Shi headed out to the castle walls and activated war cry. He could see the army slowly approaching from the north. He couldn't tell how many there were but there had to be at least 3,000 men marching towards his gates.
Shi sent a servant to get him some food and waited on the walls, legs dangling off the edge as he ate calmly. As night fell, a rider approached the gates and looked up at the walls. "Where's Shi Saisei?" He called up to the stone walls.
Shi dropped off the edge of the wall, landing in front of the man. "That would be me." He said, locking his steel-grey eyes on the man. "Would you be another disposable scout sent here to inform me of my imminent demise?"
"Shi Saisei, I have been sent to give you this message." The man said, handing a scroll that had a silk ribbon tied around the center, with a wax seal over the ribbon showing two white stripes going horizontally through a black background.
"Alright then, you go head back to your little army over there." Shi said, leaping up 50 feet to land on top of the wall and then sitting down to open the letter. "Greetings Shi Saisei, I have come here to bring you to my father, Hikaru Eikyo. Failing that I will kill you, please be out here by sunrise or I will have no choice but to invade you this coming morning. Please be rational, Hideo Eikyo."
Shi smirked, he knew he had pissed this Hikaru Eikyo off but he hadn't realized that it would be enough for the man to want to kill him personally. Shi turned to Daisan, "I'll be back in a hour or two." then dropped off the wall and headed towards the army.
Shi arrived and soon 3 men came up, Shi's mana sense was extremely sharp so he could tell that all three of these men were blue core mages. Shi looked at the man in the middle, "Hideo right?" The man nodded at Shi.
"Good, I thought I'd come here to deliver my response personally. I respectfully refuse your father's proposition and advise you to stay out of the coming fight. I'd hate to kill more of his children than necessary. I would also recommend you retreat, even though I know you won't. See you guys in the morning." Shi said brightly, turning to head back to the castle.
"You insolent worm!" One of the mages yelled, launching a torrent of flames towards Shi. Shi had his mana engulf the stream of fire, and compress hard. After compressing the mana, Shi had his mana absorb the mage's mana, making the fire disappear while giving Shi some free mana, which he poured into his reaper summon he had been training.
"Patience, patience," Shi scolded, "you'll have plenty of time to die tomorrow." Shi grinned, then sprinted away faster than the men could react. Shi got back to the castle and leaped the wall, sitting next to Daisan and Hyousuke.
"They got somewhere around 5,000 men, 20 yellow core mages, 5 green core mages, and 3 blue core mages." Shi said. The two men looked at him sharply. "I can take care of most of them, I just need you two and your men to buy time against their men." Shi said.
"That's great and all, but holding off 5,000 men is easier said than done when you only have 500." Daisan said, scowling. "Don't worry, you'll probably only need to deal with 3-4 thousand, and you have these thick walls to help you." Shi said, getting up and heading inside the castle.
Shi found the three yellow core mages eating. "Let's go to the courtyard real quick." He told them, then left. As they met back in the courtyard, Shi realized that the leader was no longer a yellow core mage, he was a green core.
"What spells did you create?" Shi asked. The thin man stepped forward, then cloaked himself in shadow, disappearing from sight. Shi copied his mana flow and did the same. "Good, but you leave a mana trail that mages accomplished in mana sense can clearly see, but we'll work on that later. Next."
The mages took a second to compose themselves after seeing Shi's display, then the woman stepped forward. She summoned multiple ice shards and had them rotate around her. Shi copied this as well. "Very good! I see no flaws in the understanding of what you need to do to summon these." Shi said, nodding appreciatively.
Shi looked to the broad leader and he stepped forwards. The man raised his arms slightly, and a ball of flame, a ball of water, a ball of earth, a ball of wind, a ball of ice, a ball of lightning, a ball of lava, and a ball of sand appeared, dancing around him.
Shi mirrored him and nodded at the expertise of how the man had controlled his mana to summon these. "Beautiful, absolutely beautiful!" Shi exclaimed. "These are all perfect, you have real talent. Tell you what, I should have done this earlier, but after this battle I'll give you guys an official place. Now get ready, you guys are going to have to deal with some yellow core mages and a lot of men tomorrow morning."
The three nodded and returned to the castle. For his part, Shi pumped as much mana into his reaper summon as would recharge by morning. Daisan came up to him, "You might need that tonight." He warned.
"No I won't," Shi started "they don't want to just beat us, they want to crush us. They want to take this castle in a day as if we're nothing. This isn't just about the fight, it's about saving face for the Eikyo clan. They can't use deceitful tactics against someone seemingly so much weaker than them or else they'll seem like cowards, afraid of a little boy."
Daisan nodded and headed inside the castle as well. Shi went to his room and made what minor improvements he could to the mage's spells. The stealth spell just needed Shi to use less mana and make the mana less noticeable, which was easy considering the amount of work Shi had put into manipulating mana.
The girls ice magic was slightly flawed, but it didn't matter since the broad man's wasn't. In fact, Shi couldn't find a way to make the summoning of those elements better. Smiling, Shi settled down to sleep, he had a big day tomorrow after all.