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Gohvis grabbed the dog by the scruff and pulled him off of Morgunov. Koh thrashed wildly in the Monster’s grasp, jaws snapping at the dragon man’s face until Gohvis flung the animal into the dark, distant reaches of the cave.

Morgunov was not grateful, however. “I don’t need your help.”

“Yes, you do.”

There was a game afoot. Morgunov knew it. Gohvis didn’t care about him. The Monster of the East had no reason to be here, right now. And Morgunov very much wanted to call him out on it. Tell him to stop pretending. To reveal what his true intentions were.

But there was no time for throwing accusations around. And while it was true that he didn’t need Gohvis’ help, what he really didn’t need was Gohvis deciding to join sides with the attackers.

Unfortunately, Morgunov had a feeling that was going to happen sooner or later, regardless.

He kept running. The workshop. Had to get to the workshop. There was something there that would help. He knew that much. He just couldn’t quite recall what it was. He must’ve remembered earlier, when deciding to head there. He just had to trust in his earlier self’s judgment.

That was fine.

The Vanguardians were closing on his position again. The Roberts told him so.

Time to intercept, then. A couple of Mk. IIIs would be sufficient, he decided. Didn’t want to use too many for this. That would reduce their collective observational prowess, which he very much needed.

The Mk. III Robert was ideal for this task for a couple of different reasons. The first was that it had the best ratio of durability and mobility. Not so weak that it could be easily knocked out by one of those Vannie generals, but also not so slow that it could be easily dodged, either. And the second reason was that it carried a particular invention in its arsenal that the Mk. Is and IIs didn’t have access to.

An invention he’d dubbed the Bull Fighter.

Well, okay, Jercash had dubbed it that, but Morgunov had liked the name enough to keep using it.

The Bull Fighter, in short, was a distraction-based tool, utilizing both audio and visual projection technology in order to befuddle opponents and then immobilize them from behind with soul-strengthened net launchers.

For more threatening targets, however, the nets would not serve well as long-term containment. Which, unfortunately, meant that the Mk. IIIs had to use that window of vulnerability to go in for the kill, instead.