READ THE NOVEL- Chapters 1-31 - ERBzine

Tarzan on Mars
angel with a terrible giant sword in his hand. Then Tarzan
leaped upon them, a full fifty feet through the air. As he
landed among them he swung that ponderous blade as though
it were a scythe of Judgement, cutting a path through bone
and flesh. Though the apeman was no swordsman in the
technical sense, he more than compensated for it by the
terrible havoc he wrought with the superior reach and
momentum of his giant weapon.
"Release the Warlord!" he roared. "Open the gate for the
eternal Issus!"
For the moment, the defenders were demoralized,
confronted as they were simultaneously by the dreaded
Warlord and by one who seemed verily to be the long-awaited
Holy Warrior of legend, so incredible was his strength and
ferocity. But that moment was all John Carter required to
take advantage of them. Understanding now that Tarzan
might easily follow him, he leaped over the heads of the
newcomers and shouted to the apeman to do the same.
Leaping easily after him, Tarzan joined the Warlord in
outdistancing the Tarnathians down the ramp of to the gate.
"We must find a way to open it—quickly!" exclaimed the
Virginian.
"I see no latch or secret trigger," commented the apeman.
Beyond this single observation there was no time to do
anything but to turn again and face the guards, who had rallied
sufficiently to give them renewed opposition. Now the Tarnathians
pressed strongly upon them, but again John Carter's
famous sword proved capable of being in a dozen places to
every one of theirs, while Tarzan stepped out among them and
maintained a cleared circle about him with his swinging blade.
"It is useless to oppose the Warlord and Tharos Pthan
together!" shouted a dwar of one contingent.
"It may be as the tall one says!" cried another. "The
genuine Issus may be beyond the gate!"
"Whoever you may be," gasped John Carter to his
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