Ranger - "Higher Vampire" [5th Campaign, 5th Mission]

And I had a total weird thing happen with this mission. Basically, I captured all the castles, built up armies of about 60-70 dragons and everything else in them, then captured the last one where Nicholas was staying; he respawned near another castle, but instead of attacking, he started wandering around the map. I checked his army in the tavern... only 40 dragons and other riffraff. I caught him near a castle and killed him, then he respawned again. I killed him about 6 times. Then he appeared in the Dungeon and bolted for the teleport leading to the center of the map; I thought, let him run. He'll attack my central castle where my main hero is staying, but Nicholas already had 4000 (4k) dragons. Anyway, he wiped me out, and only then did I realize that you need to get phoenixes to complete the mission. Luckily, I had a save from before I first attacked Nicholas.