If Chris hadn’t spotted the incoming wyverns, they would have been an extremely serious problem. Since he noticed them, however, they got downgraded to the level of just a large threat. That is, they still very much had to be dealt with, but they no longer had the element of surprise, just inconvenient timing. William quickly came up with a plan. He hadn’t been intending to use this technique to fight wyvern riders, but it would work. “Squad 1, with me! Squad 2, with Lila! Aim for the right row! ”

Normally, magic would need to be cast in volleys, or by individual wizards. Combining the efforts of several wizards together had various issues. First, if they were too close, they would try to control the same mana, interfering with each other, and possibly deplete the local area. Thus, wizards could stand apart, and even attack the same target, but their spells couldn’t combine into a stronger spell. Throwing two fireballs together just resulted in them exploding, instead of turning into a bigger fireball. It was sufficient for creating defensive walls of earth, but a similar problem occurred if trying to attack with earth spells, they would either combine into an uncontrollable larger boulder, or just crash into each other and break apart. Theoretically, wizards could combine their power to create a tornado, but that would require more forces than William had, and would also damage their own side at least as much. The solutions was electricity. Although it took relatively more effort per target to kill with a lightning bolt, they were better for more powerful, higher priority targets. William shouted some more orders, making sure that the timing would be precise. Then, he had Chris start his spell.

During training, it had been hard to teach Chris what he wanted. The best he could come up with was “a lightning bolt without lightning”. That is, he wanted the path that wizards created for the electrical current. However, because the path would need to be larger than that of a normal lightning bolt, just that effort alone was enough, and there wouldn’t be much room left over for adding the electricity. This is where the other wizards came in.

Fortunately, the timing worked out almost perfectly. It should have, of course, since they had practiced, but the situation now was much more stressful than on a training field. One bolt shot earlier than the others, and struck down the single rider, before continuing on toward a second, in a line parallel to the riders, and not continuing up from the ground. However, the bolt quickly fizzled out. Then, the rest of the lightning bolts went of nearly simultaneously. They all struck approximately the same point, and then flowed in one direction. Along the row of wyvern riders, where the “path” Chris had created was. This is when it was good that they were both armored and flying. If the enemy had been on the ground, much of the power would be lost, and wouldn’t be available to strike more enemies. The metal armor just made William’s job easier, since it would attract the electricity.

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The sky lit up, and William couldn’t see for a moment. Once he could see again, though, it was pretty much as he expected. The whole first row was falling from the sky. Small parts of the second row had been hit as well, as the electricity arced to them, but both the wyverns and demons were strong enough to resist what was basically a side effect. The main path went through the front row, almost two dozen wyvern riders, but then the power wasn’t enough to continue onward. William hadn’t expected much more, so he was satisfied. In addition, the rest of wyverns had obviously been startled, and were flying slightly erratically. No matter how well they were trained for combat, they weren’t ready for what they received.

The archers were turned to focus on the incoming wyverns, and got off two vollies before they arrived, slaying more of their number. With the arrows another volley of lightning, their numbers were reduced to a third or less. This did take the concentration of wizards off of other pursuits, but it was a necessary measure. Plus, it was one area where they didn’t have to worry in the slightest about hitting their own men. After that, William left most of those he deviated, about 20, to continue to focus on the wyvern riders. From his and Lila’s fights with flying magical beasts, they had learned some important pieces of information. Near the ground, a wizard had to maintain control of their electricity to prevent it from hitting the ground, thus it was required to go in a straight line, and sometimes was dodgeable. In the air, however, the wizard only had to control the lightning to the point where it neared the target, at which point they could let it flow as it willed, which meant as long as the opponent was relatively conductive, they couldn’t dodge. This meant even though the wyvern riders were flying in evasive patterns, they wouldn’t be able to avoid most or all of the incoming attacks. If they had successfully managed their sneak attack, though, they could probably have killed most of the wizards. Now, there were fewer of them, so hopefully the knights guarding the wizards could hold them off.

William couldn’t afford to devote more attention to them, besides watching out for himself, since there was still an important matter to deal with. The demon lord. In the time that William had been distracted by the wyvern riders, the demon lord had joined the main battle, and was showing how effective he and his personal guard could be. Marius had already started firing spells at the group, and William saw a few of the knight commanders, who could take on several demons by themselves, join the fray. However, nothing seemed to be able to stop the demon lord himself. He wielded a large halberd, and swept through the ranks like they were wheat. In addition to that, he also launched magical attacks, seeming to not care if he hit some of his allies as long as it hurt the humans more. William hadn’t realized an individual could possess such power, and it made him afraid. However, it was only a small part of fear for his own death, with a greater part a fear for the death of others.  William looked down at Chris and wondered if he really was unbreakable. Then, he moved to join the battle.