He flashed her a reassuring smile and walked over to the edge of the door. He looked down at the two huge monsters, each carved a large hole in the wall and were working their claws to enlarge it to get inside, ignoring the occasional gunshot to their faces.

Nathan squared his shoulders and looked down straight at the taller of the two creatures. He narrowed his eyes and brought his arm up, his fingers folded as if holding an imaginary gun.

“The kid’s lost it,” Cattie said. She bent down, reloading her shotgun as quickly as she could.

“I don’t think so,” Nori said softly.

Nathan drew in a steadying breath and pulled his trigger finger.

A thundering sound tore through the air. The powerful blast sent shockwaves through the air, hurling everyone on their backs.

“WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?” Cattie screamed.

Nori was still close enough to the exit to see the upper half of one of the monsters simply evaporate. Its lower torso fell to the ground, quivering. She glanced to a small monitor on the wall and smiled at the four simple words written across it.

Asteroid Cannon upgrade completed

“Oh, no.” Lana moved to the edge and was looking down. The single shot did more than simply blast apart the monster - it also took off a large section of the shelter's wall behind it. Luckily, the downward angle of the shot prevented it from blasting through the whole building. Instead, a two-meter wide crater appeared at the edge of the wall.

The remaining level eight monster was also thrown away by the blast, but flailing tentacles and grasping claws quickly restored its balance, bringing it up for another round.

“Nathan, shoot it before it reaches the breach in the wall,” Nori shouted.

Despite the young man’s dislike of weapons, he liked the Warped even less. He hastily brought up his hand and fired again. But somehow, the monster dodged. The shot hit the ground in a spray of stone and dirt, opening up another crater. Everyone was hurled off their feet again, the monster included.

It snarled upward at the ship hovering just outside its reach and scrambled back to its feet, throwing itself at the open shelter wall.

Bulco stepped into view, blocking the opening. The giant Warped paid no attention to the insignificant human and charged, limbs outstretched forward.

The Engineer smiled coldly and brought up his revolver. He fired when the monster was almost on top of him and the large caliber bullet did what the long-range shotgun couldn’t, piercing its skull. The creature howled in agony, three of its limbs flying up to his face, while the others shot forward toward the human. Bulco shot, again and again, each shot hitting the creature’s head, sending sprays of bone, metal, and blood. The monster stumbled backward, still on its feet and clutched at its face, howling in anger and pain.

“Now, Nathan now!” Nori shouted.