"We've been walking for hours and none of us has a trait yet." The bulky student complained.

"It's just the way it is." The lieutenant shrugged.

"This only goes to show your incompetence."

"Fall back now or you'll regret it." The soldier woman said with a chill inducing voice, yet the student did not stop.

"If you were any more capable we would have killed a few of those things already." He scoffed.

"Listen, I'm not in the mood to do this right now so I'll be clear and don't make me repeat myself. This is not your school, it's an army operation and I am allowed to use deathly force against you if I deem you as a threat to the group. Like it or not we'll be stuck in here for three whole days, now shut your mouth, I don't want to hear any of it."

The bickering caused a commotion in the group, everyone got distracted by that and didn't notice a small figure coming directly towards the group.

It was a small creature, much like a rabbit, but it was bigger and leaner.

"Here here here!" Said Uriel as he beckoned to the creature.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The droopy eyed girl said as she placed her hand on top of Uriel's shoulder.

"Why? isn't it just a hare?" Uriel replied, a bit startled by her words.

"Can't you see the horn on top of its forehead? that's a cryptid if I ever seen one."

"A cryptid!?" Uriel shouted, calling for the attention to everyone in the group.

The armed soldiers were the first ones to react as they moved right in front of Uriel and started shooting at the creature. The sounds coming from their rifles was deafening and Uriel shut his eyes.

When he opened them, he saw the creature lying limp in the ground.

"Horned rabbit down." One of the soldiers said as he walked towards it and finished it with a shot to the head. "Kill confirmed." He said after the sound died in the vastness of the barren land.

"Nice job everyone! The one who called it should be the one getting the trait. Hurry up and walk over there." The female lieutenant said looking towards the general direction of the fallen cryptid not knowing who exactly was the one responsible for finding it, but before Uriel was able to take the first step a heavy hand was placed on his shoulder and he was pushed back a whole meter and a hulking figure walked past him.

"This one is mine!" The huge student said as he picked the rabbit. "What now? should I eat it or something?"

The lieutenant facepalmed at him, but she didn't reply. There was no need to do so because as soon as he finished speaking the corpse of the rabbit started to disappear and a shimmering light surrounded the student.

He spread his arms letting the strange light into his body with a smirk and his eyes closed. Once it finished, the earth shook beneath his feet.

Uriel who was still tired after the heavy walk had much trouble to remain standing. He separated his legs instinctively and crouched, in a desperate attempt to not fall to the ground.

"This is amazing! I can feel the power flowing in my veins! Now the world will finally acknowledge the strength of Jackson!" He broke in a wicked laughter.

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"Why are you speaking in a third person now you moron?" The female student with lots of earrings and cute make up said scornfully.

"This is the beginning of my rise to power!" Jackson replied, but was quickly interrupted with a mocking laughter. The one laughing was no other than the lieutenant in charge of the unit.

"Your rise to power? You got a lame skill, perfectly fit for a brutish thug like yourself. From now onward you'll be called Shaker, because that's all you can do, shake the ground."

The rest of the students accompanied her words with a laughter of their own, even Uriel was tempted to laugh. He didn't want to make fun of Jackson, though, because he experienced on first hand the extent of his trait and he was overwhelmed by it. The reason why he felt like laughing along with his companions was because for the first time in his life, he wasn't the laughing material of everyone around him.

Such thoughts quickly gave way to another line of thought. he deeply regretted not being able to get his trait first as it should have been, he thought of all the great uses that such a trait could have and, despite the lieutenant saying it was a weak trait, Uriel felt he could achieve great things with it.

"Hey Shaker, why don't you show us your might now?" A male student laughed at his behalf, holding on to his belly to keep himself from falling on the floor for laughing so hard, but Jackson didn't think it was funny in the slightest and he walked towards the unsuspecting student and picked him up by the the collar and started shaking him in the air.

"Like this?" Jackson smirked evily, the rest of the group could only watch in despair as their young classmate was being roughed up. The soldiers stood idly, letting him do as he pleased and, when Jackson was done with the poor guy, the poor student puked his guts in the ground in dizziness.

"Hey, won't you do something?" The cute female student shouted at the solders, but the lieutenant quickly replied shaking her head.

"Why should we? He shouldn't have made fun of him if he wasn't planning on facing the consequences. I'm tired of repeating this already, but this isn't school. As long as no one gets really hurt and everyone does as commanded, it's all in good fun."

The joyful mood suddenly turned grim. They were used to making fun and laugh at the expense of their classmates all the time, but never did it cross their mind that someone could retaliate like that. Violence was strictly forbidden in the campus and they assumed it would be the same during this trip, even though the lieutenant kept reminding them that they were off city walls and far from campus, they didn't put two and two together until it was too late, at least for the poor student that was brutally tormented by Jackson.

An alarm sounded marking that six hours had passed since they started walking and the lieutenant turned towards the soldier with a flaregun, nodding at him to shoot towards the sky. The same amount of flares that were shot earlier that day traversed the sky, this time they didn't draw a circle in the sky but something that resembled more like an oval shape.

Uriel thought shortly about this, quickly arriving at the conclusion that all the units moved at a different pace, but they were still more or less at the same distance, only a bit closer to the center.

Thanks to the flares, every unit was able to pace themselves, so they could all reach the center at more or less the same time. It was an effective way of communication considering that the presence of those creatures messed up with electronics and they couldn't use cellphones or radios to speak.

"It seems we're lagging behind a bit, this means we won't be able to eat unless we make up for the time being." The lieutenant said with a disappointed expression on her face and everyone turned to glare towards Uriel, deeming him to be the cause of their misfortune.

Feeling dejected, Uriel shifted his gaze towards the ground. His legs were already shaky and if he didn't get some rest there was no way in hell for him to keep up with everyone.

"But we can still take a breather and have a snack if you have the time." The lieutenant said as if she was able to read Uriel's mind.

In his eyes, the slim figure of the soldier woman was like that of an angel, an angel of mercy that allowed him to take a much needed break from all the walking.

Uriel let himself fall in the ground and he melted in the ground like a deflated balloon.

"Are you ok?" The droopy eyed girl asked him worriedly.

"Yes, I'm just tired that's all." He replied with the nicest smile he could muster, which actually resembled a twitch on his face rather than a nice gesture.

"I'm Luna." She said extending her hand towards Uriel.

"I'm Uriel, it's nice meeting you." He said shaking her hand.

"So, that's why they call you Urinal..." She lingered for a few seconds. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bully you, I just realized the reason why, that's all." She quickly apologized for her blunt words, but the harm was done already.

Uriel felt hot on his cheeks and bitterness in his heart as his face cramped into a grimace.