After the men arrived, Shi set them in order and started the march north. Shi was excited to get back into a battle since he had been itching for a fight during the past little while he had spent in the castle.
Shi made sure to keep improving his grim reaper summon throughout the walk but it got harder and harder to improve the bigger it got so it only got a little bit bigger by the time they reached the castle.
Shi decided to camp outside the castle gates while staying in full view of the guards in order to make sure that they knew he was there. If Shi wanted to rule over a large area it would be extremely helpful if he had some proper victories under his belt.
Shi summoned Seizon and Daisan to his tent to get ready for the fight ahead. "Seizon, did you leave someone to take care of Castle Saiban?" Shi asked as the two men sat down next to him. "Of course, I left one of my most trusted men to take care of things," Seizon replied, settling himself in.
"Good, so what do we know about the defenses here?" Shi asked, looking at both men. Daisan was the one to step up saying, "They have 3 yellow core mages and 2 green core mages, with all of them having summoning and elemental specialties. There are also 500 men here, with only 100 of which being archers." Shi nodded along as Daisan gave the numbers. "That's extremely good for us, with only 100 archers to deal with and only a couple mages of my core level this should be an easy victory for us," Shi said, a smile breaking out on his face.
"Good, for now, you guys go get some sleep, we have a big day tomorrow," Shi said, dismissing the two men. After they left, Shi went out of his tent and set out towards the castle gates while trying to stay hidden in the shadows. After he made it to the walls, Shi leaped the wall on an empty spot using his war cry and searched around for a deserted building.
After a little while of searching, Shi found an old abandoned shack nearby the ramparts. He then summoned all of the elemental creatures he could as well as his grim reaper and had them hide in the shack. With that done, Shi quietly left the castle and returned to his tent to sleep.
In the morning, Shi and his men went up to the castle gates while staying just out of the range of their archers. Shi stepped forward and called out to the guards on the wall. "I am Shi Saisei, conquerer of Castle Saiban, I would suggest you open these gates and let me and my army in while surrendering to me or else I'm going to have to waste people. And if there's one thing I hate, it's wasting people."
One of the guards at the gate laughed at him. "This pipsqueak's trying to threaten us. He thinks that all that's gonna happen if he tries to take us is him losing some of his men. He must be as dumb as he is short." The other guards laughed along with their friend at Shi, some even making rude gestures in his direction.
Shi shook his head at the guards and called out once more "I wasn't talking about my men, I was talking about you. Those who survive this fight are gonna join me." With that, Shi motioned his crossbowmen to fire on the guards.
Since the crossbows had a much higher draw weight than a human could handle with a normal bow, Shi's men had better range than the archers on the walls. 25 men fell to the crossbow volley before all of the guards ducked behind the wall.
Shi activated war cry and started towards the wall, calling his summons to head towards it from the inside as well. Shi shot down any man who raised his head, killing 10 more men before his summons reached the ramparts. The earth bear tore through men, slamming its paws through people's faces and ripping off limbs with its teeth.
Shi's lightning wolf ripped out throats mercilessly while nimbly dodging any feeble attempts by the men to strike back. Shi's tornado and water hydra combined into a hurricane that destroyed anyone who came close. Shi's fire dragon breathed fire on people and then cut their screams short by ripping their throats out with its talons.
The grim reaper summon was the most efficient of the bunch, mowing people down with its scythe like fields of wheat. Anyone who made it inside the easy reach of the scythe was grabbed by the reapers large skeletal hands and had their heads crushed in its powerful grip.
Shi leaped up onto the ramparts but it was already over, his summons had massacred all of the enemy archers. Shi saw 3 figures approaching and guessed them to be the yellow core mages.
Shi had his summons stand behind him as he faced the approaching figures. "I would suggest surrender, because I would hate to kill 3 mages who could be of use to me," Shi called out to them. The three mages didn't say anything they just attacked Shi with their elemental summons. Shi destroyed all of them effortlessly, weaving through their attacks while slashing through limbs to cripple the summons.
Shi walked right up to the 3 mages, their summons laid out behind him. "Now I'm gonna give you this one chance, join me, or die," Shi said, looking the one in the middle dead in the eyes. The 3 mages kneeled, shaking in fear.
"Good, you guys can head to my camp, it would be cruel to have you kill the people you know," Shi said. As they started to leave Shi turned and said, "Oh yeah, if you kill any of my men, I will hunt you down and make you wish I had killed you here." With that, Shi headed towards the main gate to start the battle.