As the rest of the party other than Bariton and Shammus went to sleep, Bariton packed up his music. Clara had jumped into a tree, quickly falling asleep similar to a cat perching up. Judine slams shut her book, going into her tent.

  Pallad joins the other three in the dream realm within his own tent, placing his blade within the scabbard. The large man simply nods as he falls asleep quickly in his tent. Shammus separates himself away from Bariton as the night watch begins.

  It’ll last an hour or two. According to the bard, there are always two people awake at once, with each person except for the first, staying awake for two extra hours, getting 6 hours of sleep a day. The first pairing lasts one hour, the second another, so on and so forth.

  The first pairing is more complex to figure out, as one person stays up two, the other one, then the one to sleep earlier wakes up first. Everyone else stays up a simplistic two hours, the pairing changing every hour.

  Shammus thinks he understands it, as he nods. It’s only fair to stay quiet during. Everyone else is sleeping after all.

  “So, do you want to be first to sleep and first to wake, or last to fall asleep and last to fall asleep?” Bariton offers the choice to Shammus. And Shammus thinks for just a minute. There are plenty of benefits to both, but there’s only one that stands out to him.

  “I think I’ll take the first two hour set.” He speaks quietly, clearly still attempting to avoid waking the others up. Bariton’s nod is plenty to answer to Shammus what he understood.

  The two simply watched over the camp for the whole hour. Every sound left Shammus and Bariton both turning towards it, but some were completely ignored by the other in case it were a distraction.

  The darkness was all encompassing, the moon being the only light dampening visibility, yet leaving everything with a beautiful blue tint. Including the metal of Shammus’s own blades. He practices his stealth during night watch.

  Ensuring that the night can be stared into and absolutely not stared back from. Of course, the typical snap of the twig leaves Shammus to twist his head towards it, then a glance to Bariton.

  Suddenly, Shammus feels one of his hundreds of combat traits scream out, as a blade is flowing through the air towards his throat. A clash of metal against metal, the ringing flowing throughout the forest.

  “Damn, wasn't expecting the great Achilles here.” A person unfamiliar stood there. “And it seems we needed more than just two people to deal with this group… I told Icarus.”

  The way the person looked was greatly unhelpful in recognition, until he noticed he was completely separate from his new party. And worse off Bariton. He never saw someone with that brilliant white hair before. But those purple eyes and tall frame he knew…

  “Of course I see you here, Barrier Master Daedelus.” The way he said you was full of venom, and the person he had just called that had placed their hand upon their chest.

  “Aw, is Swordmaster Achilles sad to see me?” Daedalus asks teasingly, their voice trying to act cute.

  “Who came with you?” Shammus had no time for nonsense, launching his sword away from the bind with a powerful push back.

  “Ah, it’s just Eurylochus… He should have an easier time facing off against not you.”

  “Of course. Hopefully he doesn’t betray you like he did I.”

  A laugh before Daedalus rushes forward like a fool. Shammus could see the void itself, the way it folded, and even manipulate it slightly. Shammus places the void in front of Daedelus, who tries to cut through it only to be stopped.

  “What?” Daedalus’s voice was filled with shock, and also terror, “He said I would easily be able to defeat you!”

  “And whoever he is, lied.”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  ******

  Bariton stares right at his opponent. A person built sort of like Pallad, although with far shorter hair, and it’s an awful white that shines brilliantly in the moonlight. He stares at the opponent with green eyes with contempt.

  “I definitely prefer darker colors in someone who’d interrupt my night watch.” Bariton says quickly, sticking his tongue out as he draws a common spear. He has to test this bastard before he can truly fight.

  “Ha! You dare flirt with thy opponent?”

  Ah, someone self righteous, and someone quick similar to Shammus, although still slower than either of them. Bariton needs to work hard to beat this guy up. He tries to call out to his campmates, but he notices that the environment changed ever so slightly.

  “Hmph, a barrier?” He continues speaking while dodging these strikes. One of them split a tree, “And seriously, trying to kill me? You’re awful at treating a guy.”

  He lands behind the big man and attempts to stab into their gut, but a parry away from the greatsword the attacker wielded shattered it easily.

  “Just die already weak bard.”

  “Sorry, at least take me out to dinner first.” Bariton slips around the attacks of the sword. He can tell each one would deal a big chunk of his health, and only one has to land. He opens up his inventory to find the right weapon.

  He’s stuck continuing to dash backwards until his backs up against a tree. “Ha! Now it’s time to perish puny bard!”

  A small shrill yelp leaks out as Bariton quickly finds a dagger. It was a rusty one two, and Bariton managed to hit the chance to apply Poisoned. The pain that causes isn’t very fun, and Bariton takes advantage of the large man’s wince in pain.

  Bariton quickly pierces a spear into the large man’s left leg, entrapping it into the ground with a warhammer. Just as swiftly as the spear, a dagger slashes through the man’s left arm, hopefully severing some muscles.

  “Now, what are you doing in our camp?”

  ******

  Shammus continues blocking the attacks, using the void to tell the trajectory. The taunting from his past compatriot doesn’t help the battle. He has to avoid barriers forming around his arm before they finish, and parry away barriers flying towards him.

  It was genuinely tough, were these barriers always based on this high of a MAGIC stat? Barriers were always slightly unique; the damage they could deal being based off MAGIC instead of POWER, but they shouldn’t be nearly this powerful. Especially since they scale slightly worse. His CONSTITUTION wasn’t high by his level, but it was plenty high to survive plenty.

  These barriers were causing pain in his arms to parry away, and his stamina was quickly depleting. The sting in his arms was far too great, but he decided to step forward. He could go into his strongest form, but his constitution was divided by 5 whenever he did. And with a fight against a barrier master, it was risky.

  Especially when he couldn’t tell just how strong the barriers were. They weren’t dispelled from his blades, despite their anti-magic properties. That was a tell enough that it wouldn’t help. Shammus launched his destructive beam of light, [Blood-Red Ribbon].

  Daedalus flinched back from it, planting a barrier directly in front of him, but the beam went straight up. Shammus’s cloak was tattered from the fight, the few barriers that got him taking chunks of flesh from his arms and legs.

  He dashed forward with all the speed that he could muster, slashing at Daedelus’s barrier with all the might he could muster. As the tempo changed, Daedalus stepped backwards slowly, the barrier itself being pushed back.

  “I-Impossible!” The sweat going down his face illuminated from the moon and sparks flying from the metal scraping against the magical barrier, “That man promised that my barriers couldn’t be pushed back nor broken!”

  “And I already told you he lied!” Shammus screamed back at his old ally, activating multiple buffs at once. And his blades finally pierced the barrier, stabbing Daedalus right in the shoulder.

  “...how are you so strong?”

  “Because I actually worked for it. You just got a bonus and thought you could win with stats instead of abilities.”

  “Ha…” The small laugh Daedalus released from his mouth was dry. “Achilles, you always knew how to use even the common abilities we sold as scrolls to weaker adventurers…”

  “Everything has some purpose. That’s what both me and Odysseus had always said.”

  Another weaker laugh, as Daedalus coughed up blood.

  “I thought these stats would be enough… Be careful Achilles. It isn’t just Eurylochus and I… We’re finally at your level!”

  The barrier shattered, and Shammus is back at the camp with a half dead man, and a slightly damaged Bariton sitting besides another half dead Eurylochus, just with a white hair he didn’t recall they had before.

  [You Won!]

  [You gained…]