As time wore on, the fight weirdly started to make sense. Not easier—just more manageable. Link's clones kept Nemesis guessing, darting around and splitting its attention. Each time the beast lunged, it missed. Every failed swing gave Jill a window. She used it well. Mine rounds to control Nemesis's movements, flame rounds to keep it burning its regeneration, and explosive rounds when it backed off. She was tactical, cold, and precise.
Arlo had to admit—she played like someone who understood boss mechanics better than most pioneer.He took up rear cover—eyes always on the battlefield, always watching Jill and Link. His job wasn't just damage. It was keeping them alive. Nemesis adapted fast. It tried feints. Charged low. Flung debris.
Arlo intercepted or blocked where he could, using the threaded cane to disrupt a few wild swings. Every near miss felt like a frame-perfect dodge.
Still, the monster wasn't out of tricks.
Nemesis suddenly broke formation—roared, then sprinted up a wall. It leapt from building to building, faster than any of them could track cleanly. Arlo swore under his breath. His reticle danced across rooftops, but the monster moved too fast. No shot landed.
Then, it vanished behind a high ledge.
Jill didn't stop shooting. "Where'd it go?!"
Arlo's gut twisted—full Danger Intuition flare. He whipped around, [Spirit Vision] locking onto the rooftop behind Jill.
"Oh fuck!," he muttered. "No, no, no—JILL, MOVE!"
It was too late. Nemesis launched downward like a meteor, claws extended, aiming straight for her.
"Shit—!" Arlo shouted and sprinted. He didn't think. He just ran. The world blurred. His limbs burned. He dove, caught Jill mid-sprint, and the two of them rolled hard across cracked pavement just as Nemesis cratered the spot they'd been standing.
Concrete exploded on impact. Debris rained around them. Jill gasped in his arms.
"Still alive?" Arlo asked, eyes locked on the monster already pivoting toward them.
"Barely," she hissed. "Thanks for the save."
Arlo didn't answer. His eyes were on Nemesis—who turned, fully reared back, claws glowing red with heat. It charged again, this time to finish the job.
"Link! HELP!" Arlo roared.
Link responded like he was born for it.The Rockruff bolted forward, all illusions dropping as he moved. Then something else happened. A radiant white light surrounded Link's body—his tan fur glowing like it had caught a divine spark.
Arlo's eyes widened. "What the—?"
Link accelerated unnaturally, air cracking behind him. His paws glowed dark violet—energy surging in waves like shadow-cloaked lightning.He collided with Nemesis mid-charge. The impact shook the Nemesis. Arlo watched as the massive beast staggered—actually staggered—backward.
A Pokémon just bodied a top-tier bioweapon.
"Holy Shit!," Arlo muttered. "That was new."
Jill blinked, still lying beside him. "What is that dog?"
"No time," Arlo said, hauling her up. "Just know he's the reason we're still breathing." He pulled her behind cover, Link growling like a possessed guardian between them and the recovering Nemesis.
"You okay?" Arlo asked.
Jill nodded. "Yeah. That was… intense."
"Good. Because it's not done." Arlo popped his shotgun open and reloaded fresh shells. "It's learning. Getting smarter. But we've still got its weakness."
"The head?" Jill asked, already swapping to flame rounds.
"Yeah. And now it knows we know." Arlo replied.
Nemesis wasn't idle. It twisted, shoulder wounds sealing up in real time. Arlo could see the skin ripple—like watching a broken game asset correct itself mid-animation.
Arlo turned to Link. "Keep hitting the sides. Disrupt his movement."
Link barked, already ahead of the command.
Arlo looked at Jill. "Flank wide. Make it chase one of us, not both. We need to break its rhythm."
"Got it," she said, moving right.
Arlo bolted left. Nemesis roared again, then split its gaze between them, uncertain for the first time in the fight.
We're forcing it to choose,Good. It bleeds like everything else. Arlo thought.
Nemesis moved—but not toward Arlo or Jill. It went for Link.
Arlo's heart jumped. "No!"
But Link had already anticipated it. He flipped backward mid-sprint, leaving behind an illusion that took the hit full force. The real Link reappeared behind Nemesis, firing another Rock Throw point-blank into the back of its head. Nemesis reeled again—face partially cracked, tendrils whipping in confusion.
Arlo loaded another slug. "Jill, now!"
Jill didn't hesitate. Flame round to the face.
They regrouped behind a pillar. Arlo exhaled through clenched teeth."This thing's dying slow," he said. "But it is dying."
Jill nodded. "Then let's make sure it doesn't get a chance to live again."
Link growled in agreement, eyes glowing in the dark.The battle wasn't over—but for the first time, it felt like they might win.
***
Arlo blinked as a soft notification lit up the corner of his HUD. Link learned a new move then he look up Link's status window.
---
[Link] Rockruff ♂
Level: 22
Type: Rock
Species: Puppy Pokémon
Nature: Adamant
Potential: Elite Level
Abilities: Own Tempo / Hidden Ability: Steadfast
Movesets: Play Rough (Egg move), Leer, Sand Attack, Double Team, Protect (TM), Sucker Punch (New Move), Quick Attack (New Move)
---
Good. Damn good. But there was no time to let the moment settle. Arlo filed the info away like a rogue player skipping the tutorial. "Later," he muttered. "We're still mid-fight."
Nemesis staggered from Jill's last explosive round to the face—then another hit slammed into it, point blank. The second blast rattled the creature's jaw sideways and knocked it off its footing. It howled. Not just from rage—this time it was pain. The exposed half of its face sizzled with melting flesh, its regenerating tendrils retracting like they'd hit an electrical current.
"Keep hitting it!" Arlo barked. "It's slowing down!"
Jill reloaded and grinned like someone who just figured out the final mechanic. "Gladly."
The monster's stance wavered. It swayed slightly, massive limbs twitching. That's when Arlo saw it—an unnatural bulge pulsing beneath the burned meat of its chest. Faintly red, glowing. Unmistakable.
"Parasite core…" Arlo whispered. His brain made the leap instantly. That's not just muscle—that's the NE-α parasite. The bastard running this whole show. He didn't think. He ran.
Boots hitting pavement. Spirit vision activated to pin point it weakness. Nemesis barely acknowledged him as it dealt with the aftershocks of Jill's barrage. Arlo pulled the threaded cane from his hip. With a flick, the blade locked into position.
Bloodborne style. No mercy. No hesitation. He jumped off a cracked bench, using it for lift. The moment he landed on Nemesis's torso, he drove the cane into the glowing parasite with full force. Once. Twice. Three times.
The squelch was horrible—wet and thick. The beast shrieked, body convulsing violently, but Arlo didn't stop. He stabbed again. Again. Again.
"That's for derailing the train. That's for nearly crushing Jill, me and my dog. That's for dragging me into this PS1 nightmare," Arlo snarled under his breath, driving the weapon in with every word.
Blood—thick and black-red—splattered across Arlo's coat and face. It burned slightly on contact, but he ignored it. Could've been acidic. Didn't matter. Nothing else existed but the repeated motion of stabbing the thing that wouldn't die.Finally, Nemesis buckled under its own weight. Its limbs gave out. The roar died in its throat. The glow in its chest faded from angry red to sickly orange.It collapsed.Silence. Real silence. The kind that makes your ears ring from the sudden lack of chaos.
Jill emerged from cover, grenade launcher still raised. "Is it dead?"
Arlo backed away, panting, blood dripping off his hands. "Dead enough to stop moving. But not enough to trust this monster to stay fucking dead!." He glanced down at the body—chest split, parasite shredded, limbs twitching occasionally.
It'll regenerate. Maybe not fast, but it will. Arlo thought
Jill didn't argue. "Then we go. Now."
Arlo nodded, calling over to Link. "Let's move!"
Link trotted over, fur stained with dirt and smoke but otherwise unscathed. His eyes glinted with the sharp confidence of something that knew it had just helped take down a monster three times its size.
"You good?" Arlo asked.
Link barked once—firm. Focused. But tiredArlo smiled faintly. "Alright. No victory dance. Just extraction."
As they moved away from Nemesis's corpse, Arlo allowed himself a brief glance over his shoulder. It hadn't moved. Yet.
But he felt it. Deep in his gut. It wasn't over. Just paused.Like a final phase still waiting to be triggered.
"Next time it gets up," Arlo muttered, "I'm bringing something a hell of a lot stronger than a cane."
...
Arlo exhaled slowly, chest tight from adrenaline and muscle fatigue. "Finally..." The air reeked of smoke, ash, and Nemesis blood. He looked down at himself. His coat, shirt, pants—even his gloves—were soaked in black-red gore. It stuck to him like tar. His threaded cane dripped with it, the steel blade clotted at the edges. With a flick of the wrist, Arlo slashed the weapon once in the air, spraying gore onto the pavement. Then he wiped it clean against a torn piece of cloth from a broken awning and slid it back into its scabbard at his hip.The silence was brief.
Boots approached from behind—heavy, deliberate steps. Jill. She stopped a few feet away, lowering her grenade launcher but keeping her eyes locked on Arlo like she was analyzing a threat. "Alright explain to me. Who the hell are you?" she said, dead serious. "And what the fuck is happening to your dog?"
Arlo blinked. Here we go. He ran through a dozen cover stories in a second. Some were clever. Some were dumb. All were lies. He picked the one most grounded in truth but twisted just enough to pass. Time to bluff with a straight face. His Clown bodily control should help. No nerves. No tells. Just stone cold.
"I wasn't entirely truthful before," he began, voice calm, tone neutral. "I'm investigating Umbrella. That part's real. But Link... he's not an ordinary dog. He's genetically engineered."
Jill's brows raised suspiciously. "You mean you're experimenting—like Umbrella?"
Arlo's eyes sharpened. His voice cut like glass. "Don't compare us to them. We didn't turn a city into a horror movie. We didn't create monsters and let them loose in the streets. We don't wipe out civilians because of some corporate cover-up."
Jill frowned, taken aback. She opened her mouth to push back, but Arlo raised a hand and stepped beside Link, kneeling."Look at this amazing creature," he said, voice softer but steady. "Look at him."
Link tilted his head, then gave Jill a curious wag of the tail and a soft bark—just once.
"You want to compare this to that?" Arlo pointed at Nemesis's twitching corpse in the distance. "That nightmare fuel that nearly crushed you five minutes ago? That thing's a science experiment gone nuclear. This one—" he tapped Link's head—"is alive. Thinking. Loyal. Intelligent. And saved our asses more than once."
Jill hesitated. She looked at Link.The Rockruff blinked at her, big blue eyes round and soft like a plush toy from hell's least expected claw machine. He barked again, lighter this time. Almost... sweet. Her face twitched. "That's just—" she started, then stopped. Her voice dropped. "That's not fair."
"Exactly," Arlo said, rising to his feet. "It's not. You saw what he did. You saw what he is. You're looking at the future. Not a monster. Not a weapon."
There was a pause. Jill stared at Link like she was seeing him for the first time. Then she sighed, rubbed the back of her head, and crouched. "Alright, alright," she muttered. "I was out of line." She reached out, slowly at first.
Link leaned forward, sniffed her glove, and then pressed his furry head into her palm. She pet him—lightly at first, then with a bit more confidence.
"Damn," Jill said. "You're warm."
Link's tail wagged harder. He barked once, wagging in that classic happy-dog rhythm like everything was suddenly fine.
Jill chuckled, a little embarrassed. "Yeah, okay. Not a monster. I get it."
Arlo smirked faintly, arms crossed. "Apology accepted on his behalf."
Jill shot him a look. "Still doesn't mean I trust you."
"You shouldn't," Arlo replied. "I'm a terrible liar. But I haven't lied since the city went to hell." She stood back up, reloading her MGL slowly. "You're still gonna explain everything when this is over."
Arlo shrugged. "Sure. Assuming we're not nuked first."
She grunted at that, then turned toward the nearest exit alley. "Let's get moving before that thing comes back again."
Arlo nodded, whistled once to Link, and fell into step beside her.As they walked, Link bounced between them like none of this had happened. Just another night, just another boss fight. But Arlo knew better. The clock was still ticking. And Raccoon City wasn't done with them yet.