Pellucidar...it's like John Carter Of Mars, actually. Edgar Rice Burroughs has a distinctive and, I guess, uniform style. It's entertaining, but perhaps I like John Carter Of Mars slightly better.
- Pellucidar uses, similar to John Carter Of Mars, the Literary Agent Hypothesis. It's the story related by David Innes, about his trip to the Hollow Earth, which is filled with dinosaurs and sabertooth tigers and cavemen and psychic pterodactyl overlords.
- The Yehat?
- I wonder if I should do a separate liveblog of Pellucidar?
Anyway...
Creepy laughter fades away. Tars chuckles, and John notes that Green Martians tend to laugh where others would freak out.
- Reminds me of some Chinese movies I've seen, actually, though it's the bad guy more than the good guy that does that.
John asks where he is, and Tars asks where he's been? His body disappeared after he opened the door, and though the whole world searched, he was never found. They eventually assumed he'd gone on his pilgrimage down the River Iss, to wait in the Valley Dor, on the shores of the Lost Sea of Korus.
Speaking of, that's where they are. The end of the Pilgrimage, away from a life of bloodshed and pain. Heaven, says Tars Tarkas.
Of course, even if they managed to return, they will likely face the same fate as the last Red Martian who returned and reported hordes of ravenous monsters. Execution for blasphemy.
John pats his friend on the back and says that they'll take things as they come, and whoever finally kills them, will do so Atop a Mountain of Corpses.
They explore the dimly lit apartments, occassionally mocked by the same laughing voice out of nowhere. Tars wants to turn back, to die fighting flesh and blood, not some invisible ghost, but John says to forge on, for the voices must be cowards, for not showing themselves.
And then a lion jumps on him.
Well, a bald decapodal Martian lion. Unfazed, he slays it, and turns to see Tars killing another. For about an hour they're busy chopping up lion after lion. It's a pleasant diversion.
John notices the lions always appear from behind them, and through one of the mirrors hanging off Tars Tarkas' back (pimping) spots the cunningly concealed trapdoor that is acting as a Mook Maker. He briefly sees a white person, with flowing blond hair, and several red Martian prisoners, before it closes.
They sidle over to the trapdoors, turn away, and then leap into the hidden rooms. John faces off against the strange Martian, who has the appearance of an Earthman. Also, rather than the traditional Martian code of fighting with the same weapons of your opponent, he seems to subscribe to Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?, and attempts to do so before John knocks the weapon from his hand.
He's an excellent swordsman, while John is out of practice. But it's like riding a bike, but with more blood, and it is soon clear that John has the upper hand in this fight. Claiming to be from the Temple of Issus (something he heard while exploring the apartment) freaks out his opponent, and he takes this opportunity to stab him.
One of the prisoners shouts a warning, and John turns just in time to block another strike. Exhausted, he can barely match this new opponent, who fights conservatively, hoping to exhaust John. It seems to be working, when John trips over the corpse; the pain rouses him, and more importantly, the dead guy's gun is to hand. John shoots as his opponent charges, but the falling body knocks him out.
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