Chapter 100: The Problem with Probability
Edinburgh.
Scotland.
Headed for the Portal.
Perspective: Dr. Langston Perry.
The road north stretched like an open invitation to death. I kept my eyes on the pavement cracks, measuring their distance, calculating our pace, running numbers like a metronome in my head. Numbers didn't lie, but emotions sure as hell did. The math painted a grim picture: we had a 22% chance of surviving if we stuck to this road.
"Langston," Scotty called from behind, his voice rough with impatience. "How much further?" I didn't bother looking back. "Further's not the issue," I snapped. "Probability is."
"If we follow this main road straight to the Portal, we're practically inviting every Cu Sith and kelpie between here and Edinburgh Castle to rip us to pieces," I told Scotty. "I'd give us a 22% chance of survival, and that was generous." Scotty stayed quiet, smart enough not to argue numbers. Euphrates, though, wasn't so tactful.
"And if we don't?" she asked, her voice hushed and curious. I paced ahead, eyeing the crumbling buildings lining the street. "If we cut through the alleys, we drop visibility by 60%," I said. "Stealth and guerrilla tactics let us avoid open fights, stick to choke points, and control the conflicts we do find."
That'd bump our odds to 70% of reaching the Portal alive. I stopped, meeting their gazes. "It ain't perfect, but it's better." Sasha cut in, adjusting her med kit.
"Better, but slower," she said. "You said the Portal's making these monsters stronger the longer we wait, right?" "Correct," I replied, voice clipped. "It's not just spitting out cannon fodder; it's escalating. More of 'em, and more nastier ones."
"This explains the kelpies," I added. "Robert said there were only Cu Sith. I'm thinking they were an advance shock force, the kelpies are here to maintain long-term control." I pointed northeast, where the Portal's faint shimmer barely pierced the smog. "We balance risk and time, or we're dead before we get there."
Scotty huffed, slinging his rifle over his shoulder. "Aye, fine. Lead on, then. Let's see if yer numbers hold." They would. Numbers always did, unless you missed a variable that could screw you over.
The alleys swallowed us, narrowing the world to a chokehold. Trash crunched underfoot, reeking of rot and piss. A busted sign creaked above, like a noose swinging in the wind. My gauntlet buzzed, picking up weird spikes of energy in the air.
Nuckelavee's death breath hung thick, black mist curling like it had a mind of its own. "Stay alert," I growled, odds ticking to 28% for a random attack. A tendril of mist lunged at us, but our badges flared white light. The light sizzled against the mist like bacon on a skillet, the stench proving the bacon was rotten from the start.
Scotty cursed. "Feck, that's close!" I ran the numbers: 15% chance the badges could overload in a bigger cloud. "Stay close," I muttered, stepping over a rat carcass with pus-filled sores.
The mist slunk back, but it felt like it was watching us. Numbers didn't lie, but this place was creeping me out. Broken windows loomed above like jagged teeth. I heard creaking pipes, scurrying rats with sores, and a growl too big for any dog.
Robert's badges kept the death breath at bay, their glow quickly becoming a silent, if bright, comfort. The acrid stink of disintegration filled the air as the mist broke apart. "If this Dagda's a real god," I muttered, watching the smoke scatter, "I owe him a nod for these badges." Smooth move, for a myth.
The others nodded, relieved their skin wasn't rotting off. My sarcasm went over their heads—they probably thought Dagda was just a story, not some actual deity. I'd already bent my brain accepting magic, but religion? Hell no, never.
Even with those hokey badges saving us, I kept my gauntlet primed, golden wires coiling like snakes. This route was gonna test us, but we weren't a neon sign on the open road. "Langston," Euphrates whispered, voice low. "This feels smarter. Safer."
"Feelings don't matter," I shot back, blunt but not cruel. "Safer ain't the goal. Survival is. Don't mix 'em up." She went quiet, and I smirked. Aw, she's just trying to compliment me, make a connection, but now isn't the time.
Maybe if we survive this mission, I'll ask her to… No! I told myself. Mission first, always the mission. A distraction as curvaceous as she is will only get me killed.
The alley curved narrowly, and the shadows were growing thick. My gauntlet fed me data spikes, turning chaos into odds. Ambush odds here: 32%, next stretch 45%. Workable, but we needed to be ready.
I raised a hand, stopping the group. "Ambush chance is high here," I said, keeping my voice low. "Scotty, take point with fire. Euphrates, cover our back with water shields." I glanced at Sasha, adding, "Keep that purification aura going to supplement the badges—they're last resort for a halitosis emergency."
Scotty chuckled quietly. I liked that this intense adventure didn't faze his emotional state. That was a respectable quality in my book. They moved without question, all efficiency and precision. We slunk forward, dodging junk to stay quiet.
The open windows above stayed empty, but we watched 'em like hawks, expecting trouble. Nothing hit, and I exhaled, tense. "Langston," Scotty hissed, voice shaky. "What?" I whispered, pissed, still eyeing the windows.
"Just feckin' look, ye git!" I spun, ready to snap, but froze. At the alley's end, a dark, dripping kelpie stomped a hoof, snorting steam. It creeped me out. I hate horses even on good days.
We all backed up slow, hearts pounding. Quiet growls came from behind. I whipped around, spotting a Cu Sith pack blocking the other exit, eyes glowing. Chance? Bad luck?
"Well, shite," Scotty said, summing up the situation nicely. "Yeah," I muttered. We were trapped in a pincer. The numbers my gauntlet fed my vision, alongside Moira's readouts, shifted rapidly with this new data.
These weren't the same feral, berserking beasts we'd fought before. These kelpies were playing the game smart, herding us like prey. It had the brains and nasty streak to pull this off, with an intellect of forty-five compared to the Nuckelavee's dumb muscle. "They have us pinned," I said, quoting an action hero. "I have a bad feeling about this."
Euphrates glimpsed at me with a sparkle in her eye. "Nice," she said, catching the reference. My cheeks flushed at her words—worst possible time, but damn, she got it. I'm definitely going to ask her to—
"The windows!" Sasha suggested, her tone flat, but her face looked pissed off. I nodded immediately, adding this variable to our odds. "Absolutely the windows. Everyone inside!" I shouted, as the predators stalked closer. We dived into the blown-out building, Scotty bringing up the rear.
He knelt by the windows, blasting flames from his palms to keep the Cu Sith at bay. He looked tired but kept firing. Cu Sith gathered just out of reach, pacing in an arc, waiting to strike. The kelpie neighed in frustration, clearly pissed.
Its hooves slammed the stone streets as it galloped up the alley. We were all breathing hard, the dread drawing closer. I glanced around, checking variables for defensibility. A large couch, a bar with stools—decent barricade for a time.
A kitchen nearby, packed with knives and utensils. A cradle by the couch, a door on the far end, a staircase leading—wait, a cradle? Before I could distract myself, rage boiled white-hot inside me. Assuming the worst, I couldn't look at the cradle again.
I wouldn't. I could feel my logical defenses cracking under something primal. If something in that cradle deserved life and got snuffed out… my gauntlet flashed numbers randomly, static crackling in my vision.
I gripped the bar with my gauntlet, crunching through the oaken top like packing foam. "What is this?" I asked hoarsely, trembling with rage. Euphrates' hand gently touched my shaking arm. I flinched but didn't pull back.
Her blue eyes held no judgment, just warmth. I felt tethered in that moment. "Breathe," she said softly. "It's empty."
Her lips smiled reassuringly. Stop looking at her lips, Perry. Get it together. What is it with her anyway?!
"What is it with you anyway?!" I blurted out loud. That glorious smile turned into a slight smirk. "Shut up," she said, without malice. "Get it together, Scotty's holding them back alone, and he's getting tired."
This woke me up. Damned emotions, always in the way. I nodded, returning to myself. I caught Sasha staring at the cradle, her face tight, like she knew something I didn't.
Odds of her cracking under pressure: low. She was channeling power to Scotty, her hands glowing faintly, probably keeping his stamina up. I figured she saw the lump under the cradle's blanket wasn't alive—Euphrates' quick lie to keep me from losing it. Didn't blame her; it worked.
Sasha muttered to herself, barely audible. "Meh. Why am I thinking about stuff like this when we're about to die?" she said, shaking her head. "Doesn't matter. It's clear Euphrates feels the same. She can have him. He's annoying most of the time anyway."
Then she scowled, disgusted. "No sane woman is gonna be thinking about who to date in traumatic situations like this! Focus on Scotty, the tough guy needs your full focus." I caught her glance at me, like she was sizing up my flaws—probably my prick attitude, though I'd bet she saw something worth saving in my gauntlet skills. Kids, though, that's my weak spot, and she knew it.
Scotty whispered urgently, with sweat beading on his forehead, "They're moving to attack." He was right. The Cu Sith shuffled closer, ready to crash in, urged forward by the kelpie's threatening stomps. I scanned outside with my gauntlet, the Nuck's aura screwing up the signal, but I could detect faint dots blinking by the walls outside.
Euphrates, calm as a windless sea, asked neutrally, "What are the odds now, Langston?" I didn't know. "Holding here's better than running with them on our asses. At least, for now," I replied. I didn't want to tell her the odds of surviving if they all rushed and we held our ground.
A wolf's howl tore through the alley, hungry and empowering. Scotty stood then and backed up, taking cover behind the bar, hands outstretched. "They are coming—" he started, but the windows shattered in a great crash as several hairy, red-eyed beasts crashed through. They burned, their fur and lungs inundated with great gouts of searing heat.
Scotty's flames, once orange and yellow, had become tinged with blue around the edges. It seems our gun jockey has been leveling up his heat. The flames seared into their fur and flesh, and as the monsters howled in pain, they inhaled for breath and only drew in Scotty's napalm, completely charring their lungs. They were dead in seconds.
I ducked behind the table, gauntlet ready, wires spreading out ready to capture and fry something. "Odds at 50%," I growled. A coin toss. Not the sort of odds I want to bet my life on, but it could be worse.
"Odds at fifty-five percent," I noted. The kelpie's neigh shook the walls like a war drum. Cu Sith began pouring through the windows, moving more cleverly and in pairs. It was like the kelpie was calling the shots, adjusting to our tactics.
One pair targeted Euphrates, but she raised a water shield, deflecting the rakes of their claws. With a brute force shield slam, she caved one's head in, while her water spear jerked forward simultaneously, impaling the other down its throat, killing both. The kelpie itself started moving closer, trying to overwhelm us. A Cu Sith slipped around the walls, incorporeal while we were distracted.
It leaped at Sasha, our healer, before I could warn her. Its jaws clamped down fiercely on her left arm. Sasha screamed as teeth tore into the meat of her arm. In an instant reaction, she brought her right hand around with shocking speed.
It started as a normal fist, and every inch it approached the Cu Sith, it glowed brighter and brighter. The moment she struck the wolf's skull, the light was so intense I couldn't look at it. It had the intensity of a camera flash. When I blinked and looked back, she was healing her own left arm, and there was a headless corpse lying in front of her.
"Holy hell…" was all I could manage to say. What the hell kind of punch was that? It's getting to feel weird, and comforting, that I'm not the only one with talent in the room. "Solid, doc!" Scotty yelled, clearly impressed.
She threw a water net, ropes of liquid wrapping up its legs. It thrashed and whinnied a horrific scream as the magical water of Euphrates burned the toxicity of the dread nightmare. It bucked, trying to dislodge itself from the painful purification net, but it did not fall. In response, it turned its open mouth and shot out a stream of reddish-brown bile at Euphrates.
The smell was unforgettable. I wretched as the fetid stench washed over me, and I could tell none of the others were any better off. "Sasha! The sludge!" I called to her between revulsive gags. Her aura flared in response, and a white wave of light shot forth from her in a wave.
The bright light passed through the blackened slime and turned it clear as it passed, leaving an inert snot-like substance. Even the smell was replaced with the scent of cinnamon. A far better smell, let me tell you. The kelpie's bile was gone, but the fight wasn't over.
Through the gaping hole in the wall the kelpie had knocked open with its gigantic hooves, more Cu Sith poured in. "They must be getting reinforced, there's no way there was that many to begin with!" Scotty echoed my own thoughts. I lashed out with my electrified gauntlet wires. Thin strands of silver slowly slid through the air around me, each one controlled by my own instincts.
Two lunged directly at me with snapping jaws, and with a thought and a flick of my wrist, my wires intercepted them, coiling around them and pinning them in mid-air. My favorite move. I yanked my gauntlet toward my chest with all the force I could muster, pulling the thin wires through their flesh. Magical and real electricity shot through the wires at the same time, cauterizing the flesh as the wires passed and paralyzing any other movement.
Pieces of demon dog fell smoking to the floor. I glanced at the others, each fighting off and murdering Cu Sith as they were able, when I was blindsided by one that came from behind. Its claws raked down my back, cutting into my clothes and flaying my skin. I screamed in agony, "AAAARGH!" but lost my breath completely when its jaws bit into my calf to pull me backwards.
Almost immediately, I felt Sasha's purifying light strike me with incredible warmth. The healing wave she threw at me felt like walking into the sun after being in a cold room. Warmth spread over my skin and seeped into my flesh. I could feel the flesh of my back begin to knit back together, itchy as hell.
Despite how badly I wanted to scratch my back against the rough bark of a tree, I turned to look at the Cu Sith as it tried to savage my constantly healing leg. Sasha really knows her shit. I reached down with the gauntlet, and just like the bar moments ago, I gripped it by the neck, crushed its spine with a satisfying crunch, and hurled the dog at the kelpie in utter defiance. It harmlessly struck its flank, but I made my point.
It was enough to cause it to look toward me, so I yelled to Scotty, "Scott! Hit it again!" Just as he cooked out the core of his latest victim by directly grabbing a Cu Sith with flaming hands, he looked up at my words. He saw it, the exposed side of the kelpie. He unleashed a yellowish fire wave with blue tinges, parts of the flame appearing green, scorching its side.
It reared back, lashing out with its hooves, neighing like a demon. It kept its eyes locked on me, as I sent my wires at its throat, attempting to sever its head and fry it with electricity. It staggered, but didn't drop. "Thirty-five percent!" I cursed.
Our team was kicking ass but we were outnumbered and pinned. The bodies were piling up, but they kept coming. As I assessed the situation, the memory of the cradle nagged at my thoughts, and that was screwing up my focus. Numbers. Damn it! Numbers! Stay on task, I told myself.
"Langston?! Plan needed! I'm running out of mana!" Euphrates yelled, spearing another Cu Sith with a graceful spinning move. Numbers spun through my head thanks to my gauntlet. "Windows are death. That leaves upstairs or the back door."
"Upstairs is a dead end, so we gotta run. Out the back door. Move move move!" I shouted. Sasha turned to the damaged wall and windows, flexing her aura forward. The light magic she was skilled with seemed to solidify where the wall once stood.
The light hardened and acted as a forcefield, pushing back fresh Cu Sith from entering. "That won't last long," she said breathlessly, sweating from the drain of combat. Scotty turned his hands to the rest of the room, lighting the place on fire. It didn't take long; it started smoking and burning rapidly.
I worked on taking out the last few Cu Sith in the room with Euphrates as the place went up in searing flames. We bolted for the small back door and flung it open. A single Cu Sith was standing there, but Euphrates lunged past me with a new move I hadn't seen yet. She blurred right past me, spear pointing straight out.
The sharp tip of shifting water flowed into it, and she lifted it into the air. Using her momentum, she pivoted on her left foot, spun her body around, and flung her spear wide. The physics of the move was beautiful. With her spear outstretched and her spinning maneuver, she had created centrifugal force and flung the nasty beast thirty yards down the street to crash and roll lifelessly into a cart.
She turned to me and took a deep breath to steady herself. "That was fun. Let's go, yeah?" I nodded at her, and we took off. We hit the next alley over when Sasha said, "The kelpie shattered the forcefield. They are coming."
In reply, the kelpie's neigh echoed behind us, furious and echoed further by the baying of the Cu Sith. We ran up the alley. "65% if we haul ass and don't look back," I panted. We'd purchased seconds, enough to keep us alive for now.