The group of eight had been surveying the area around the facility, trying to ensure they had an awareness of at least everything outside before moving inside. With the basics of the situation under control, it was time to enter the facility.
"While breaking down the door could be fun, having it in one piece is safer. We need one of the elves sending Chyurae to work on the door." Thanrie was still being uncharacteristically reasonable at this point, even if her instincts were still obvious. Having a lot of the current discussion continue in Izhaethyx still required a lot of coordination with some of their elves, but Lwyn took care of the request quietly while the others stood watch. Chyurae was at the door for a while before the door opened. Well, that went well enough.
Qheria paused at the door to evaluate the situation. She took note that the door they had just unlocked had a magnetic key-card lock. The good news was, that meant the door would lock if it was shut again. She just had no idea how Chyurae figured out how to unlock it. "We'll need a way to temporarily keep this door open, in case it locks. It looks like it only locks from the outside at least, so we can't be locked inside." They used some nearby stones to keep the door open.
Inside was absolutely dark, no way to see anything. The elves had better vision in general, but that only helped them figure out faint details better, it did nothing with pure darkness. There was the idea of using torches, but fire had already caused them some problems. The start of the facility appeared to simply be a corridor..
Mhyl was working in English, leaving Lwyn to try and translate. "So, when it comes to the threat of fire, combustion depends on the materials involved. We need to consider solids, liquids, and gasses. If they have anything gas-powered, a torch could light everything up if any gas was spilled around. If there are certain fumes involved, a flame could cause an explosion. However, on the matter of solid construction, everything here looks inflammable, so that's a good start." Mhyl's overview made sense to Qheria, who had her own idea. "We could really be safe if we can ventilate the whole building? There was the main door on the other side, but that most likely has it's controls inside the building. We should try and find a way to get that open."
Lwyn had to reflect on the most sensible comment, during translations. Right after mentioning everything else in Izhaethyx, she also brought up something no one else had yet considered. ".. get it all open. You would think that they would have secured their own lighting system while using the place or something." After hearing this idea, Qheria carefully looked around again just inside the door, looking for anything that stood out. She found a heavy leaver and shifted it. A faint hum occurred within the building, and just to be certain they all moved away from it. After a while, clear pipes were filling with red light filaments.
Mhyl was marveling at the design. "Oh, so they are using hydro electrics from the river probably. Though, this isn't exactly electric lighting, it's like if steam power met some kind of neon-like gas. It seems really inefficient, but at least there is some light. Uh, actually, how is this light for humans? I shouldn't be so quick to judge things." Thanrie was letting Mhyl go off on her English rant of everything, but caught the very sensible question. "Don't worry Mhyl, there is just enough light to make the place look properly haunted without just simply being blind."
It was kinda silly, Thanrie's Terran-self reveled in horror content on the occasions, playing some very creepy shooters in the past. Her present self however wasn't as good at the creepy stuff. Japanese people in general tended to do well with low-level horror, not even believing in zombies because they always burned their dead. Her present upbringing wasn't as fortunate. It was like her past habits were telling her she had nothing to fear, while more ingrained habits were telling her that this was scary. She internally settled this logically, horror wasn't scary on earth, this wasn't earth. Horror is scary on celese, this is celese. Being scared made perfect sense.
They carefully walked inside. Mhyl was starting to get a headache, the faint sounds from the lights were bothering her. At least, she thought it was the lights. "I wish the lights at least didn't make that annoying sound, it's hurting my head." "What sound?" Lwyn it seems couldn't hear it, let alone anyone else. However, she noticed Yuxzn and Chyurae didn't look comfortable, so turned to them both in Elaethyx. "Are you two hearing a really strange sound too?" "Yes, sometimes being gifted with exceptionally good senses on a whole had its own drawbacks." Yuxzn's comment had Mhyl and Lwyn exchange a glance. Lwyn didn't even know this much. Mhyl turned to Lwyn discretely with English. "Might be your ears? They do look more... human. Maybe you don't have the full capability of elven hearing?" Mhyl contemplated that this implied all five of her senses were enhanced, not just sight. It also meant she had a strong advantage of something over Lwyn, a personal victory. Taste, Touch, Smell, those were left, a thing to consider another time.
However, getting back to the current sense, maybe it wasn't as much of an advantage. To every pure elf, this sound was annoying. To anyone else, it wasn't really a problem. Mhyl tried to reason with it by deducing it's cause. The neon-like filaments must be making a spark sound or something. She looked around and matched the sound to her sight, and then realized something alarming. The brightest areas of the room were actually the quietest. This wasn't the lights.
Mhyl stopped, alarmed, and explained in a mix of languages. "The sound 'sound' isn't 'not' from the 'light' light." A single statement in two languages like that only left Zyuixqs and Rhyde unaware. Lwyn however needed a moment to think about it, having understood both languages. Qheria took action right away in Izhaethyx. "Mhyl has figured out that we might have a problem. Turning on the lights did something else." Thanrie was getting pretty terrified, but no one noticed. Lwyn scaled the wall to get a better view.
"Lwyn, be careful. People aren't supposed to be able to climb walls like... actually forget it." Qheria was concerned that Lwyn was going to hurt herself up there, but forgot that Lwyn was secretly a cat or something. If a half-elf was actually able to do feats like that, surely it wasn't a bad thing? Though, being a half-elf didn't even explain it, it was just a Lwyn thing. Lwyn looked around from her elevated position, and caught slight movement in one of the corners. She single handedly ejected a blade from her crossbow, holding to the wall with just one hand, and tossed it at the moving shadow. Her toss bounced off the ground three times, like a pebble skipping a pond, before sliding to where the shadow moved. If there was even dangerous wires to not cut on the wall, she knew her throw was too weak to even reach that. It did however reach the shadow, which shrilled a sound of fear.
Hearing the creature scream, Thanrie lost all composure, and herself gave up a shriek. This was earsplitting by the design of the room even for the humans. Lwyn lost her grip as a result of having to cope with the ringing in her own ears. However, they weren't the only ones who didn't like the really loud sound Thanrie made. Light reflected off several eyes within the shadows, now looking straight at them. "Oh by the divine, this place is full of yheirqae." Rhyde mentioned a word that none of the four girls were familiar with, but it sounded bad. Everyone made for the door, but they didn't go alone.
A whole pack of the same creatures followed them right out the door they had entered, into the light of the sun. They must have been the creatures Rhyde had named, Yheirqae. Thanrie thought they were ugly as sin. "Holy F~~k, they look like someone was forcing a coyote and a ferret to cross-breed." Their movement was disjointed, but they were fast. Smaller than a coyote, bigger than a ferret, it wasn't a bad comparison. Mhyl personally thought they looked kinda cute in a strange way, but understood that everyone had their own tastes. Either way, cute or ugly, they weren't friendly.
"Rhyde, we need a safe resolution for this." Qheria was already moving to depend on expertise in order to deal with the situation. "Don't worry, the hills have a lot of these things living all over the place. We hold plenty of hunting parties to collect them, as their pelt is fairly useful and their meat isn't bad. They shouldn't be hard to deal with, and being outside just makes everything even easier." Rhyde explained the simplicity of the situation, but it made Lwyn a bit queasy. She had just figured out what meat she had used to make sandwiches. Lwyn still passed on the Elaethyx version, which got a reply from Mhyl. "Make sure then that everyone knows to at least not let anyone get bitten. If those things have any kind of illness, that could be a problem."
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All four girls were familiar with the English word "Rabies". They knew what needed to be done. Everyone drew weapons, as long as they had any. Qheria's double shields were ready, but Rhyde had prepared his own twin morning stars, the massive spiked spheres at the end of each looking considerably heavy. Zyuixqs drew his spear, taking a spot slightly behind, so that he could reach past but still meld with the defensive wall made by Rhyde and Qheria. Thanrie stood back with the rest of the elves, noticing that Yuxzn had himself drew a longbow as she herself drew her crescent blade. It reminded her of past bow usage in the group. Lwyn however was still carrying her crossbow, standing with Mhyl and Chyurae who were themselves weaponless. In a pinch, Mhyl could use her book, but she would have to get within biting range to use it.
The yheirqae charged, fangs ready to sink into flesh. Lwyn ejected a blade and threw it in an arc, spinning it so that it took out the front five who were standing side by side. Yuxzn nocked seven arrows at once, which passed through a total of fourteen. Lwyn took aim at this, going for a straight line effect, and shot through another five, and yet another five before Yuxzn could reload. Thanrie was in position, she threw her blade out, the chain ripping out behind the pack and then flailing back with a ripping velocity, shredding through another eight that crashed into a few of their peers, knocking a bunch more down. Some had finally reached their front lines, Qheria crashing into them with blunt force in a sweeping wave just as two morning stars crashed down upon others, sending them flying backwards and pushing several others away. Zyuixqs caught some of them escaping this onslaught, and swept at them with his glaive, tearing through them.
Even with their numbers, their foe was making no grounds, and was falling very quickly. The yheirqae at least had enough sense to know that they were being hunted and had themselves at a disadvantage, so they eventually fled back into the building. "Yheirqae are typically nocturnal, we probably woke them up. They have excellent night vision, so they will have us at a disadvantage if we follow." This was then still a problem.
"We still have a simple solution for this obvious problem. First, they will all flee if we can get the main doors open, because that cuts off the value of their current territory. To get in there, we just have to attack their keen senses, and it just so happens the situation we're in is perfect for that. On hunts, we've had to use a variety of tricks to fence in packs of Yheirqae due for slaughter. The most reliable trick for doing so is to depend on their disdain of amber-leaf smoke. It also happens that we have plenty of the same plant all around here, and plenty of equipment for controlled fires. However, we're going to need the humans to carry the smoke, elves are especially sensitive to the smell. Amber-leaf smoke is typically used as a sleep aid for people, being a bit too relaxing." Yuxzn provided Lwyn with even more information about the leaves she had used earlier. No wonder that tea was so soothing. Mhyl had at least conceded that the chances of a flame explosion would be negligible, after her own observations inside, but she would keep on watch for any updates to this.
The new plan was to have all the humans carry leaf-burning cages like makeshift lanterns, and make sure it stayed lit. Most of the elves would be carrying the supplies of wood and leaves for burning, but would have to keep a distance. Lwyn was to also keep a distance, along with the elves, not just for appearance sake, but also because there was no idea how good her sense of smell was. Everyone would still also have their weapons ready in case it was needed.
Qheria and Rhyde took the lead with the first two cages. Thanrie and Zyuixqs would make sure none would sneak up behind them. Lwyn and Yuxzn had the supplies for the front two, and also had weapons ready. Mhyl and Chyurae were helping supply their back lines. Ready to go, the eight of them returned to the interior.
"Lwyn, you have eyes at front. Remember that this is practically a warehouse. There will be a control room for unlocking the main doors, like a supervisor office. It will look central and important. We need to get there." Mhyl was using English, to make sure that the Terran terms were the most clear. Qheria also took account for this, Lwyn might have better vision, but she would be guiding them forwards, so she needed to go towards something that fit the same description. If she had planned the construction of this place, where would it be?
"Second floor, overseeing the main loading area, looking down on it. We need a set of stairs." Thanrie suddenly pitched in with an idea. Her conviction in her reply resounded with confidence. It wasn't a bad idea at least. They pressed forwards, the creatures of the shadow hissing at them in disdain of the smells being offered to them. The room was filled with interesting things, but they had bigger worries than investigating. It would become their prize later.
"Qheria, forward along the right wall, that looks like stairs." Lwyn came through with her vision, though Qheria couldn't see it at all still. The smoke made seeing things in this horrible light even worse. They kept pressing forwards, and eventually Qheria found what Lwyn was talking about. The stairwell went up along the wall, providing only railing at their right side. They climbed up, Thanrie and Zyuixqs working hard to discourage those trying to follow them. They kept going, until the whole thing suddenly ended in a door.
"Oh great, it's locked." Qheria passed back the information in English, which quickly got translated for her. She then scolded her split decision making, realizing that it would have been more efficient to use Izhaethyx and have that just translated into Elaethyx. She had gotten used to mostly using English for this kind of thing. However, they had another problem to worry about. Chyurae could probably unlock the door, but being an elf had to keep his distance from the smoke. However, this also put him outside of the protection of the smoke. Chyurae started at work at the door, but suffered a dizzy spell that almost had him fall over. Qheria backed off further as Mhyl caught him. Lwyn got her crossbow ready, prepared to shoot anything that might try to take advantage of this small opening in their line of defense.
Eventually, Chyurae got the door unlocked, which opened slightly to snarls on the other side. He slammed the door shut again, and Qheria motioned for the two elves to step behind their smoke screen. Taking the lead again, Qheria herself opened the door, which fortunately was still unlocked. The creatures behind sprawled away, smelling the smoke suddenly. They were free to continue once again. They pressed onward until Lwyn passed forwards some Izhaethyx information. "There is a very suspicious room up ahead, left of the fork."
Qheria arrived at the destination to find a door, this one wasn't locked. She opened the door, and found no snarling at the other side. It was however much darker. "We need a light in this room." Qheria passed her request before shifting to English. "Mhyl, Lwyn, keep an eye out for switches or more foes. This is getting really hard to see in." Mhyl was also starting to look tired, but gave her report. "The room is clear of these things, I guess they didn't like it much, or they couldn't get in."
Thanrie was checking the wall behind the door, when the others heard a click and a familiar hiss. The neon-like gasses here were activated, the room lit up, actually brighter than the other places. Zyuixqs moved to close the door, thinking to secure the room, but Lwyn stopped him. "Don't, that will trap all the smoke in here." Zyuixqs opened the door again as per her request, but then also stepped outside. Putting smoke in the room wasn't helping, it was more useful outside. Thanrie went to join him.
Mhyl stared at the controls in the room, nothing making sense to her. She turned her confusion to Lwyn, who shook her head. The controls weren't labelled in a language, making everything really hard to read. Mhyl thought about it, then understood. It wasn't in a language because it needed to be simple. The strokes and labels were designed to be visuals instead of words, like some kind of pictographic system. She went over the layout and found the most central option on the list. It depicted a shuttered gate. She lifted that switch up.
Life flowed within the room as a mechanism was activated. This caused even more disturbance for the creatures hiding around, as it was very loud and unexpected. Then, sunlight begun to creep into the area, gradually filling it. The main doors were opening. The room filled with people cheering and creatures hissing. As the light flooded the area, the yheirqae decided to flee. They flooded over the hills outside and disappeared.
Rhyde was the first to congratulate everyone for a hard work well done. "Well, that's that. We should still be careful, just in case, but yheirqae are pack animals and territorial. They would have ALL left together, and would not have welcomed any other creatures in their home while here. However, they might very well return after nightfall. We should be sure to leave before the sun sets, just in case. However, after all that hard work, we should stop for a break. We can look into everything after a lunch, which should give enough time for all the smoke we through around to clear out as well.
The eight of them went outside, leaving time for the smoke to clear. They all feasted upon the lunch that Mhyl had prepared for them, as they rested and relaxed.