Shi woke before sunrise and hopped out of bed. As he headed out to the walls he saw Daisan and Hyousuke ordering the soldiers into position, with the archers on the upgraded ramparts and the footsoldiers behind the door.
Shi took his seat on the wall and watched the sun rise over the horizon. With the sun came the men, thousands of them. From this distance, it looked like all of the ants in a 10-mile radius were rushing the castle.
Shi dropped off the wall and headed towards the army. He activated war cry, activated stoneskin, and brought out all of his summons. He reached the army within a few minutes and barrelled through the first man he saw, hearing the man's spine crack from the impact as Shi ran past him.
Shi ordered the reaper summon to search for and execute green core mages. He then sent his lightning wolf summon to find and kill yellow core mages. He sent the rest of his elemental summons to kill yellow core mages as well.
Shi used his mana sense and locked on to the 3 blue core mages near the rear of the force and started towards them. He barrelled through all the men in his path, their attacks bouncing off of his stoneskin barrier.
He finally reached the back lines of the men, leaving a crack in the formation behind him. "Hello there." Shi said to the men brightly. The mage on the left launched a barrage of lightning while the mage on the right launched a boulder made of steel at Shi.
Shi raised his hands for dramatic effect as he absorbed the lightning's mana with his left hand, and used that mana for telekinesis to lift the steel boulder and launch it back at the mage who threw it. The mage turned it aside with a blast of wind and readied himself beside the other two.
The reaper tore its way through the soldiers, scything down any man who got in its way. On the left flank of the army, the reaper found a green core mage with a small retinue of yellow core mages surrounding him.
The reaper glided over to the first yellow core mage, going through a blast of fire to grab the mage by the throat and hurl the mage at one of her compatriots, the both of them collapsing in a small pile.
The reaper scythed another mage before she could react, leaving her upper half to slide off her legs with a squelch. The reaper turned to catch a sword in its hand, yanking it out of the mage's hand and using it by the blade to chop down into the mage's shoulder until it lodged into his guts.
The reaper threw its scythe at the two mages that were just getting untangled from their unexpected meeting on the ground and it sliced into their throats. The reaper glided over to the scythe and picked it up, turning to the green core mage.
The green core mage sent a blast of ice at the reaper, which the reaper dodged before rushing in close. The mage lept back, raising a wall between him and the reaper as he launched a torrent of fire at the wall.
The reaper sliced through the wall only to get a blast of fire to the face. The reaper recoiled and took multiple cuts from wind blades before a wall of ice slammed into it. The reaper flew back, splitting a tree in half with the impact.
The mage looked at the reaper with a smug look and started summoning a large icicle. The reaper raised its skeletal hands up to its head and grabbed the hood. The mage launched the massive icicle as the reaper pulled down his hood, revealing its bejeweled head and glowing eyes.
During the months of training, Shi had divided the reaper into two forms, a standard form, for dealing with groups of enemies and its true form, which was stronger in every way but came with a constant drain on Shi's mana to power it. Shi had decided to make the trigger for the reaper's power release the lowering of its hood because he thought it was fitting for its design.
The reaper caught the massive icicle in one hand, closing his fist and shattering the icicle that was the size of a large tree in one motion. The reaper glided towards the man, who slung boulders, icicles, fire, and wind blades at the reaper while retreating.
The reaper slapped these attacks away like annoying gnats flying around his head, continuing towards the mage at a constant pace. The mage continued to throw spells but it was pointless, the reaper caught up to him and grabbed him by the head.
The reaper held the mage up to eye level and used the other ability Shi had granted him. He stared at the mage with his blood-red eyes, and drained the mage's mana into them, strengthening himself slightly.
The mage's body slackened, then shriveled up until the mage that had looked around 30 years old now looked like a 100-year-old corpse. The reaper cast the corpse aside like garbage and moved on.
Shi smirked at the two mages as they got ready, then used the improved version of the stealth spell he had stolen from one of the mages in his mage trio to wink out of the two mage's sight.
The mages surrounded Hideo Eikyo and blasted the surrounding area with fire. Shi used gravity magic to put himself in zero gravity and floated above the flames. Shi pulled his bow off of his back and shot at one of the mages.
Right before the arrow landed in the mage's throat, Hideo caught the arrow by the shaft and snapped it in half. Shi dropped his cloaking spell and dropped to the ground, absorbing the mana from the flames around where he landed in order to clear some area to move around freely in.
Hideo cracked his knuckles and readied himself by the two mages he was with. Shi smiled and slung his bow back over his shoulder, drawing his karambit. It was time for the real fight to begin.