READ THE NOVEL- Chapters 1-31 - ERBzine

Tarzan on Mars
feet with a bellow of rage and turned upon him with four
outstretched giant hands.
The green man was fast, but not so swift as the apeman,
who ducked under the other's arms and felled him instantly
with a mortal blow into his mid-section. The warrior fell dead
before he knew what had hit him, his internal organs completely
ruptured and his spine broken like a dry stick.
In spite of the shout of alarm and astonishment that went
up from the others as they wheeled about to attack him,
Tarzan was forced to conjecture for one brief moment that
the denizens of this world must be of a frailer bone and
muscle structure, commensurate with the lesser gravitational
attraction of the planet. To them, his more than ordinary
earthly strength would be a terrifying thing.
There was his most effective weapon, he thought swiftly,
as the other green warriors charged toward him bellowing an
angry war cry. He would weaken their morale with the
terribleness of his work, and perhaps enough of them would
be sufficiently intimidated to abandon him to his own
resources—provided that he did not get himself sliced in
twain by one of those flashing long-swords. He did not know
of the unwritten warrior's code which forbade the use of those
swords as lethal instruments in view of his unarmed condition.
Had he known that only the flat sides of those naked
blades were intended for his skull, his method of defense
might have been altered somewhat.
As the first of his new attackers loomed upon him,
Tarzan ducked beneath the other's giant mount and, grasping
one of the creature's eight legs, he heaved mightily upward,
taking the weight of warrior and thoat on his back. The result
was that the squealing animal was thrown completely over
the top of its rider, pinning him to the ground. The thoat
turned ferociously to bite the apeman, and at the same time
he struck it on the skull with both his fists, killing it instantly.
Other green men whirled about and closed in, but by this
222