Shi rushed the next ladder team, ducking and dodging around the onslaught of arrows. He stopped just out of range of the first man's spear. The man tried to pull his spear back for another stab but that was the wrong move.
Shi used earth magic to open the ground under the ladder team, sending them down a couple of feet. As they tried to get out, Shi used earth magic to slam a section of earth into the side of the small pit, pulverizing the upper bodies of everyone in the ladder team.
Daichi superheated his sand magic with fire magic and sent the resulting glass shards at the closest ladder team, taking out a few of the men. A couple of fireballs flew out from the team at Daichi but his mage team blocked them mid-flight.
Daichi launched a lava ball at the ladder team, two of the mages in Daichi's team propelled the lava ball with wind magic to get it moving even faster. The lava ball slammed into the ladder, destroying it and spraying lava over all of the men near it. The remaining men fled back to the main army before Daichi could target them.
The reaper approached another ladder team, charging in and decapitating the first man with its scythe. As the reaper turned to the next man it stopped suddenly. The men looked at each other for a moment then charged the reaper.
The reaper looked up, but not at the men, it looked across the field at Shi. "I'm getting tired of this shit, let's end this now," Shi called across to the reaper. The reaper turned back to the men as they converged on it, stabbing it from all sides.
The men kept pushing forwards and their spears went all the way through the reaper and came out the other side. They looked up at the reaper hopefully, only to see the reaper slowly raising its skeletal hands.
The men tried to pull their spears out frantically, but it was too late as the reaper lowered its hood, revealing his bejeweled skull and releasing its limiter. The reaper grabbed one of the men and used him as a club on the men around the reaper, crushing the bones of all of the men.
The reaper dropped the limp body of his club and broke off all of the spear shafts sticking out of him. The reaper rushed the other men in the ladder team and went to work with his scythe, killing multiple men with each swipe.
Shi pushed war cry as far as he could and charged another ladder team, reaching it before any of the team members could react to him. Shi turned the source of the team's gravity to a point that was a few feet off the ground.
As the men flew towards that point, Shi summoned a large steel spike, which he launched at the point when the men had gathered there, killing them all. Shi rushed to the next team.
Shi had used most of his mana for the gravity attack so he waded through the next team, absorbing the mana from everyone in the group, leaving shriveled husks of bodies in his wake. Shi did the same for the last ladder team, replenishing a good portion of his mana reserves by the time he was done.
When the last team was destroyed, Shi looked back at the castle to check on how the gates were holding up. Three of the ram teams lay dead and the other two were busy trying to break down the gates, with one of the two teams down to about half of their men.
Shi sprinted back and went to work slaughtering the teams, slitting the throats of the men from behind before they realized that they were being flanked. When they were all dead, Shi walked up to the gates to inspect the damage.
The gates were battered, and some of the frame was busted, but the gates would hold up for the time being. Shi jumped up onto the wall and unsummoned his reaper, sitting down to see what the army would try next.
After a while, the army started marching towards the walls as a whole. "Damn, I wanted to avoid this for a little while longer," Shi muttered to himself. "Everyone, I need you to work on the edges of that army, I'll take care of their center," Shi called out to everyone on the walls, before dropping off the wall and striding towards the approaching army.
Shi activated his stoneskin and war cry and took the bow off his back, firing the remainder of the arrows in his quiver into the legs of the frontline soldiers, causing about 30 of them to collapse to the ground, holding their knees and slowing down the men behind them.
As the second line tried to climb over their screaming comrades, Shi summoned his reaper and charged the army. Shi grabbed the first man he saw and turned him around towards his fellow soldiers before slitting his throat, spraying blood on the other soldier's faces.
The men drew back as the blood splattered on them, going right into the reaper's waiting scythe. Shi took advantage of the momentary distraction to gather enough mana to launch a flood of lava towards the army, slowly melting any man unfortunate enough to be hit by it.
The army split around the lava pool and continued forwards, only to be met by a huge flood of water released by Shi, pooling around the knees of the entire front portion of the army. The lava pool sizzled as the water hit it and a few men were smart enough to leap onto the rock as it was still forming.
The rest of the men weren't as quick so they couldn't do anything as Shi charged the water with lightning magic, shocking the entire front portion of the army to death. The men who had leaped upon the lava rock tried to escape back to the main army but Shi picked them off with mana spears, the men falling among the smoking bodies of their fellow soldiers.
Shi backed off with his reaper, preparing himself for the next wave of men. Instead of a rush of soldiers, a group of five men walked out, the frontmost among them being Akio Eikyo. "Hello Shi, how kind of you to prepare such a nice place for us." Akio said, stopping across the lava rock from Shi.
Shi used his mana sense to check out the other mages, they were all blue cores. "Why do you have to make my life so difficult, I could've used you and your men later on the line," Shi said tiredly. "You do realize that you killed my brothers right?" Akio asked with barely restrained anger.
"Oh shit, I forgot about that. Meh, they were weak anyway, and besides, for a family that apparently hates me so much, you guys seem to be helping me out by sending me large armies to destroy to add to my legend." Shi said casually, cracking his neck and back.
Akio motioned his mage team forwards, "That ends today." he said as he followed behind his men. "Funnily enough, I think your cousin and your brother said the same thing to me. But I'm sure you can do a better job of keeping your word, not that anything your family says means shit." Shi said, mentally commanding his reaper summon to lower its hood.
"That does it, kill him." Akio yelled to his mage team, veins bulging from his forehead. "God this day sucks," Shi muttered wearily, readying himself for the fight ahead.