Shi walked into the village's town square with Daisan and his men. "This village is mine now, any who wish to challenge me can do so, but that would only result in one less person to help the village." Shi proclaimed loudly. A heavily muscled man walked up to the center of the square and puffed out his chest. "I'll take you on, you insignificant wretch!" He yelled loudly.
With no hesitation, Shi activated war cry and shot an arrow into each of the man's feet before the man had time to react. "I'm giving you this one warning, back the f*ck off or I'll kill you." The man immediately kneeled before Shi, sweat rolling down his face as he tried not to cry out from the pain in his feet.
"Bring me your leader, if he swears fealty to me, I'll let him lead this village in my absence," Shi said to one of the villagers who was watching the events transpiring in the square. The man ran away and a few minutes later he returned with a skinny man who looked to be in his 50s. "I'm the mayor of this village." The man said to Shi. "Listen, Mr. Mayor, Shi said, I don't care for personally dealing with this town, so I can either kill you and find someone else to lead here, making the people unhappy and possibly having to deal with riots which will be an annoyance.
On the other hand, you can swear fealty to me, give me 20 fighting men, and lead the village as you wish. I need no taxes to be paid by you and I have no reason to kill more than necessary, so please don't be an idiot." Shi told the mayor. "What's the catch?" The mayor asked skeptically. "The only thing I need from your village is its allegiance, and 20 fighting men, 10 bowmen and 10 infantry. I have no use for anything else." Shi replied.
"Done, I'll have the men ready in the morning." The mayor said. "Good, we'll be on the exit of the village, send them there tomorrow, and we'll be on our way." Shi said, walking away and motioning his men to do the same. The next morning, the men coming out to join Shi saw something they didn't expect, the ground had been cleaned of blood and the men had been buried, with tombstones and everything.
Shi had used magic to do all this and had his men learn the names of the dead in order to bury them properly. This small act of kindness led the new men to hope that they had been put into the service of at least a decent man. They went to Shi who pointed out Daisan to them and told them to head over to him for orders.
They were put on the vanguard of the troops but were still behind Shi and Daisan, who led the group. The group made their way back to Shi's village and into the barracks, which Seizon had wisely started improving in order to accommodate the new men that were likely to come. As the men settled into their barracks, Shi motioned over Daisan and Seizon.
"Seizon, how are things in the village?" Shi asked. "The people are a touch disgruntled but they aren't angry enough to try anything at the moment," Seizon replied. "Good. Daisan, get the new archers hunting along with some of your men, I'll deal with the new infantrymen." Shi ordered, starting towards the barracks. He searched for the infantrymen and brought them out to the yard.
Shi broke off 11 sticks and handed them to the men, keeping one to himself. He called out a random man and told him to get in his stance. Shi had never been trained in sword combat but some parts of knife fighting helped with sword combat. He charged the man, holding his blade up. Shi raised his stick up and started a slash down only to stop it midair and kick the man in his ribs. The man stumbled back but Shi didn't press his advantage.
"Remember, your sword isn't your only weapon." Shi told the assembled men. The man regained his balance and came at Shi, slashing down at him. Shi blocked the blow, and dodged the kick the man had aimed at him. "Very good!" Shi exclaimed. The man tried to press his advantage but instead of blocking, Shi deflected the blow, leading the man to overextend and allow Shi to step past him, delivering a light elbow to the back of the man's head, making him stumble and fall over due to his momentum.
"Blocks are often times unnecessary and tiring, it is much better to deflect your opponent's blade if possible, making them do all the work while you get a chance to strike." Shi told the surrounding men. The man got up and came back at Shi, bringing his sword up and chopping down at Shi.
Shi sidestepped and hooked the man's armpit that was exposed by the attack. Shi hauled the man up and over Shi, slamming the man into the ground, knocking the air out of him. "Of course, dodging has the same effect but better, since you don't have to use your weapon, allowing for a quicker counter-attack."
The man hauled himself up and came after Shi once more. Shi used earth magic to bring up a small piece of the ground, tripping the man. Shi then summoned some water to hit the man in the stomach as he fell. Shi then took some time to summon some air magic and used it to lift the man off his feet briefly. He then breathed some fire at the man but stopped it before any harm would come to the man.
"One last thing, if you can use magic, do so. You don't need to be an extremely powerful mage in order for magic to help you in a fight. Any distraction or loss of footing or unexpected attack can win or lose you a battle. Take advantage of whatever advantages you have. I want you guys to spar with each other and practice these things. They will make you stronger. I will return in a month. After that, we will take the next village." With that, Shi left the barracks.