Shi started building the foundation of the new barracks, using earth magic to form a base similar to a concrete slab to take the weight of everything. He then worked on attaching walls to his foundation, using thinner but bigger pieces of wood nailed to thicker studs that he nailed into the foundation. The work went relatively quickly with Shi using his war cry to be as efficient as possible.
After he mounted the walls up he put studs crosswise across the top of the walls and mounted more wood to the studs to form a ceiling. He then used earth magic to form a small layer of rock over the inside of the walls and ceiling to make the inside look a bit more appealing. He then went outside and covered the outside of the building with a thick strong layer of rock to protect it from the elements.
Since he built the building cheaply and efficiently, the building only took a month to finish. He then went out to a small fabric shop in the village and traded a bit of money, a box of new needles, and a couple of pairs of razor-sharp scissors for a large roll of cloth. Shi returned and sewed some of the cloth together, stuffing it with straw to make a mattress.
He made 30 of these over the course of a week and he had only a little bit of fabric remaining. Shi went towards the lake that the river which he had used to learn water magic flowed from. He found some geese there and used air magic to slit their throats and bring them over to him. He bled them immediately and set to plucking the feathers off of them.
After he finished this, Shi brought them back to the barracks and used the feathers and the remaining cloth to make pillows. He then called Seizon to him and told him to bring the hunters over. Shi then used fire magic to cook the goose with some sliced apple and salt and pepper.
He then set the table for 32 places and set the food on the table for everyone. He then sat at the head of the table and waited. About half an hour later, the 30 men walked into the room and took their places around the table with Seizon sitting at the foot of the table.
After the men had finished eating, Shi stood up. "In 3 months, we will be heading out to take the village to our northwest." Immediately, the men around the table started chattering with each other. "Quiet down, for the next 3 months, I want you guys to hunt more than usual. You can sell whatever you can't eat in town, but you'll need the target practice so don't stop hunting when you reach a surplus."
The hunters looked at each other with apprehension around the table, but they all nodded their heads in agreement so Shi wasn't too worried. He was prepared for disloyalty and fear anyways, so they couldn't do anything too terrible to him. Shi spent the next 3 months training with his bow, adapting to the weight and power of his bow, and refining his accuracy and speed.
He brought Seizon and his men down to the edge of the village before they headed out. "What are we going up against in terms of manpower Seizon?" Shi asked stretching his legs out in preparation for the trek coming up. "They probably have around 50-100 men there." Seizon replied, stretching out a hand.
Shi clasped it firmly and ordered his men to start walking with him. "Which one of you is the best shot?" Shi asked loudly. "Reckon that'd be me." A short, well-built man who looked like he shaved with a dull knife replied. "I'm Daisan, I shoot plenty good in order to feed me and mine. Just so happens that it's good enough to mark me as top dog among the hunters."
Shi looked at Daisan and gave him a nod of respect, "Good, then you're the captain of the archers from now on if you want to stick around after we take this village." Daisan gave a hearty laugh, "that's if we take this village, we're outnumbered by 2-1 if we give them the short end of the stick and we're being led by a 7-year-old boy who only took our village because he took advantage of our strongest mage leaving.
If we somehow win this battle I'll follow you into hell." Shi looked at Daisan for a long moment, then nodded abruptly, "I don't know what's worrying you so much, you only have to take out 2 each. I just need to get each of you guys a couple of free shots. Just don't f*ck it up too bad and we have an easy victory here." Daisan looked at Shi with a strange expression on his face,
"Kid, if it was just that easy to win battles then somebody would own the world by now. Expecting people to be 2-3 times as effective as others is ridiculous." "We'll see." was all Shi said in response. They finally arrived on the mountains next to the village, looking down on it. There were people bustling around on the paths through the village and there were a few who were just lounging around.
Shi noted their appearances down, since those who have the luxury of doing nothing in a place like a poor village are either among the strongest in the village or among the wealthiest. Shi scanned the mountainside, looking for good places to shoot down from. He eventually found what he was looking for, a portion of the mountain where it was relatively easy to retreat up the mountain, but difficult to get up to that position.
He turned to Daisan, "Tell your men to go to that spot there, I'm gonna lead any villagers who wish to repel us towards you guys, just shoot until they start getting too close to you and then run up the hill to get to safety, I'll take care of the rest. With that, Shi headed down to the village proper. When he walked into town square, the villagers looked at him with curiosity but no fear, he was only a kid after all.
He unslung his bow, took a deep breath, and before the villagers could question why a kid just walked into town and unslung his bow, he fired 5 arrows. Each found its way into the head of one of the men that he had marked out earlier. In the chaos proceeding the deaths, Shi was able to get off 10 more arrows, killing 9 targets but only injuring 1 of them.
Immediately, Shi could hear screaming and saw a bunch of men charging at him. Shi didn't use war cry because he wanted to keep the men chasing him, but he still ran away. There were about 50 men following Shi, with more on the way, but they dutifully chased after him. 20 of the men keeled over, arrows sprouting from their chests. Before the other 30 could realize what had happened, Shi turned around and fired 5 more arrows into the men, each killing another man.
The remaining men hesitated, frantically searching for the source of the deaths of their friends. That just gave a better target for Shi's archers, and all but 3 of the men were killed. Shi finished off the last 3 with his bow and started forming an earth bear. The reinforcements wisely waited to gather up, avoiding a quick death via the archers, but giving Shi enough time to complete the bear.
Shi activated war cry, and shot 5 more men before charging in behind his bear. There were about 20 men in the group that had come as reinforcements and Shi's arrows killed 5 leaving only 15 left. Shi's earth bear tackled one of the men, chomping down on his throat and ripping it out viciously. It then broke another man's ribs with a swipe of its claws and bit down on a third man's leg and crushed it in its teeth.
The 12 remaining men turned towards the bear, thinking it to be the main target. This notion was crushed when Shi weaved through 5 of the men, slashing the exposed jugular of each of them as he passed. Their bodies fell behind Shi, blood fountaining out of their necks, spraying out at least 10 feet.
Shi had moved through them so fast he didn't have a single drop of it on him. 2 of the men focused on the bear while the other 5 turned towards Shi. One trusted at Shi with his sword, Shi sidestepped quickly, using the blade of his karambit to slash the tendons of the man's wrist, forcing him to drop the sword as he clutched at his hand, screaming.
Shi feinted a thrust at the next man's throat, the man brought his sword up and attacked up high, trying to block the blow and attack at the same time. But Shi was already crouched low, severing the tendons in the man's thighs and hip, collapsing the man. Shi dodged left, guessing correctly that one of the men would try and take the opportunity to attack, using the force of his dodge to spin into a kick that slammed into the side of the man's head.
A thunderous crack sounded, as the man's neck vertebrae nearly exploded, and the base of his neck started to tear, nearly coming off. The last 2 men held their swords up defensively, slowly advancing towards Shi. Shi casually unslung his bow, knocking an arrow. The men panicked and hesitated, that was when the earth bear came up behind them and snapped its jaws around the back of one of their necks, crushing his brain stem.
The last man followed his friend soon, his throat ripped out by the earth bear. Shi shot the crippled men on the ground, cleanly ending their lives. He looked up at the mountainside towards his men "Get down here, we're going into the village." he yelled to them. Shi retrieved all of the arrows while the men climbed down. He gave them to Daisan, "See, easy battle." he said. Daisan shook his head, chuckling "You actually did it" he said. "Not yet." Shi said, "We still have one thing left to do." With that, Shi and his men headed into the village.