Born in Blood-Chapter 573: Intelligent

The method Liam used to put in his answers was simple. The translator had a switch that momentarily shifted to another mode. Instead of translating the ancient language into Echorian for him to understand, it changed Echorian into the ancient language.

Like a modern translator.

However, there were several issues Liam had with it.

For one, how would he even know whether or not it was accurate? Even if he got the word right... there was no guarantee that the translator would express it accurately.

Liam’s face was dramatically twisting with annoyance.

Truth be told, this entire tomb was starting to piss him off. The puzzles, the traps... but mainly because of the damn language barrier.

Nevertheless, he had to shoot his shot and hope for the best.

As the first sentence came through, Liam put in the word "Dominion".

It took a few seconds for the translator to pull through, emerging with a character that looked convincing enough for the ancient language.

He drew the character within the ferrofluid.

Liam watched with focused, narrow eyes as the ferrofluid accepted the word.

Seconds ticked by... and a bell chime jingled throughout the chamber.

With that, the ferrofluid transitioned into the next sentence... apparently ready for the next answer.

’I was right,’ Liam thought with a subtle smile. ’This old pig isn’t kind enough to give me a second chance after getting the first one wrong.’

’I’ll continue.’

For the next sentence, Liam put in the word "Malice". True enough, a character was produced, imputed and processed.

Liam paused, his eyes narrowing as the silence stretched longer than usual.

...

Chime.

Liam smiled faintly.

’Two down. Two more.’

Liam didn’t celebrate early.

But he was confident in his answers.

For the third sentence, Liam put in "Power".

Character.

Pause...

Chime.

There was no reaction on Liam’s face. There was too much weighing on the last answer.

Everything depended on it.

He let out a slow breath, then began drawing his character.

But just then...

BOOOOOOM!

The chamber shook. The impact hurled Liam sideways, his balance betraying him mid-stroke.

No!

He caught himself, eyes widened.

The writing!

What had he written?!

His hand had jerked.

The symbol was wrong.

The translator, agonizingly slow, decoded the ancient script now hovering before him.

"Loss," it read.

Not "Sacrifice."

Liam’s blood turned to ice.

The massive impact had come directly from where he had entered.

The Thing had tracked him down!

The tomb’s grinding mechanisms had led it straight here.

Liam’s eyes narrowed towards the entrance, his face devoid of emotion.

Another BOOM rocked the chamber—closer this time. The walls groaned, but didn’t move.

However, this time, he barely budged.

’I’ll get to you in a bit,’ Liam thought.

There was no way for the Thing to break through the entrance...

Was there?

For his peace of mind, he believed there wasn’t.

’I still have to worry about not making any noise when I leave this place.’

That aside...

The statue was beginning to make a series of strange cracking noises.

Not only that, the stone exit from behind had shut off before Liam even had a chance to think of escaping through it.

Liam didn’t bother sighing.

He knew where this was going.

His eyes shifted to the statue.

Parts of its stone "skin" were crumbling off, revealing a fleshy, putrid interior.

At this point in time, Liam’s mind raced. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ

There was a fight coming.

The statue was starting to come to life.

Was there any way he could gain any advantage with the current circumstances?

There was one thing he was willing to try out.

A dark glimmer shone in his eyes.

Liam slowly crouched, power gathering at his legs as shadows and Transfiguration bolstered his strength. The Breaker Blade formed on his right hand, its titanic form brimming with power and the urge to break through anything it came in contact with.

BOOM!

Liam exploded towards what he thought was the weakest part of the monstrous statue — the thinner lower body.

The Breaker Blade was already in a wide swinging motion, powered by all the strength Liam’s physique could produce.

KRSHHHHH!

Chunks of Liam’s arm broke into little pieces, while his shoulder was immediately dislocated and ripped at the muscle. Despite attacking the weakest part of the statue which had yet to crumble away, the stone was still incredibly hard to break.

Initially, he had wanted to attack the very center of the beast, hoping his momentum and force could kill the monster before it came alive.

But that was stupid.

After all, no normal stone could ever contain a monster of that caliber. Not to mention, it was merely an encasing.

But despite ruining the entire right side of his body, Liam was smiling.

The monster’s legs had cracked fully. Because of how thin its lower body really was, the stone had created a brittling effect. Enough for a powerful strike to break through the stone and the layer of organic tissue beneath.

Quickly healing his right side — which took longer than usual due to the Tomb’s restrictions — Liam created distance as the statue was nearly done with its transformation.

The statue’s mouth yawned open, unleashing a stench so vile it could rot someone’s mind into insanity.

Within the mouth lay a tongue, thick and writhing, angrily slithering over jagged teeth in anticipation.

Then—eyes, each iris looking around freely from the rest, scanning the entire area.

Then, as soon as it spotted Liam’s small figure, all of the eyes immediately latched onto him.

A brooding, low growling noise escaped the creature’s mouth. One of anger and pain. Drool began to drip from the sides of its lips.

Its lower body was mostly rendered useless, giving Liam a noticeable advantage when it came to movement.

"You’re not the first to salivate over me," Liam said with a subtle smirk. "I’m sure you won’t be the last to try and eat me, either."

What happened next made Liam’s eyes widen with pure shock.

The creature responded. Its voice was unreal and monstrously deep:

"Eating you would be kind."