13 A hop and a thud

"Get to the fire, quick!" Uriel shouted.

"Don't listen to him! I'm in command, stay near me, I'll keep you safe!" Shaker yelled as the wet sound of footsteps could be heard in the distance.

Both girls fell into a panic, Luna was bound to Uriel with the elastic band she used to tie themselves together and couldn't go near Shaker even if she wanted to. On the other hand, the pretty girl hadn't missed the lustful gaze Shaker directed at her and didn't trust him in the slightest. Even so, they were ordered by miss Dragonfang to obey his commands and they knew that failing to do so would certainly bring consequences even if they survived.

For a brief second Luna pulled on the hair tie that kept her tethered to Uriel as if trying to walk towards Shaker, but Uriel tugged on it and ran towards the fire.

The sounds that came closer were spaced by several seconds, as if something was walking slowly towards them.

Realizing he was all by himself, Shaker felt shivers running down his spine. The sounds came closer and closer until a small figure could finally be seen. Shaker laughed as he kicked it sending it flying off into the darkness.

"Hey, it's just a bunny! A cute little bunny!" The pretty girl cried. Luna, on the other hand, got upset for a completely different reason.

"You shouldn't have done that, one of us could have gotten a trait out of it."

"You're free to go an look for it, no one will stop you." Shaker scoffed at the girl.

'This is my chance, If I go over there I might be able to finally get a trait... but..." Uriel thought to himself, but soon realized he was still bound to Luna.

"Hey Luna, I think I should go fetch it." Uriel said trying to undo the tie on the elastic band.

"I don't think it's a good idea, that thing wasn't a bunny, but a cryptid. Although it was small and should be dead, we don't know much about them and it could be dangerous." She replied.

"Dangerous!? That small thing!? You're making me laugh!" Said the huge man, but he wasn't laughing. "You can go, we'll be waiting for you here." He continued and pointed towards the general direction where the rabbit was sent flying but then he noticed something was off.

Where there had been nothing but a dense darkness, now a couple of red dots glimmered faintly almost at ground level. Then, another couple of red dots appeared next to it.

Soon enough they were surrounded by them and everyone knew it meant trouble, those lights in the middle of the night were eyes. The group watched in disbelief as the eyes grew in number and then in horror when they raised above the height of a rabbit and almost at their own eye level.

"Hey, those things can't be bunnies!" The cute girl yelped.

"That's what I've been telling you, they're not, they're horned rabbits and..." As much as Luna would have loved to talk about the taxonomy of cryptids, she was quickly interrupted by a swift figure darting towards her.

Uriel pushed Luna's downwards saving her from being stabbed in the eye by the protruding horn on a rabbit's head. The creature fell right in the campfire and, luckily, it caught fire and ran off towards the darkness where the dozens of eyes were lurking in silence. Thanks to that they were able to catch a glimpse of their enemies.

It was brief, but Uriel noticed how the horned rabbits stood on their hind legs, their fur wasn't white nor brown, it didn't look like fur at all. They all looked as if they had been skinned alive and their extremities were oddly long and menacing, their horns were much larger than what they had seen before and Uriel could have sworn he saw fangs on their maws.

"Hurry up and get near me, I'll take care of them." Shaker commanded but Uriel could smell something fishy in his tone of voice. Actually, everything about Shaker was suspicious, from the way he behaved when a student much smaller messed with him to the way he looked at the cute girl.

He didn't like people much, but he liked Shaker even less.

"Luna, you too, don't get near him. His trait will cause you to lose balance and you'll be helpless."

The time for hesitation was over and both girls sided up with Uriel.

A flurry of rabbits came jumping at them while they did their best to dodge. Their strong hind legs allowed them to jump at an incredible speed allowing them to become something similar to fast moving bullets.

"One hit and you're done, keep dodging!" Uriel shouted as he twirled as best as he could without getting tangled with Luna.

One of the horned rabbits that had fallen near the campfire performed another jump from their blind side aiming for Shaker's back but he nimbly dodged it and caught it in the air.

Lieutenant Dragonfang's words now seemed like a prophecy as Shaker's trait was near useless in battle, but his enhanced reflexes and strength provided him enough power to defeat horned rabbits without breaking a sweat.

The onslaught remained for a while and Shaker became accustomed to it, he wasn't scared anymore and he seemed to be enjoying himself in the midst of the battle.

'What kind of a psychopath is this guy?' Uriel thought.

The eyes lurking in the shadow were greatly reduced at an incredible rate as Shaker defeated them. The cute girl picked up one of the horned rabbit's corpses from the ground in an attempt to acquire a trait, but nothing happened.

"This isn't working, why am I not getting a trait!?"

"I think it's because Shaker was the one who defeated it. Didn't you notice how soldiers used their weapons from a distance? The first one to touch the creature was Shaker." Luna replied as soon as the opportunity arose.

"If things keep like this we won't be able to get a trait and I'm getting tired already, we can't keep dodging like this forever. Stalling is no longer an option!" Uriel said worriedly and finally untied the hair band that was hindering his movements, he dropped his backpack that was hanging on his back and took out a heavy looking book from it.

As soon as he was tackled by a horned rabbit he attempted to swing at it, but his speed was nothing compared to the cryptid's bullet like speed and missed. When the next attack came, he took another swing failing again, only this time he was a lot closer.

Fearing that his spotlight would be stolen by the young archaeology student if he somehow acquired a stronger trait, Shaker drew near him activating his trait to shake the earth trying to prevent Uriel from succeeding on his endeavor.

"Go away!" Uriel shouted, but Shaker played deaf.

As time went by there were less and less horned rabbits making it easier for them to dodge, but a lot more difficult to defeat them.

'This idiot won't let me get a trait, even if I somehow manage to defeat one I'm sure he'll try to do something weird.' Uriel pondered as he dodged yet another horned rabbit.

It was time for him to step up and take a risk, or else he would miss his chance to get a trait, but first he needed to do something to distract Shaker long enough for him to kill a cryptid.

Thanks to Shaker's efforts there were fewer and fewer horned rabbits, but since he was putting all of his effort on keeping Uriel 'safe' and preventing him from acquiring a trait, Luna and the cute girl were left defenseless. Except, they were anything but defenseless.

It turned out that the cute girl was really good at martial arts and Luna, while looking like a harmless tiny girl, was actually a lot tougher that she seemed. Working together, they took the chance after one of the rabbits had missed a hit and ran towards it.

The pretty girl stomped on it with all of her strength while Luna hit it with a flaming stick she took from the campfire. The creature looked like a skinned rabbit, but it was almost the size of a dog, it writhed in pain after being struck with the stick, but it wasn't enough to kill it in a single blow.

Thankfully, that was enough to keep Shaker distracted long enough for Uriel to move on the offensive and he jumped forward after a rabbit that was just about to spring forward in a tackle. Uriel shielded himself with the book as the horn of the rabbit pierced the cover and was left hanging helplessly.

Without losing any time, Uriel kicked it repeatedly until both the book and the horned rabbit were an indistinguishable mess.

A light shone bright in the middle of the night as the horned rabbit started vanishing and Uriel received the light that came out of it into his body amidst mystical looking sparks of energy.