“Nathan thinks there are no Warped nearby,” Lana whispered back. “As long as we stay away from the main entrance, we should be fine.”

Nori nodded. “Then follow me. Quietly.”

The tall woman led the two students through the broken streets, taking cover whenever she suspected danger was nearby. A few minutes later they were halfway toward the downed spaceship and the square was well within their sight.

“Oh, that’s not good,” Lana said worriedly.

Four monsters were circling the spacecraft. Three of them looked like the dog variant, with metal tubes and spikes growing everywhere from their bodies, but the fourth one was different. The last Warped looked like a giant humanoid, standing at least two meters tall. Metal plates covered its legs and arms and its head was grotesquely misshapen. A strip of metal covered the place its eyes should have been and there was no nose. There was a mouth, though. An unnaturally large mouth. Nori narrowed her eyes as she observed it closely.

Warped, level 4

The spaceship itself looked like a metal rectangle with a pointy front and a cylinder mounted on top, like something a kid with building blocks would make. It was huge though, at least thirty meters by twenty. The fire was gone by now, but the hull still emitted heat that scorched the nearby vegetation.

The three dog monsters carefully circled the ship, occasionally probing it with a metallic appendage, only to hiss in pain and retreat a short distance. The human-like monster was more careful, it kept circling the ship, its arms reaching for it but never actually making contact.

Nori frowned. “Those Warped sure look interested in that ship. I wonder why.”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Lana asked with surprise. “Just look at them, they are obviously absorbing technology into their bodies. An alien spaceship, with its advanced tech, probably looks like a grand buffet to them.”

“I thought they just absorbed metal,” Nori said.

Lana shook her head. “It’s easy to assume that when watching them from afar, but remember the student with the remote control I told you about? The circuitry was first grafted into his skin then the metal bits covered them up.”

“So they’re like cyborgs?”

“Yeah, I think you can say that. Demented cyborg monsters who want to eat people and technology. Hmm … I guess ‘Warped’ is a good name for them.”

Nathan breathed out explosively and pointed upward.

The two women looked up.

“There’s another one!” Lana gasped.

A second spaceship flew toward the downed one. Unlike the first, its descent was controlled. It was smaller and round, with weird pipes surrounding the exterior.

The four Warped started howling in excitement as the second ship touched down. The three dog-like monsters charged at once, their freakish tubes extending forward as if eager to tear into the ship’s hull.

The pipes surrounding the ship flexed and moved to the sides, revealing an opening.