Harlow was back on power leveling duty for the little pup, Watchdog. To his dismay he was performing admirably and the Databeast was gaining levels every few days it seemed. He wasn’t surprised then, when another Termiterror fell before his staff and brute force, and the little dog froze like it had been hit by something unseen. It began to gleam with a shining brilliant light, which Harlow had seen before only when the Databeast egg had been infused with an element stone.

Watchdog was evolving.

Despite his resentment towards the little beast, Harlow was fascinated. The light was so bright it felt like he should be being blinded, but he wasn’t at all. It was as if the light was contained inside the little Databeast. And that light was growing upwards as its form changed into something larger.

“Finally.” Said Captain Rizzo, a satisfied look on his face. Harlow couldn’t help but agree. The evolution had felt like a long time coming after the near constant warfare they’d been engaged in. Harlow had almost levelled up twice.

They’d been skirting round the Termiterror colony, battling for days, and even heading deeper and deeper into the underground. The two guards were starting to think that the Termiterror colony had simply taken advantage of an already existing structure. They’d seen wondrous sights down there, more of the massive bismuth crystals that had so entranced Harlow, as well as enormous lengths of copper running underground. Rizzo had resolved to tell Cabletown - copper was one of their main trading commodities, so it’d be terrible news if someone else stumbled upon this vein and set up a mining colony here.

Not that either of the guards really expected that to happen. Cabletown’s population was dwindling, and the same seemed true of every other small town around them. There wasn’t a massive demand for new copper, and there wasn’t much in the way of new populations to expand into the area.

At best some Cabletown official would take a note of the place and if they ever saw a new population centre moving in - or somehow Cabletown ever ran out of copper itself - then they could take the necessary steps to preserve their way of life. No, Cabletown was likely to be far more excited with the show going on before Rizzo and Harlow’s eyes right now.

A juvenile stage Databeast being added to Cabletown’s roster was no everyday occurrence.

Watchdog was transforming, his limbs elongating and pushing him upwards until he was bipedal and standing around the same height as Harlow. The light faded and revealed an extremely skinny figure of glinting metal bones and red eyes glaring out from under a hooded metal brow. A long snout stretched down from under it that brow, revealing a mouth of malicious fangs. Its forepaws hung low and loose, as if slightly too long for its body.

A bipedal metal canine stared at Rizzo and Harlow. It eyed Harlow up before turning to Rizzo. Harlow was unsure how he felt about the little pup changing so quickly. Before it was a bother and an annoyance. Now - a threat? But Harlow didn’t feel intimidated, he reckoned he could batter it. He knew it wouldn’t be able to take on a Termiterror on its own.

“Incredible.” Breathed Rizzo.

“What is it?” Asked Harlow.

“An Anugent.” Rizzo told him. “Rare, but powerful. And its Techs… Oh this is good news for Cabletown indeed.” Smiled the Captain. Harlow had never heard of an Anugent, but by now he knew that Rizzo wasn’t easily impressed.

“What Techs?” Asked Harlow. He knew that Rizzo had an earth element stone. The Databeast was silver. Perhaps it could manipulate metal in some way?

Rizzo didn’t answer for a second, as if weighing something up. He was staring off into the distance. Perhaps checking his new stats, and that of the Databeast? Watchdog turned its head 90 degrees to look at him, which Harlow found a little unnerving.

“We’ll see what it gets later. You never know how these things turn out. First, Watchdog has got to learn to fight without them. It’ll take some time until he’s used to his new body. He’ll need a training partner. Stand ready.” Said the captain, expectantly.

“You must be joking.” Said Harlow. He’d just finished defeating some Termiterrors so that the Captain’s Databeast could evolve - which should have been his Databeast, anyway - and he was exhausted. Watchdog however had just been jumping in on all of Harlow’s hard work and leeching off the EXP. The dog had been fresh as a daisy, even before he’d evolved.

Originally Harlow had thought that the captain was just pushing him this hard as a form of intense, old school training. Now he was really starting to think it was all some sort of long-form elaborate punishment. And even if it had been training, Harlow quietly stung that he knew Rizzo would have only put that effort into training him so that he could make himself useful to Cabletown. There was no strong bond between mentor and mentee there, only a pragmatic application of logic on behalf of a place that had never cared for Harlow. He was growing weary of the captain and his antics.

“I’m not joking. Ready now. Watchdog will be attacking regardless.” Said Rizzo. “Watchdog, go!”

Harlow growled and readied his staff just in time to block the long metal claw that had been aiming for his face. He batted the Databeast’s paw to the side but it had been readying up a bite. This one had some real force behind it, but he caught the Anugent’s mouth with his horizontal staff and turned the Databeast away again. This time it went with it, dipping to the side of him.

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He turned and swung after it, but it was ready. It had already begun moving the opposite direction as soon as he had started swinging. As such it managed to duck way under his overhand swing and get behind him by moving the other way than the one he was going. The Databeast had known what he was going to do!

Worse, Harlow realised. Watchdog had naturally been studying Harlow’s fighting style the whole time they’d been in combat together, pretty much since the Databeast had been created. It had been able to predict what he was going to do and how to use his biggest weakness - his lack of mobility - against him. Harlow had never felt so exploited, and cried out in pain as a paw hit him in the shoulder blade, drawing blood.

He was no slouch though, and had already been shoving the end of the staff behind him, under his armpit. It hit the Anugent hard in the upper ribs with a satisfying thud, metal though they were. Harlow knew he’d taken some HP points there. Still, that didn’t stop a second paw slicing down his arm, drawing blood once more.

Harlow was incensed as he turned and swept with the staff, knocking the feet out from underneath the Databeast. It landed hard on its back and tried to roll up but Harlow was on it and beating it with his staff now that it had lost its main advantage, its mobility. He started raining down heavy blow after heavy blow as the Databeast struggled to, and failed to, escape.

“Enough.” Called Rizzo. Harlow stopped and stumbled back a few steps before collapsing down, exhausted. Rizzo held up a disc and touched it to the Databeast, who was now looking fairly worse for wear. Harlow’s ability to cause damage with the staff just kept getting better and better. The disc flashed green and disassembled, floating into the Databeast.

Of course, that was a healing disc. Watchdog sat up, completely healed as Harlow stayed sitting there. Watchdog looked at him, then looked at Rizzo.

“Well done Watchdog, great fight.” Said Rizzo.

Harlow looked down at his arm, bleeding. It wasn’t too bad, but it wasn’t particularly enjoyable either. It was barely a flesh wound. “Got any of those for me?” He muttered, knowing that there wouldn’t be.

Rizzo looked at him, unimpressed. “You should’ve bought some potions in town if you wanted healing. Besides, that’ll heal naturally.”

“Yeah, just like my leg.” Mumbled Harlow. His knee had been hurting him worse than ever. “Besides, you still have my BITs.”

Rizzo scowled and chucked him a pouch. It landed in the dust in front of Harlow. It had a bunch of drives on, containing most of the BITs Harlow had been collecting in the lead up to the fight with the two traitors. He grabbed the little bag.

He and Rizzo looked at each other. Watchdog stared him out too. Harlow was growing tired of this. Just as Harlow was about to say something the sound of marching feet echoed up from the tunnel beside them. The telltale sound of Termiterrors.

“They’re coming.” Said Rizzo. “Get up.”

Harlow wearily stood.

The Termiterrors were only in a small group of four, so Harlow and Watchdog faced them down comfortably. They had been taking on groups larger than this whilst Watchdog was still in the Instar stage.

The fight was fairly standard, with Harlow acting as the frontline brute and fighting like a savage whilst Watchdog, now in his Anugent form, nipped with has teeth and sliced with his claws from the sidelines. Harlow knew the dog could do more - he’d just done more to Harlow, after all - but he put it down to a learning phase, and that the silver werewolf would help him out more as he adjusted. That is, until Harlow got close to defeating one of the Termiterrors and Watchdog leaped in, tearing the Termiterror away from Harlow and to the side, while it got stuck in ripping and tearing with its fangs. As the Databeast was nearly done for, it disappeared quickly under the Anugent’s assault.

Harlow couldn’t believe it! The dog was still stealing kills! And he was left to take on the two remaining Termiterrors. The audacity of this overgrown mutt astounded him.

Each time he was about to finish one of the Termiterrors, Watchdog leaped into action, giving it its full force. Harlow was fuming as he faced down the last one. In his anger he made a mistake, and the Termiterror managed to get a brutal stomp off on his good leg, twisting his ankle and spraining it. He cracked it over the head with his staff and it disappeared. Watchdog had lunged for it, but Harlow had managed to kill it quicker, so the Anugent just went straight through it.

His ankle didn’t hurt that bad, but since he leaned on that leg a lot whilst walking and fighting, Harlow knew it would be a serious impediment to him.

“Nice work.” Said Rizzo.

“Nice work?” Spluttered Harlow. “What on Excoria was that?”

“What do you mean?” Asked Rizzo.

“Next time, tell Watchdog to get properly involved. Or you get involved.” Said Harlow.

“I thought he did well.” Said Rizzo.

“Of course you did.” Said Harlow. Rizzo was starting to look angry now.

“There are more Termiterrors coming. Stop whining. Watchdog, you did well. Do the same again.” Said Rizzo. It was true, Harlow could hear Termiterrors making their way over to them.

“I’m not fighting half to the death so that your Databeast can clean up every kill I get.” Harlow told him.

“You get the EXP too, what are you worried about?” Scoffed Rizzo.

“Make him fight alongside me properly. You can heal him with one of your little discs. No disc is going to save me.” Harlow was steadfast.

“You’ll be fine.” Said Rizzo. “Now do it.”

“Why should I?”

“Because I said so. Get ready to fight”

The Termiterrors were almost on them now. There were six of them, a difficult task.

“I’m not doing it.” Growled Harlow.

“Well… maybe it is time to do some training with you after all, Watchdog. Watchdog, make him fight.” Captain Rizzo smiled as he gave the order. Harlow’s brow furrowed in suspicion and confusion as Watchdog’s eyes flashed red, and suddenly it felt like his mind had been hit by an enormous wave. His eyes almost rolled back as he paused, putting up an intense resistance to the mental attack.

But it was no use. He had been unprepared and the Databeast had a strong Tech. He could feel his thoughts being changed and manipulated in real time. He was fuming at Rizzo before, but now he was seething.

And then, all of a sudden, that didn’t seem to matter that much. He didn’t really care that Rizzo had set his hated Databeast on Harlow to make him fight. He didn’t care about the mocking red eyes behind him, but he was very much still angry. And he would take out that anger, no doubt - merely, he had a new focus. The Databeasts that were coming for him, trying to take his life. Those Termiterrors had made a mistake coming down this tunnel today. Harlow leapt towards them, ignoring the pain in both his legs.