Born in Blood-Chapter 582: Ashuran Tongue

At some point, and he didn’t know when, Liam stopped punching. He felt worn down, body burning with effort, like he weighed a ton more than he could carry.

Mentally, he felt exhausted.

He reverted the Ashura Form, the arms retreating into his torso. Liam sat and put his back against the wall, cultivating to replenish his strength.

Ravaak the Ashura was motionless. For a moment, Liam thought he’d broken the creature’s face, or worse, killed him.

But a moment later he had his answer.

Ravaak rose up like he’d been resurrected. He was bleeding horribly, and the right side of his cheekbone was fractured, giving him a ’victim of war’-like appearance.

The bad news? He was healing. Very fast. In moments, the wounds were reshaping to their prime form.

His red eyes, hard like iron, found Liam and stared at him. No more anger. Not at him, anyway.

"Raast." Ravaak pointed at Liam. He stood, then sat on one knee. "King."

Liam paused. Then grinned.

Then, a grim realization hit him.

The doors had not unlocked.

***

Months passed like days inside the colosseum.

Liam spent that time productively with Ravaak.

In the beginning, there was a language barrier between them.

Ravaak was speaking purely the Ashuran tongue.

But Liam had no knowledge of it.

Despite the availability of resources he had, there was seldom any information on something so ancient.

But he was in luck.

He had a translator with him, after all!

The communication with them was tough at first.

Ravaak had recognized Liam as king.

His presence went from menacing, threatening and vengeful, to deference, respect and subservience.

Liam had created a process to learn the Ashuran tongue.

He had taken out a massive blank piece of paper. Alongside it was a massive brush pen. And a massive inkpot, too.

Ravaak was confused at first.

Then, with a series of hand gestures, the Ashura understood.

Within a month, Liam had made immense progress with the language.

"I think I now understand basics," Liam said, speaking Ashuran but still lacking fluency.

It was akin to the hardest topics of calculus in linguistic form, and he was a genius polyglot. No wonder this language would have survived the history books.

Maybe that, or Ravaak simply sucked at teaching.

Perhaps it was a mixture of the two.

"Good." Ravaak also kept his speech dumbed down. He looked at Liam for answers. "Where are we, King?"

Liam took a deep breath in.

"Old Tomb. Old man die here. Store reward, give challenge." He pointed at the Ashura. "You challenge."

The Ashura’s face was of stoic anger. Surprisingly, he didn’t burst out in wrath like Liam expected. Huh. Perhaps the Ashura was taking this ’king’ thing seriously.

"After war, he take your body. Store you here. Maybe more than eight thousand years pass until I come."

Ravaak’s eyes widened big time.

Liam remained silent, letting him soak it all in.

"And you?" Ravaak said. "Raast. How?"

Liam paused for a moment. He figured he should delay the ’mission’ aspect that Raast had entrusted him with, but he decided not to. If he didn’t tell it to him now, there most likely wouldn’t be a right time.

"He pull me here. This world. Give me chaos. Mission. I get strong. Create faction. Take chunk of land. Leader now."

Ravaak lowered his head, deep in thought. He looked at Liam again.

"And Ashura?"

Liam shrugged. "Don’t know." He pointed at the mural and the Ashura tracked his finger to the rift the Ashura had escaped into. "There."

Ravaak’s eyes lingered there for quite a bit.

"You don’t know?" Liam asked.

Ravaak shook his head slightly. "No. I stay behind with King to fight."

How honorable, Liam thought.

Ravaak looked at Liam with deference. "Now, I serve new King."

Liam gave a faint smirk. He was looking forward to Ravaak’s support. He had much to learn about the Ashuras: their techniques, abilities and insights. The beast would be the key to his findings.

Then, Liam looked at the exit door.

For the past month or so, the doors had still not closed.

And he was getting worried.

"Want me smash doors?" Ravaak asked seriously.

"No. Nothing will happen. Tomb suppress our power."

Ravaak’s eyes widened. Most likely, he was thinking, ’No wonder I lost.’

Ravaak awaited orders but Liam’s idea leaned towards a morbid side.

"You trust me?" Liam said.

Ravaak’s eyes deepened. "More than trust. I die for your survival."

That sounded nice. But the Ashura was too useful to kill or dispose of.

"I will stop your heart," Liam said. "You will die. For short time."

Ravaak had no reaction. "And then?"

"Then maybe doors open."

Silence.

"Maybe?" Ravaak repeated.

"High maybe."

Silence.

"As you order."

Liam nodded.

Ravaak prepared to rip apart the armor plates on his skin. Liam stopped him immediately.

"Not like this," Liam said quickly. "Sit down."

The Ashura sat down immediately.

He put his hand on the Ashura’s massive stomach.

The Ashura was confused for a moment.

Then, he felt something constrict around his heart. His eyes widened.

"Ready?"

Ravaak nodded and closed his eyes.

Liam suppressed the Ashura’s heart using Transfiguration. He smothered it until it was Liam holding Ravaak upright with his palm.

The Ashura was unconscious.

There wasn’t much time Liam could keep him in this state.

But he pressed down on the Ashura’s heart a bit harder.

Nothing. No reaction from the Tomb.

Liam pressed down even stronger. The Ashura’s body was convulsing now. A bit of blood exited his mouth but Ravaak was still unconscious.

No reaction.

Liam pressed harder. As much pressure as he could apply without causing the Ashura’s heart to burst apart.

Then, there was the grinding of stones.

Liam instantly removed his pressure from Ravaak’s heart. The Ashura sucked in a deep breath, coming alive for the second time. Or was it the third?

Ravaak awoke. First thing he did was look at the exit. It was open and remained so.

...But there was something else.

How was he gonna fit through?