Lain to Waste [Open]

[Valcrist]

"It's fine, if that was rambling, well I don't even want to know what I do." Valcris grinned. He was feeling strangely positive today, it was a change of pace from his usual state of mind of general apathy. The smith wasn't really beamining, but he was smiling a little bit wider today. He looked over to the man who had decided to come down to earth with the rest of the land walking peasants, giving a shrug. "I've slept in worse situations. The bed was made out of straw and kept jabbing me in the back all night, and the neighbors in the room next over were having a 'fun night', but mostly it was alright. Sleeping in armor isn't really good for you though, or good for your armor. Also it's kinda gross. Then again if I was wearing expensive armor in a place that looked like you'd be mugged for having two gold pieces to rub together, keeping it close isn't a bad idea. Plus it makes it that much harder to stab you in your sleep." He raised a finger with a smile.

On the ground besides him was a pack, it was large but not comically so like old one, but it was definitely a good deal larger then the average traveler's pack. Notably weapons were strapped onto the sides making it look a bit like a mobile armory. It was mostly just raw materials and a few personal items. It was pretty heavy, but he was more then accustomed to it by now. Notable was the axe and spears he had crafted for the man. "I have your items ready, if you wanna hash out a price. I was thinking 2000 for the lot."

[Eren]

"So the Spears and the Killing Axe, hmm? May I?" Eren looked at the craftmanship, careful not to touch the items yet until he'd purchased them. Some smiths were very picky. Valcrist didn't seem like that type, but after all, it was better safe than sorry. The spears were superbly wrought, and looked finely tuned, with razor-sharp edges and wicked points. And the axe had vicious serrations, perfect for rending armor and flesh alike. Valcrist's items were truly top-tier. Eren was fortunate to have found the man.

"I think that 2000 might even be underwhelming, Valcrist. These look like they're absolutely superior to any other weapons I've seen. You truly have a lot of skill and expertise in your craft. I'll tell you what. I really appreciate your efforts for me, so I'll pay you 3000 for these, and I'll come to you with any other needs in the future. These are impeccable. I'm truly lucky to have such finely made weapons. How long did they take you, anyway?"

Eren loosened one plate of his armor and retrieved the larger of his two purses. It contained 3000 gold and a few nuts and bolts from when he had tried to repair his armor back when he was on active duty. Luckily, he found a better smith then as well, who fixed up the large crack into a fastenable panel, pefect for storing money bags or medicines.

"Here is your gold, sir, and a few nuts and bolts. Maybe a rivet or two." Eren chuckled, and held the gold out to the smith. He felt overjoyed at the great fortune he'd had.

[Valcrist]

"3000? You do know haggling is supposed to go in the other direction, right?" His eyes opened a bit wide, surprised by the sudden gushing and complimenting and the significant increase over the asking price. Honestly he was doing it for cost of the materials alone, and wasn't planning on making a profit from it at all, looks like Eren was the type to throw money around. Hey, no skin off of his nose. "Well, that coupled with your heart touching flattery, I'd say you've just become one of my favorite customers." With a grin he took the gold offered, and didn't even really bother counting it. He doubted that the guy would rip him off considering they were traveling together, it might make things awkward otherwise. Assuming he didn't just take off right now. That would be a LOT of effort to put into it though, so he wasn't worried. He put the gold into his pack and took off the axe first, it didn't take much time to unfasten but axes were always kind of awkward when it came to putting them away. At least with swords there's scabbards and with spears only a small part of it was pointy.

"Hrm, the spears didn't take too long, just last night really. Though I had to buy some materials from the smith that lives here, I didn't have enough packed with me. Then again if I did I'd probably have a hard time moving." Valcrist casually spoke as he undid the fastening and pulled the axe off of his pack. He handed the axe off to the man before moving to the spears. "Of course making a bundle of javelin-like spears isn't as difficult as forging a custom made weapon like that axe, that took me a whole day. Shaping the steel into that particular shape, it requires a bit more care and a more steady hand. Then there was some requests made specifically for that weapon, so I had to take time to work on that as well. Then I spent a few hours sharpening the blade to a ridiculously fine point, be careful with it by the way. It'll probably melt right through flesh with little resistance, so you might wanna take care carrying it." He continued to speak while he gathered the bundle of spears one by one. "If you need a quiver for these, I got one. I'll throw it in for free since you're already paying well above the asking price."

He didn't even really wait for the man to reply as he got the quiver he spoke about, and slipped the spears inside. Then once they were all together, he handed the bundle to the man.

[Eren]

"That would be wonderful, thank you." Eren quickly attached the quiver and axe to his armor, nodding in satisfaction at the new weapons. Drawing the axe, he stepped back and gave it a few swings, marveling at its fine balance and manageable weight. Reattaching it to his armor, he took out a spear, raised it to throwing position, and gave a few faux throws to get a feel for their heft. They were fine weapons. Valcrist was truly a superior smith.

"Ho there!" The heavyset merchant was riding down the middle of the lane, sitting on the seat of a covered wagon drawn by a four-horse team. Eren couldn't see what cargo was inside, but to require four horses implied either that the cargo was heavy, the merchant wanted to go fast, or that he needed to overcompensate. Any of the three were possible. "Are you the protection? Some protection. Whatever. Let's go, then? Capitalize on the daylight and all of that. Come on, hop up."

Eren nodded, turning back to Valcrist. "That's our cue to leave, I suppose. Do you want to ride with the wagon? Otherwise, I'm sure Mika could fit one extra..." Eren turned his head and motioned to the wyvern, who was still sitting on the building roof, washing herself. Mika, seeing Eren's signal, moved in and landed gently beside the wagon, causing Gunther to jump up and hold his sword out in such a comically awkward pose that Eren couldn't help wincing. It would be up to him... Well, and Valcrist, if the man could fight, which he hadn't exactly made crystal clear to him... to defend the cargo from any raids or whatnot. Great.

[Valcrist]

"W-with you?" Valcrist took a step back with wide eyes, looking at the wyvern rider, and then the mount. He smiled nervously, chuckling in an insincere way. "N-no, that's fine. I can ride in the wagon." He kept an eye on the wyvern as he backed up, scratching the back of his neck with a nervous laugh. It seemed silly by Valcrist wasn't... well he wasn't great with them. Heights, that is. Being on a building isn't that bad, it usually doesn't bother him, but the thought of flying in the air fills him with a sort of dread. What if he fell off? All that sky between him and that ground, he mentally shuddered at the thought. He's never actually been on a wyvern, so maybe he was just worrying over nothing, but he prefered to keep both of his feet on the ground if that was alright. He didn't like boats either for that matter. Maybe he was just a dirt kind of guy.

"I'll be rooting for you. Down here. On the ground. Keep us safe." He held a thumbs up to the rider with a goofy grin before picking up his pack and taking a seat in the back of the wagon. There was quite a few horses, and oh gosh this was going to go horribly wasn't it? He could feel it coming, that "everythings just gonna crash and go so south they might as well be in Bern" type feeling. Hopefully he was wrong.

[Eren]

Eren's eyebrow raised as Valcrist practically ran away from Mika, muttering something about the ground and safety. Mika never dropped anybody... Well, there was that one time... But that was beside the point. Either way, they had to go. He'd be ready for anything that happened, although he couldn't imagine what could go wrong. Hopping on Mika, he took to the skies and soared on the air currents, watching the wagon below as Mika skillfully used the thermals to glide, without expending much energy at all. Although the landscape was bleak and desolate, the sun was warm and the air was gentle. A flier couldn't ask for much more.

Surveying the ground, Eren noticed that the wagon was moving at quite the decent clip. It was, altogether, to be expected of four horses, although Eren was puzzled at the need for such haste. He could barely make out Valcrist's form at the rear, and Gunther with the horses as the wagon rumbled onward. The flat surroundings would make it easy to see any attackers, so Eren felt secure and safe. Ostia was ugly, but at least there wouldn't be any surprises waiting to leap out.

Eren reached into a saddlebag and took out a loaf of sourdough bread. Using his axe blade, he sawed off a chunk and began to munch contentedly as the countryside slipped by.

[Valcrist]

You know, for a completely unsuspicious and unassuming fellow, this whole situation was a little suspicious. Of course for Valcrist that wasn't particularly surprising, he had a bad habit of getting caught up in situations like that. Still it wasn't anything to worry about, he always wound up fine. More or less at least. So instead of sitting there and worrying about the inevitable, because it was inevitable something would happen, he decided to... Well relax wouldn't be the right word. It was a bit hard to relax with the bumping and shaking and jostling of the wagon caused by it moving at such a clip. It was like the man was trying to get there in as little time as possible, Valcrist almost felt bad for the horses. Then again this place wasn't that welcoming looking, so he was having a hard time shedding tears over leaving it. Just give him some time though, he was sure he could work something up. Regardless, it wasn't something to worry about.

He needed to try and find something to fill this empty time with, he was an antsy fella, he had a hard time just sitting around and doing nothing. It was part of the reason he left home in the first place, he couldn't stand being bored. So he pulled out a boot from his pack, he hasn't exactly took the time to read in quite some time, it was depressing really. He used to love doing that when he was younger, it was just one of those hobbies he didn't really have time for anymore since he didn't have the time he used to. Now that he was traveling and fighting and smithing more, he barely had time to keep drawing. Only he couldn't really draw anything right now with all the bumps and jumps of this wagon, he'd make a mess and get charcoal or ink everywhere.

The book wasn't anything particularly spectacular or anything, it was a collection of folk tales from Lycia. He liked old stories like this, it was the sort of thing that convinced him to leave home in the first place, tales of heroes and such. It was fascinating to him. Everyone knew the big seven, but there's been many heroes since then that sometimes get lost in between. He's never wanted fame, if anything he actively avoids it, it just felt like the people in these stories were simply unreal. Unattainable. Something other than human that no one could possible ever reach. He's lost this almost starry eyed worship of them long ago, and that made him sort of sad. That he could never look upon these figures with the same sort of childlike wonder he once had. Some part of him just... died. It was a part of growing up to be sure, but he missed it all the same.

He craned his neck up from his book, looking at the wyvern high above. He felt a little intimidated, and happy he didn't ride with him. That would have been uncomfortable, even more so then this wagon that jostled over every rock in all of Ostia.

[Eren]

"What...What...Mika, girl, what on earth?!" Eren guessed he must have dozed off for a second, as the countryside looked unfamiliar. More trees now, and the ground looked a bit dank and damp. It smelled bad, too. "Okay, girl. Let's get a bit lower. Maybe the stench will dissipate."

The Dragon Knight stowed his bread, checked his weapons and saddlebags, and then spurred Mika into a descent. As they got lower, Eren saw something very disturbing. There appeared to be a roadblock a ways up the road, but it was getting nearer. There were humanlike forms. Bandits? Why would they approach from the front? Upon further investigation, there were more. Coming out of the trees, and coming from behind. Was it an ambush? How was it so complete? As Eren rode desperately downward, he saw a ring of about twenty closing in, five from each direction. They looked like bandits. But he saw none of the telltale signs of weapons. No glints, and no noises. No intimidating shouts.

As Eren leveled off, twenty meters above the wagon, the reality of the situation became abundantly clear. They were surrounded not with bandits, but... Corpses. Corpses that resembled bandits. Some carried clubs, others rusted and dull axes. A few had broken or bent swords.

"Oh, damn. What the hell are these fiends? Bandits? Some sort of trick to fool us?"

Swooping down almost level with the wagon, Eren roared out a challenge as he raised one of Valcrist's spears.

"I am Eren Barrata! Halt, bandit scum, lest I wipe you off the face of Elibe!"

The mystery men just kept coming. And groaning, too. Eren heard the occasional groan. Turning to the wagon, Eren spoke quickly and urgently, a note of anxiety present in his tone. "Hey, Valcrist? Do you have any idea... what these guys are? They're a little... Unnerving. Can I kill them?"

[Valcrist]

"Ugh. Smells awful out here." Valcrist complained to his self. Scrunching up his face as a foul smell wafted to him on the winds. It smelled like... rotting meat. A smell he was familiar with, meat rotted very quickly in the desert. Rotting meat, that couldn't be a good sign. He closed his book and tucked it away. He wasn't sure what was going to happen, but he felt like something was. It wasn't very comforting, he's heard stories of course, after all he wasn't heading to Ostia without doing a little looking in to things. He hoped it was just a rotting carcass somewhere, and not what he feared it might be. Of course Valcrist was the type of person that viewed things as always going the absolute worst they can go, and while he's occasionally right, he was more often then not wrong. Still, never stopped him from assuming the worst.

Valcrist was right it seems. Crap. The wagon slowed as Eren swooped down on his flying lizard and began to shout at something. In the distance Valcrist could pick out some figures, but they weren't close enough to really make out in any detail. The smith sighed and groaned and moaned and all other sorts of things the conveyed his annoyance at this situation. He brandished a spear and threatened them, but that wouldn't really help if they were what Valcrist assumed they were. Predictably, he swooped down to near where Valcrist sat while the smith was getting his self prepared. He looked... well freaked out was probably the closest word.

Valcrist grabbed his bow and a quiver of arrows and looked at the man who was asking him a question. "They're the undead. As such, they aren't very intimidated by you. They're crawling all over Ostia and Laus, I'm surprised you've never heard of them." He cocked his head and let out a low groan. Valcrist didn't know a whole lot about these actually, he's fought doomwolves, but for the most part he wasn't familiar with the undead. He was more trained to fight living things mostly. "Yes you can kill them, in fact I implore you to." The smith hopped out of the back with his bow in hand. He didn't want to have to fight, but he wasn't going to get himself killed just because he was lazy. At this distance a bow was good, when they got closer he'd use his sword.

He notched an arrow and pulled the string taut, taking a deep breath and calming his self. He wasn't the best archer still, but he was confident he'd get at least a few shots to hit their mark. These things moved slowly but in jerky random movements, it made aiming both easy and difficult. He launched an arrow and it shot through the distance flying and impaling itself into the chest of one of the creatures, it made no signs of slowing. Valcrist let out a small groan. Feeling both proud for hitting it, and bad that it basically did nothing.

[Eren]

"Well, if I can kill them.. Then I will!"

Eren watched the blacksmith take out a bow, aiming and firing fluidly and striking the undead thing full in the chest. Bingo, that would take care of... Oh, sweet Hartmut. An arrow didn't even slow it down. Well.. Time for a charge. If these guys were dead, were they smart?

"WYVERN GUY, DO SOMETHING!" Gunther screamed, his sword held straight out like a sign. Eren rolled his eyes. He certainly wouldn't be doing anything to help...

"Okay, Valcrist. I'm going to go for the ones coming from the sides, since they're closest!"

The Dragon Knight stared down an undead, aiming, and then hurled the spear, allowing his military training to kick in. The weapon shot like an arrow, straight and true, and slammed through the chest of one of the fiends. The force knocked it over, but as it writhed and lumbered to its feet, Eren had already swung into motion. Mika dove, her mouth open in a screech, as Eren held another like he would a lance and slammed the creature in the head. Suddenly, it keeled over, not moving at all, and the surprised Eren took the opportunity to retrieve the spear he'd impaled it with.

With a jolt, Mika spun, her fangs piercing the nearest undead as her jaws snapped closed, crunching on the bones of the corpse. But the wyvern spit the re-killed man out, spitting and shaking her head in disgust. Seems they tasted about as good as they smelled. With only three left on this side, Eren made a calculated decision. Valcrist used ranged weapons, it seemed, and he was tackling the ones bearing down from the front. That left three sides.

"Okay. Valcrist, you can take the ones in front. They can be killed. Gunther, you guard the back." Leaping off of Mika onto the ground, Eren pulled out his new axe as he finished his plan. "Mika! Go get them, girl!" The wyvern tore away toward the right side of the wagon, leaving Eren to guard the left. Three undead. They didn't look like much of a challenge to him.

[Valcrist]

"I'll keep... annoying them, I guess." The smith smirked as Eren went off to try and fight them. The other guy screamed something and the 'wyvern guy' appeared to be doing something, but Valcrist wasn't paying attention. He was focused on firing his arrows, one after the next. The creature began to resemble a pincushion more then anything else, or a porcupine. Or some other thing with a lot of pointy things poking out, Val was really low on references. He retrieved another arrow from his quiver and put it in position, then while he took a deep breath he pulled the string back. He held the breath as he aimed at the figures in the distance, so that his breathing and movement wouldn't mess up his shot, he just focused and stayed as still as a statue. He let the breath go only when he let the arrow fly, it whistling through the air and landing itself directly in the arrow filled corpses' brainpan. Some gross juices gushed from the wound as the thing slowed and stopped, just sort of... slumping down onto the ground. Like it lost all momentum and just crumpled into itself. Compared to his other shots, this was the only one to actually have an effect. A very big effect at that, mind you, he expected it to flinch or something but nope. It was all or nothing with these beasts, unflinching or outright dying.

He pumped his arm with a big grin. Mouthing an 'oh yeah', feeling all proud of himself. Of course that was only one out of, what, five? Yeesh. He wasn't exactly an archer, aiming for their heads would be difficult. The way they moved only made it more so with how they lurched and spasmed.

Eren came back at told Valcrist to take care of the ones in front. "Well now, a good mercenary wouldn't be making his employer fight." He chuckled. He nodded all the same. "Gotcha." Valcrist took his bow for a moment, thinking. Hrm... Maybe... Nah. He retrieved another arrow and pulled it back, he would try to use his archery as best as possible. He needed practice after all, and what better practice was there then actual battle?

They were drawing nearer, slowly but surely. That didn't intimidate the nabatan the slightest however, these things smelled awful but he didn't find them frightening. Gross more than anything really, they looked like bloated corpses. They were wearing some sort of makeshift armor and wielding rusted broken weapons, it made the smith inside him cry to see weapons in such condition. Luckily none of them were wearing helmets, THAT would be a pain. He fired another arrow, this one right in the thigh, piercing all the way through. Gross. He continued to fire arrow after arrow, not exactly being the pinnacle of excitement, but it was effective enough.

[Eren]

Eren stood firm, axe in hand, as the three undead lumbered toward him. Not a thread. One had a clublike... Wait, that was a shovel. One had a shovel. Would it be purely wishful thinking to ask it to bury the other corpses again? The second was wearing armor that appeared to be a historical artifact, it was so old, ratty, and grime covered. And the last one... had nothing. An easy job for the former soldier.

Moving in, Eren swung his axe in a quick arc to trip up the gravedigger, grunting in slight surprise when it jumped over the strike and stabbed forward with its lance...shovel. Quickly moving to the side, Eren chopped at its head, intending to finish the creature before the others got too close. Again, the thing blocked him. In anger and frustration, Eren grabbed the shovel haft and slammed his axe into its face, finally eliciting the splorsh of cerebral mush as the creature fell, releasing its grip on the lance/shovel.

Eren tossed the shovel to the side, spinning his axe and beginning to hack at the armor-wearing undead. An arm... A leg... How was the damn thing still standing? Eren avoided the other arm's flailing as he moved to the side and struck it off, following up with a chop that left the undead wiggling on the ground, with no limbs.

"You stay there for now. I'll be back to examin you lat-hey!"

The other undead had jumped onto the Dragon Knight's back in the meantime, and was causing quite the ruckus. "Stop drooling on my armor, you...you... rotten corpse!" Suddenly, the weight was lifted off of his shoulders with a crunch as Mika's jaws lifted the creature off and deposited the motionless lump at his feet. "Thanks, Mika. All right, let's ride!"

A quick glance down at the battlefield revealed the five still advancing from the south, two still on Mika's side, and Eren's torso and head he'd kept 'alive' for observation later. Valcrist was busy using the front undead as target dummies, and seemed to be doing quite well... Where to strike next?

[Valcrist]

Oh shoot, oh man, they were getting closer. This wasn't really that useful. At least he was hitting things though, he needed to remember to feel good about himself later. It isn't easy to learn a skill from the ground up, and while he's not a crack shot, he's managing to get the reins on archery quite well. Thank you Wein. If they happen to meet again, he'll have to make sure to tell him. Still he took down one, that left four. They were getting close enough that it was prudent to make a change in his choice of attack. So he put his bow away on his back next to his quiver and as he reached down to his waist. On his hip were three separate swords, he also had his knife hidden away if he needed it. That, plus his bow, he looked way over armed for any merchant to reasonably be.

There was his scimitar, a light cutting weapon capable of many quick strikes in a row. It was very sharp, but it lacked the weight to push through heavier armor and it's shape made it poor and thrusting. It was great on slow, unarmored foes such as these. He dubbed the blade 'Sunder' and he pulled the weapon from it's leather binding. It was the second blade on his right side, below Fang. On his left was his windsword, much larger than the other two, it's size and weight meant it was best offsetting the other two, to help him keep his balance. One might think having so much steel on his person would weigh and slow him down, but the smith had long since gotten used to the weight. If it wasn't Fang, it was his lance reaving blade, and he's had his windsword for so long now it was like second nature to him.

He took a deep breath as he gripped the hilt of the blade with both hands. He took a step, slow and measured. He began to walk toward the creatures, then he moved faster, the even faster. By the time he was sprinting he completely cleared the distance between him and the creatures, such slow and sluggish beast had absolutely no chance to catch him. By the time their atrophied arms swung their ancient weapons, Valcrist was not only no longer there but had cleaved their skull in one clean cut. The blade sung as it sliced through the air at an unseeable speed, the smith holding it pivoting on the spot and not even bothering to watch as the creature fell to the ground slain as he destroyed another mere moments later. He sprung from the spot, like a coiled spring and charged at the third, the scimitar sundering the flesh of the beast just as it's namesake implied, the rotten flesh almost melting in contact with the razor blade. Finally he ended the final creature in one final swing of the blade, all four monsters destroyed with four swings of the blade. The speed of his weapon was undeniable, if these creatures had been armored however thing may not have went so easily. They all fell to the ground shortly after the other. Black acrid blood coated the smith's blade, leaving the man groaning. They smelled as foul dead as they did alive. He just hoped the smell didn't linger.

[Eren]

Gunther had moved toward the two undead remaining from the side, as Eren and Mika charged quickly to protect the back of the wagon. Wyvern and Rider attacked in tandem, Mika's flying tail whipping two undead over, and Eren finishing them off with a Spear in each of their heads. The splashing brain fluids and moans of the re-dying un-dead were a cacophonous racket, and the Dragon Knight just wished it could be over already. What an awful stench, by Hartmut!

Mika's fierce claws finished off another one of the fiends, as Eren stabbed madly at the remaining two, a spear in each hand. They both had what appeared to be rakes or pitchforks, or some sort of farming implement, and were mindlessly trying to poke him with them as earnestly as he was trying to poke them. The dance of stabbing finally ended when the Dragon Knight, sick of trying to outmaneuver the two, hastily parried one's stab and began stabbing it repeatedly all over with his spears. The other one advanced, groaning, and Eren took the opportunity to pick up the pitchfork and hurl it at the creature, watching in frustration as it spun and harmlessly bonked the thing in the shoulder. Luckily, Mika was there to finish the job.

Turning back to the remaining threat, Eren saw Gunther poking cowardly at one unarmed revenant, finally managing to muster the courage to slice its head off. One danger left. Eren picked up a spear and threw it, marveling at how straight and true the projectile flew. Bullseye.

"Well, that finishes up that wonderful experience." Retrieving his spear, Eren began cleaning them and his axe as he walked over to the limbless one he'd kept alive. "Valcrist, how much do you know about these things? This one's still alive, even without limbs..."

[Valcrist]

"Ech." He made a disgusted face as he pulled out a soiled cloth from the inside of his coat, his blades got messy. A lot. Somehow he ran into trouble often. He also retrieved the arrows he fired, well most of them. Some he missed and they were so off mark they probably went into the woods somewhere. Point is, not use wasting good arrows. He was rubbing Sunder with the bloodied cloth, when Eren came up to speak to him. It seemed that the other ones had been taken care of, good. It was nice to not have to do everything himself. "About these things? Not a whole lot. There's this group called silver... something in Laus. I don't remember the name, but their symbol is a silver sword. Anyways they are specialists in fighting these things, and I met a few on my way to Ostia and learned a few basic things when they tried to warn me off." Valcrist explained, paying close attention to his blade as he cleaned it, holding it up into the light to get a better look.

"They're zombies. Or something, they have a weird name. Revawhatever. They're a creature that appears in dark magic lore, reanimated corpses but not born of actual flesh. It's like some kind of botched resurrection." After being sure the blade was clean, he sheathed the weapon back into it's leather scabbard. "Monsters basically, they're all over these days. I hear a lot of stories on my travels, but I'll admit this is the first one I've actually seen. I've ran into demonic wolves once though, long time ago, wasn't too far from here either... I wonder if the cave's still there?" He mused for a moment as he walked over to Eren, shaking his head. "Well I suppose it doesn't matter."

He crossed his arms as he reached the others, thinking. "You need to destroy their heads, or burn them, otherwise they don't actually die." He gestured at the wriggling corpse. He made a chopping motion with his hand. "A good clean slash should end it."