so they tried to kill him , many times and in many ways , but royen couldnt be killed : he would tear down the sturdy bricks behind which they had walled him in with his bare fists ; hold his breath under the water theyd cast him in till he could brake the chains he was tied up with ; uproot and bring down a great oak on whose branch they had hung him and then he would slaughter those who had tried to murder him , rip them from limb to limb till their own mothers couldnt tell them from the carcass of a cow devoured by wolves .