Shi went to his camp and found the three mages sitting there with Seizon. Shi sat down next to them and then turned towards Seizon. "I need you to leave some men here to keep this place safe from rebellion. Don't have them crackdown on the citizens, just have them mingle and coexist with them. Make sure that they can stop anything that happens and that the people know that, just make sure they know not to use force unless absolutely necessary. After you do that, gather the rest of the men here, we're heading out the next castle in the morning."
Seizon hurried out of the camp and rushed towards the castle. Shi turned his attention to the three mages, who shrunk back a bit under his gaze. "So, you decided to stick around, what can you do?" Shi asked. The mages straightened a bit, "We've all mastered the elements and are picking a new spell to create." The tallest of the three said.
The mages consisted of a female about as tall as Shi, with long black hair and sharp distinguished features, a tall, broad man with short blonde hair and a short beard, and a shorter slim man with long dark hair and bookish features. Shi judged the broad man to be the leader since the other two seemed to take their cues from him.
"Good," Shi said, "if you guys need any help with learning a new spell or becoming stronger I'm willing to help you out." The three mages looked at Shi skeptically. "And why would you do that?" their leader asked. "Because the stronger you are, the easier it will be for me to take territory." Shi responded simply.
"And if we use what you teach us against you?" the leader asked. "I'll destroy you, you might make my life easier, but I can still take territory on my own and I can always find another 3 mages. And if you manage to kill me, then I was just weak, and thus deserved my death.'' Shi said.
The mages glanced at each other, shrugged then bowed their heads towards Shi, in unison, they said, "We pledge to serve you until either we die, or you die." Shi nodded at them, "Tell me when you finish your first spell, then I'll teach you. Let's head to the castle."
When they arrived, the men were lined up and ready to march. Shi took the head with Seizon and Daisan by his sides and the three mages right behind them. They marched for several days as Shi pumped more and more mana into his reaper summon, focusing on density instead of size.
They arrived at the next castle within a month, supplies dwindling. They had taken supplies from the castle they had just taken, but they still had to raid some villages on the way in order to keep the men fed.
Shi summoned his reaper and led the army to the castle's walls. "Surrender now." he yelled up at the men on the walls. He received a volley of arrows as a reply. Shi effortlessly dodged all of the arrows and looked back up at the wall. "Okay then, bring out the ten strongest men in this castle. After I beat them all I'll give you one more chance before slaughtering every single one of you."
One of the soldiers laughed, "You may be strong, but any one of the 20 strongest people in this castle cou-" Shi's hand was a blur as a kunai sprouted from the man's neck. "Bring them out, if he's right, you have nothing to worry about. If I'm right, then I'll kill you all because you were too lazy to fetch 10 men."
Shi saw one of the men hurry out of sight and waited. After a while, the gates opened a crack. A guard stuck his head out and found Shi, "Only you come in, the 10 men are waiting in the courtyard." he called out. Shi nodded and headed through the gates. The gates were slammed shut behind him, closing off any chance of Shi's army helping him.
The guard led Shi to the courtyard, where there were 10 men standing in a loose semicircle. They all looked annoyed that they had been brought there. One of them stepped towards Shi and launched an ice spear at him. "You brought us here for a kid? A fucking kid?" He said scornfully as he launched a dozen more spears at Shi, raising a cloud of dust.
Shi covered himself in a layer of densely packed stone, deflecting all of the ice spears. He dropped the layer before exiting the cloud for effect, making it look like he had deflected the ice spears without using magic to the onlookers.
Shi reached out with his telekinesis and used it to grab the scornful mage. The mage was lifted into the air, confused at his sudden inability to move his arms or legs. Shi raised his hand for dramatic effect and closed his fist. The man's arms and legs were shoved into his torso, turning him into a gruesome version of a ball.
Shi then summoned his reaper before raising the gravity on another mage. The mage slammed into the ground, unable to move. Four of the other mages each launched a different element at Shi, but he cloaked himself in an earth layer with a water layer under it to stop him from being roasted by the heat.
After weathering the onslaught, Shi launched the earth armor in fragments towards the mages, they hurriedly raised earth barriers to block them, giving Shi time to morph the water layer into 4 hyper-concentrated streams of water. In his old life, Shi had seen people use this type of water to easily pierce concrete.
Shi heard 4 thumps as the men fell, small holes in their upper left chests. Shi turned towards the mage under his gravity spell and killed him with a lightning bolt.
The reaper rushed one of the mages, grabbing him by the face. The reaper kept going and used the mage it had grabbed as a club on another mage. The mage the reaper was holding had his upper half explode from the force of contact. The mage hit immediately became a couple feet shorter and fell over.
The reaper turned and used the momentum of the turn to launch its scythe at another mage, who's hasty earth wall was cut in half by the scythe as it stabbed into his heart. The reaper glided up and retrieved its scythe. It turned to see the last mage using all of his mana to launch a hill sized glob of rock at it. The reaper rushed the mage, slicing the hill in half to create a gap to get to the mage.
The reaper grabbed the mage by the face and squeezed. With a loud crunch, the mages head exploded, brains splattering everywhere. Shi and the reaper then turned to the onlookers. "Last chance," Shi said "surrender or die."
Shi walked out of the castle gates, his reaper beside him. He went to Daisan and Seizon, "How about we rest here for a bit?" Daisan smiled and ordered the men to enter. Shi entered behind them and headed straight for the main hall, he had to prepare for war.