Don't worry, I am actually moving the plot along, its just you can't throw it in randomly, it makes no sense, everything has to have a reason for happening and that's the bloody hard part, I must have read back through this story at least 20 times already, and some smart ass will still be pointing out the mistakes I have made (I'm betting on Erith's brother)
Crimson fired rapidly at Grishdal's arms but its armoured hide absorbed his shots. Alice was having similar luck throwing fireballs at it. Mei wasn't casting but attempting to engage in melee combat. Every time she got close she was forced to dodge backwards as one of the tentacles from the back of Grishdal's head lanced towards her. Magus was faring no better, his efforts at a close range offensive had simply resulted in the loss of one of his daggers as he had thrown it by pure reflex. It had flown true and struck the intended target right in the neck and was buried up to the hilt, but the wound drew no blood. Magus turned after avoiding another stabbing tendril and saw crimson firing ineffectually at the beasts arms.
"Hey!" Magus yelled "Don't be such an idiot, this isn't another hunter, it's a monster, shoot to kill." A tentacle swept magus' legs out from beneath him and only his martial arts training saving him from being impaled by the blow that came afterwards. A quick roll and a side slash and he was back on his feet. He looked at his blade, he knew he had cut that tentacle, but there was no blood anywhere, what kind of enemy was this?
"Well Jim it looks like these hunters came unprepared, nothing they have can even hurt Grishdal"
"That's right Bobba, you really have to congratulate doctor Robinson on his talent at genetic engineering."
After Magus' admonishment Crimson had changed his target and was now aiming at the monsters head. The effect was similar to before, except this time he attracted more attention. Using his sniper he vaulted over the arm that was swept towards him and landed lightly on his feet. This called for something more drastic. Madhu chirped and dropped a sphere into Crimsons hand.
Crimson didn't remember taking this along, it was still in development, which made it a seriously hazardous device. At about the size of a tennis ball it looked innocent enough, but inside it was a high explosive charge and a payload of super cooled photons. In theory when it exploded it would also freeze the affected area solid. There was no doubt that it would work but Crimson didn't know how wide an area it affected. A grenade with a blast radius that was greater than a hunter could throw one was no good at all. He handed it back to Madhu.
"It's a little too dangerous." He told his MAG who chirped dejectedly "How about an IDG?" Madhu cheered up instantly and materialised the requested device.
The IDG a weapon of Crimsons own devising. Impact Detonation Grenade, what was the point in a grenade if it just bounced off of the target? The trick was throwing it hard enough, unfortunately it had to impact at high speed for it to work, Crimson was working on a gun that would fire them, but until that was complete he had another idea in mind. While Grishdal was momentarily distracted by Tyra's attempts at a sneak attack Crimson ran over to Magus
"Take this" He instructed, pressing the grenade into Magus' hand "Throw it at the things head as hard as you can."
Magus nodded his compliance
"HEY UGLY!" He yelled, despite it not knowing English Grishdal turned to see the source of the noise. Magus slung the grenade and it struck Grishdal between the eyes with phenomenal force. The grenade detonated with a deafening bang and everyone shielded their face as wet chunks of gore splattered around the area. A weak cheer went up from the six hunters of the field. But celebration of any kind was premature. Grishdals decapitated body continued to flail its limbs and if anything it was angrier than before.
"This is absolutely unbelievable Bobba, you would have thought that losing its head would kill this thing, but it hasn't even slowed it down."
"Well Jim, according to the information on the internet, Grishdal doesn't have ANY brain at all, its cells work as a collective brain, all its got is a heart and lungs.
Crimson's jaw dropped in disbelief, how could it carry on living without a head? He ducked a random tentacle as it flew over head. Okay the thing was blind, in pain and swinging wildly, what now Crimson? Taking its head of didn't work, what else should you try? Nothing immediately sprang to mind.
Alice ducked one tentacle and jumped another. This was absolutely insane! If it could live without a head then what could possibly kill it? Grishdal's stampeding around the arena was causing tremors in the ground that made Alice feel more than a little queasy. A tendril shot out hurtling right towards her. Alice cast gibarta and moved out of the way in such a hurry that she stumbled and almost fell over. There was a dull cracking sound behind her and when she turned and looked there was a frozen end to a tentacle stuck in the ground.
Where was Mei? Alice looked around for the girl, she couldn't be too hard to spot, half her clothes were bright blue. Alice saw her dodging tentacles a small distance away, her hammer not doing any damage at all.
"Mei!" Alice called, then cleared her throat, he voice was not well adapted for shouting "Use ice techniques, they hurt it!"
Mei nodded and began casting ice techniques at the beasts feet, they were having noticeable effect so she persevered. She was concentrating too deeply on casting to notice the huge arm that swung round at her. Mei was lifted from the ground and slammed violently into the wall. She disappeared without a trace, Alice hoped she was okay.
"Oh ouch! That poor girl! This is why we always have a team on skilled medics on standby. Mei Lung should be fighting fit by tomorrow folks."
"I don't know about that Bobba, many people wouldn't even survive that sort of impact, and what the hell is going on in that arena? It looks like Mr Black isn't taking the loss of his ally very well at all."
"You got that right Jim, you can almost see his anger floating around him. Maybe Mr Black and Mei Lung are an item? I would certainly be mad at Grishdal if he put my sweetheart through a wall."
Magus wasn't angry. He was beyond anger, beyond rage, and yet he wasn't too sure why, he kept telling himself to calm down, that there was no reason to act like this. But he wasn't listening. His fury continued to build until it was almost a physical manifestation. He knew this was dangerous but didn't care.
Somewhere in the darkness something stirred from its eternal rest, it could see Magus clearly, despite the lack of light. It reached out and touched his mind and Magus welcomed it, his own little demon.
Crimson and Alice backed away slowly, they didn't know exactly what was going on, but they knew they were scared by it. Tyra and her android however had not noticed and were still fighting on the other side of Grishdal. How could they not see it? Magus was now floating about three foot off the floor a strange type of energy, seemingly photonic, swirled around him. Then suddenly he dropped to the floor, landing with one knee bent. He stood up and there seemed to be nothing of the usual Magus left. He opened his eyes and instead of the usual deep brown they were pits of pure black. Darker than the night sky, darker than oblivion itself, they appeared more as holes in the very fabric of the universe. Magus spoke and the voice was not his own.
"All shall suffer darkness and death, all shall know the true depths of despair, all shall know my pain!"
It was somehow as if Magus' voice was being reflected by a cracked mirror, many tiny fragments of a larger whole. Upon hearing his voice Grishdal turned to face him, an arm thrust itself at Magus.
He caught it with one hand and severed the end with the other. Magus advanced on Grishdal, brushing aside its blows as one might brush aside a rather persistent insect. Eventually he stood an arms distance from the creature. He spread his arms out at his side and lifted from the floor until he was at chest height with Grishdal.
Magus drew back his fist and attacked swiftly, his hand seemed surrounded by a hazy smoke as it arced through the air. Where it struck Grishdal there was a burst of flame and the beast stumbled backwards, a huge bloody hole appearing where the blow had landed.
Magus pressed the attack in a furious rage, his limbs all a blur as he struck again and again, each blow causing flames and injury, an acrid smoke filled the air as flesh burned. When the blows ceased to land there was nothing left of Grishdal's upper body, it had been beaten to a useless pulp. Even the resilient beast could not operate with such a wound and it fell backwards defeated.
There was no cheering this time, even at Grishdal's assured death, there was only silence as Magus stood in the centre of the arena, exuding an aura of darkness that flowed around him, giving him the look of a man underwater. Tyra was the first to speak.
"What kind of freak are you?" She demanded of Magus, how could she be so stupid as to challenge him in such a manner? Impudent wench.
Magus smiled as he responded in that shattered voice that now belonged to him "A freak you call me? A freak they all call me. Humiliation and exile, ridicule and torment, yes. I have suffered them all. But I will suffer no more! Now it is the turn of others to suffer, suffer like I was forced to do, suffer like you all made me!"
With inhuman speed he closed the gap between himself and Tyra. With horrible strength he dealt her a mighty blow. The sound of her ribs snapping filled the arena, punctuating the silence like an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence. She didn't even hit the ground as she was teleported to the hospital, not that any amount of healing could ever fully repair the damage done.
Her android ran at Magus in a full charge, roaring mightily as he swung his partisan. Magus did not even block the attack. When the blade of the partisan contacted with the aura surrounding Magus it was simply extinguished. Magus jabbed with his palm out flat. The android flew backwards in a straight line and smashed into the side of the arena some 60 feet away. He would never get up again.
Now Magus turned his attention to the two remaining hunters. The force girl and the gun wielder. They too would pay for his torment. He could see that the girl was crying. Crying in fear for her life, how pathetic. A thought flashed across Magus' mind, what did these two have to do with his pain? Nothing, they had nothing to do with it. But that was another crime, they stood by and did nothing. But that wasn't their fault, they didn't know him back then, they didn't know he was in pain. Ignorance, was that not the greatest crime of all?
In a twinkling he had crossed the arena to stand before the cowering pair. The gun wielder stood between him and the girl, he aimed no weapons, but yet he was in the way. He wished to die first? So be it. Was that really alright? Did he deserve to die for wanting to protect someone? Magus could find no answer to that. He faltered for a moment. Crimson took this moment to speak.
"I don't know what's going on in your head right now, but you need to think, you say you've been in pain? You say you've suffered? Do you really think that hurting others will take that away? You can't get rid of it like that, it just spreads it like a disease."
"Silence pathetic being!" Magus roared and dealt Crimson a backhand blow that sent him spinning into the dirt.
Crimson staggered to his feet "The more people you kill the worse you'll feel, death cannot solve anything."
"I commanded your silence, OBEY ME!" Magus thrust and hand out and a part of his shimmering aura lanced towards Crimson, striking him through the side. A resta technique from Alice healed the damage.
"Does it help? Does it erase painfully memories? Or does it create more? Doesn't it just burn away at you just knowing that you caused someone else to suffer? And does it not help when you cause someone else to be happy?" Crimson coughed and blood spattered the arena floor.
Magus drew his fist back to strike once more, but something stopped him. The gun wielders words made sense, he could not transfer his own pain to others, he had to carry it by himself, upon thinking this he grew sad, sad that he had to bear this burden by himself, and as this sadness washed over him it cleansed him of his anger and pushed back the darkness. Magus suddenly returned to being himself once more. Just as he was aware of his return to self, he collapsed face first into the sand, his body and mind too punished to function properly.
The person in the rafters smiled to herself, so? A disciple of the oni-ken school of martial arts? She thought she had seen to the last of them quite a number of years ago. But no matter, now he could be very useful to the cause, the dark one was always recruiting new servants, and he had grown particularly insistent as of late. Like a shadow the figure flitted across the roof, she had to go and monitor the other candidate.
Raven had neither slept nor eaten in the past day, It commanded all of his attention.
"So strange" He murmured to It "You call to me somehow, and yet I don't know why."
Raven stared at it intently, it was most definitely alive, he was sure of that. It had a heartbeat, it had eyes it had flesh and most likely blood. It also had sentience, perhaps. Was it sentience behind those ever roving eyes? No, not really, it was more like purpose. That was it, this thing had a purpose, some sort of drive. But what? Raven grabbed it by the hilt and lifted it from the floor, he could feel its energy beneath his hand. It was so big and yet weighed almost nothing. He locked gaze with one of its eyes, it was entrancing, pulling him deeper and deeper into itself. Raven felt a flash of heat sear across his mind and he dropped the thing to the floor as if it were a venomous snake. Why had he wished for this most accursed blade? He had thought to own it, but slowly it was owning him.
"Curse you..." Raven whispered under his breath "curse you dragon slayer."
The dragon slayer blinked at him as it always did, but Raven knew it was concentrating all of its malicious will upon him. What would it be like to give in to it?
"What is it that you offer to me dragon slayer? What is this gift that my mind will not allow me to refuse?"
Power, that's what it was offering him, if he truly linked to the sword he would be unstoppable. And why not? Did he not have the right to command such power? He had every right. Why should he be forced to live the same existence as these other lowly hunters? No reason at all. This was his salvation and his birthright, he had wanted power, and now power came to him, there was no reason not to take it.
And so he did, placing both hands on the hilt he once more lifted the dragon slayer from the ground, and as he did the sword lifted him. It took him far beyond this mortal coil and elevated him to his true place. Raven smiled as the sword engulfed his soul and laughed as it swallowed his mind.
Holy mother of all cliffhangers batman! Mei is in hospital, Magus is losing it, Raven's soul is under attack, and that damned mysterious person is just hanging around. I really promise to update soon, it would be cruel to leave it like this for too long. On the other hand I could do with a two week break just kidding, I shall update in another couple of days.
Crimson fired rapidly at Grishdal's arms but its armoured hide absorbed his shots. Alice was having similar luck throwing fireballs at it. Mei wasn't casting but attempting to engage in melee combat. Every time she got close she was forced to dodge backwards as one of the tentacles from the back of Grishdal's head lanced towards her. Magus was faring no better, his efforts at a close range offensive had simply resulted in the loss of one of his daggers as he had thrown it by pure reflex. It had flown true and struck the intended target right in the neck and was buried up to the hilt, but the wound drew no blood. Magus turned after avoiding another stabbing tendril and saw crimson firing ineffectually at the beasts arms.
"Hey!" Magus yelled "Don't be such an idiot, this isn't another hunter, it's a monster, shoot to kill." A tentacle swept magus' legs out from beneath him and only his martial arts training saving him from being impaled by the blow that came afterwards. A quick roll and a side slash and he was back on his feet. He looked at his blade, he knew he had cut that tentacle, but there was no blood anywhere, what kind of enemy was this?
"Well Jim it looks like these hunters came unprepared, nothing they have can even hurt Grishdal"
"That's right Bobba, you really have to congratulate doctor Robinson on his talent at genetic engineering."
After Magus' admonishment Crimson had changed his target and was now aiming at the monsters head. The effect was similar to before, except this time he attracted more attention. Using his sniper he vaulted over the arm that was swept towards him and landed lightly on his feet. This called for something more drastic. Madhu chirped and dropped a sphere into Crimsons hand.
Crimson didn't remember taking this along, it was still in development, which made it a seriously hazardous device. At about the size of a tennis ball it looked innocent enough, but inside it was a high explosive charge and a payload of super cooled photons. In theory when it exploded it would also freeze the affected area solid. There was no doubt that it would work but Crimson didn't know how wide an area it affected. A grenade with a blast radius that was greater than a hunter could throw one was no good at all. He handed it back to Madhu.
"It's a little too dangerous." He told his MAG who chirped dejectedly "How about an IDG?" Madhu cheered up instantly and materialised the requested device.
The IDG a weapon of Crimsons own devising. Impact Detonation Grenade, what was the point in a grenade if it just bounced off of the target? The trick was throwing it hard enough, unfortunately it had to impact at high speed for it to work, Crimson was working on a gun that would fire them, but until that was complete he had another idea in mind. While Grishdal was momentarily distracted by Tyra's attempts at a sneak attack Crimson ran over to Magus
"Take this" He instructed, pressing the grenade into Magus' hand "Throw it at the things head as hard as you can."
Magus nodded his compliance
"HEY UGLY!" He yelled, despite it not knowing English Grishdal turned to see the source of the noise. Magus slung the grenade and it struck Grishdal between the eyes with phenomenal force. The grenade detonated with a deafening bang and everyone shielded their face as wet chunks of gore splattered around the area. A weak cheer went up from the six hunters of the field. But celebration of any kind was premature. Grishdals decapitated body continued to flail its limbs and if anything it was angrier than before.
"This is absolutely unbelievable Bobba, you would have thought that losing its head would kill this thing, but it hasn't even slowed it down."
"Well Jim, according to the information on the internet, Grishdal doesn't have ANY brain at all, its cells work as a collective brain, all its got is a heart and lungs.
Crimson's jaw dropped in disbelief, how could it carry on living without a head? He ducked a random tentacle as it flew over head. Okay the thing was blind, in pain and swinging wildly, what now Crimson? Taking its head of didn't work, what else should you try? Nothing immediately sprang to mind.
Alice ducked one tentacle and jumped another. This was absolutely insane! If it could live without a head then what could possibly kill it? Grishdal's stampeding around the arena was causing tremors in the ground that made Alice feel more than a little queasy. A tendril shot out hurtling right towards her. Alice cast gibarta and moved out of the way in such a hurry that she stumbled and almost fell over. There was a dull cracking sound behind her and when she turned and looked there was a frozen end to a tentacle stuck in the ground.
Where was Mei? Alice looked around for the girl, she couldn't be too hard to spot, half her clothes were bright blue. Alice saw her dodging tentacles a small distance away, her hammer not doing any damage at all.
"Mei!" Alice called, then cleared her throat, he voice was not well adapted for shouting "Use ice techniques, they hurt it!"
Mei nodded and began casting ice techniques at the beasts feet, they were having noticeable effect so she persevered. She was concentrating too deeply on casting to notice the huge arm that swung round at her. Mei was lifted from the ground and slammed violently into the wall. She disappeared without a trace, Alice hoped she was okay.
"Oh ouch! That poor girl! This is why we always have a team on skilled medics on standby. Mei Lung should be fighting fit by tomorrow folks."
"I don't know about that Bobba, many people wouldn't even survive that sort of impact, and what the hell is going on in that arena? It looks like Mr Black isn't taking the loss of his ally very well at all."
"You got that right Jim, you can almost see his anger floating around him. Maybe Mr Black and Mei Lung are an item? I would certainly be mad at Grishdal if he put my sweetheart through a wall."
Magus wasn't angry. He was beyond anger, beyond rage, and yet he wasn't too sure why, he kept telling himself to calm down, that there was no reason to act like this. But he wasn't listening. His fury continued to build until it was almost a physical manifestation. He knew this was dangerous but didn't care.
Somewhere in the darkness something stirred from its eternal rest, it could see Magus clearly, despite the lack of light. It reached out and touched his mind and Magus welcomed it, his own little demon.
Crimson and Alice backed away slowly, they didn't know exactly what was going on, but they knew they were scared by it. Tyra and her android however had not noticed and were still fighting on the other side of Grishdal. How could they not see it? Magus was now floating about three foot off the floor a strange type of energy, seemingly photonic, swirled around him. Then suddenly he dropped to the floor, landing with one knee bent. He stood up and there seemed to be nothing of the usual Magus left. He opened his eyes and instead of the usual deep brown they were pits of pure black. Darker than the night sky, darker than oblivion itself, they appeared more as holes in the very fabric of the universe. Magus spoke and the voice was not his own.
"All shall suffer darkness and death, all shall know the true depths of despair, all shall know my pain!"
It was somehow as if Magus' voice was being reflected by a cracked mirror, many tiny fragments of a larger whole. Upon hearing his voice Grishdal turned to face him, an arm thrust itself at Magus.
He caught it with one hand and severed the end with the other. Magus advanced on Grishdal, brushing aside its blows as one might brush aside a rather persistent insect. Eventually he stood an arms distance from the creature. He spread his arms out at his side and lifted from the floor until he was at chest height with Grishdal.
Magus drew back his fist and attacked swiftly, his hand seemed surrounded by a hazy smoke as it arced through the air. Where it struck Grishdal there was a burst of flame and the beast stumbled backwards, a huge bloody hole appearing where the blow had landed.
Magus pressed the attack in a furious rage, his limbs all a blur as he struck again and again, each blow causing flames and injury, an acrid smoke filled the air as flesh burned. When the blows ceased to land there was nothing left of Grishdal's upper body, it had been beaten to a useless pulp. Even the resilient beast could not operate with such a wound and it fell backwards defeated.
There was no cheering this time, even at Grishdal's assured death, there was only silence as Magus stood in the centre of the arena, exuding an aura of darkness that flowed around him, giving him the look of a man underwater. Tyra was the first to speak.
"What kind of freak are you?" She demanded of Magus, how could she be so stupid as to challenge him in such a manner? Impudent wench.
Magus smiled as he responded in that shattered voice that now belonged to him "A freak you call me? A freak they all call me. Humiliation and exile, ridicule and torment, yes. I have suffered them all. But I will suffer no more! Now it is the turn of others to suffer, suffer like I was forced to do, suffer like you all made me!"
With inhuman speed he closed the gap between himself and Tyra. With horrible strength he dealt her a mighty blow. The sound of her ribs snapping filled the arena, punctuating the silence like an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence. She didn't even hit the ground as she was teleported to the hospital, not that any amount of healing could ever fully repair the damage done.
Her android ran at Magus in a full charge, roaring mightily as he swung his partisan. Magus did not even block the attack. When the blade of the partisan contacted with the aura surrounding Magus it was simply extinguished. Magus jabbed with his palm out flat. The android flew backwards in a straight line and smashed into the side of the arena some 60 feet away. He would never get up again.
Now Magus turned his attention to the two remaining hunters. The force girl and the gun wielder. They too would pay for his torment. He could see that the girl was crying. Crying in fear for her life, how pathetic. A thought flashed across Magus' mind, what did these two have to do with his pain? Nothing, they had nothing to do with it. But that was another crime, they stood by and did nothing. But that wasn't their fault, they didn't know him back then, they didn't know he was in pain. Ignorance, was that not the greatest crime of all?
In a twinkling he had crossed the arena to stand before the cowering pair. The gun wielder stood between him and the girl, he aimed no weapons, but yet he was in the way. He wished to die first? So be it. Was that really alright? Did he deserve to die for wanting to protect someone? Magus could find no answer to that. He faltered for a moment. Crimson took this moment to speak.
"I don't know what's going on in your head right now, but you need to think, you say you've been in pain? You say you've suffered? Do you really think that hurting others will take that away? You can't get rid of it like that, it just spreads it like a disease."
"Silence pathetic being!" Magus roared and dealt Crimson a backhand blow that sent him spinning into the dirt.
Crimson staggered to his feet "The more people you kill the worse you'll feel, death cannot solve anything."
"I commanded your silence, OBEY ME!" Magus thrust and hand out and a part of his shimmering aura lanced towards Crimson, striking him through the side. A resta technique from Alice healed the damage.
"Does it help? Does it erase painfully memories? Or does it create more? Doesn't it just burn away at you just knowing that you caused someone else to suffer? And does it not help when you cause someone else to be happy?" Crimson coughed and blood spattered the arena floor.
Magus drew his fist back to strike once more, but something stopped him. The gun wielders words made sense, he could not transfer his own pain to others, he had to carry it by himself, upon thinking this he grew sad, sad that he had to bear this burden by himself, and as this sadness washed over him it cleansed him of his anger and pushed back the darkness. Magus suddenly returned to being himself once more. Just as he was aware of his return to self, he collapsed face first into the sand, his body and mind too punished to function properly.
The person in the rafters smiled to herself, so? A disciple of the oni-ken school of martial arts? She thought she had seen to the last of them quite a number of years ago. But no matter, now he could be very useful to the cause, the dark one was always recruiting new servants, and he had grown particularly insistent as of late. Like a shadow the figure flitted across the roof, she had to go and monitor the other candidate.
Raven had neither slept nor eaten in the past day, It commanded all of his attention.
"So strange" He murmured to It "You call to me somehow, and yet I don't know why."
Raven stared at it intently, it was most definitely alive, he was sure of that. It had a heartbeat, it had eyes it had flesh and most likely blood. It also had sentience, perhaps. Was it sentience behind those ever roving eyes? No, not really, it was more like purpose. That was it, this thing had a purpose, some sort of drive. But what? Raven grabbed it by the hilt and lifted it from the floor, he could feel its energy beneath his hand. It was so big and yet weighed almost nothing. He locked gaze with one of its eyes, it was entrancing, pulling him deeper and deeper into itself. Raven felt a flash of heat sear across his mind and he dropped the thing to the floor as if it were a venomous snake. Why had he wished for this most accursed blade? He had thought to own it, but slowly it was owning him.
"Curse you..." Raven whispered under his breath "curse you dragon slayer."
The dragon slayer blinked at him as it always did, but Raven knew it was concentrating all of its malicious will upon him. What would it be like to give in to it?
"What is it that you offer to me dragon slayer? What is this gift that my mind will not allow me to refuse?"
Power, that's what it was offering him, if he truly linked to the sword he would be unstoppable. And why not? Did he not have the right to command such power? He had every right. Why should he be forced to live the same existence as these other lowly hunters? No reason at all. This was his salvation and his birthright, he had wanted power, and now power came to him, there was no reason not to take it.
And so he did, placing both hands on the hilt he once more lifted the dragon slayer from the ground, and as he did the sword lifted him. It took him far beyond this mortal coil and elevated him to his true place. Raven smiled as the sword engulfed his soul and laughed as it swallowed his mind.
Holy mother of all cliffhangers batman! Mei is in hospital, Magus is losing it, Raven's soul is under attack, and that damned mysterious person is just hanging around. I really promise to update soon, it would be cruel to leave it like this for too long. On the other hand I could do with a two week break just kidding, I shall update in another couple of days.