

There was a large boom as the air flowed back into the area. Many of the wyverns who had not been directly affected still experienced turbulence… and were stunned by the sudden appearance of a sonic boom as the air rushed to fill the area and collided with itself. Wyvern riders continued to fall from the sky as smaller vacuums and subsequent sonic booms were created.

Only about a third of the company managed to fly away, but they were quickly out of range. Lila knew there was no point in pursuing them, “Alright men, prepare for capture!”

Cavalry road forward with chains and ropes. While many of the wyvern riders and wyverns would have died from the arrows or the fall, some of them would survive. They wouldn’t be a threat for some time, but they weren’t just going to be left alone either.

Lila shook her head. Some commander was going to be in huge trouble for the fiasco they had just caused. Flying troops were only suitable for harassment- and weren’t able to fight in straightforward combat. “What’s happening over at the fort, captain?”

The approaching captain stopped to salute, “Headmistress! The enemy formed up to attack, but something happened to cause chaos in their ranks. We can’t exactly see, but we think it might be… a dragon.”

Lila had fought a dragon. It had been difficult, but she had done it. That was how she got the very gem that topped her current staff, though the staff itself had been changed out several times- and she’d had to steal the gem from her own descendants. However, that had been a fairly young dragon. The roar she could now hear from the fort indicated that this particular dragon wasn’t so weak.