Chap­ter 16 — The beasts of Tarzan opens with Tarzan fac­ing a dead­ly encounter beneath the murky waters of an African riv­er. Caught in the crush­ing grip of a mas­sive croc­o­dile, he fights with every ounce of strength, refus­ing to yield even as the creature’s teeth clamp tighter. The beast drags him toward its lair, but Tarzan, though injured and gasp­ing, uses his blade with pre­cise des­per­a­tion. His aim is not reck­less but honed by instinct and sur­vival. When the knife finds a vul­ner­a­ble spot near the jaw, the croc­o­dile thrash­es vio­lent­ly before going still. The threat neu­tral­ized, Tarzan is left dis­ori­ent­ed in a sub­ter­ranean pock­et beneath the river­bank, sur­round­ed by silence and sti­fled air. With no time to dwell on pain or pan­ic, he focus­es on escape, crawl­ing through a nar­row, water-logged tun­nel toward what he hopes is free­dom and light.

Emerg­ing from the tun­nel scratched and bleed­ing, Tarzan finds him­self once more in the heart of the jun­gle. Though weak­ened, he press­es for­ward, dri­ven not by pride but by the image of Jane in dan­ger. Each step is agony, but he refus­es to let injury slow his pace, fueled by the thought of his fam­i­ly lost or worse. Mis­led into believ­ing Jane and their child are dead, his grief becomes fuel for vengeance. Trees blur past as he push­es through dense foliage, his every move­ment a blend of instinct and relent­less deter­mi­na­tion. Hunger gnaws at him, and his body burns from the strug­gle, but he con­tin­ues with­out hes­i­ta­tion. Along the way, wild ani­mals cross his path, and though they sense his pres­ence, none dare chal­lenge the wound­ed man who moves with such vio­lent intent.

Else­where, on the drift­ing ship Kin­caid, Jane Clay­ton nav­i­gates her own sur­vival. Though unarmed and sur­round­ed by men who have long since cast hon­or aside, she refus­es to become a vic­tim. She engi­neers a clever ploy, set­ting the ves­sel adrift dur­ing the night, hop­ing to cre­ate chaos among her cap­tors and improve her chances of escape. Her plan, how­ev­er, mis­fires when the Kin­caid runs aground near an unfa­mil­iar shore, strand­ing every­one and reset­ting the stakes. Despite this set­back, Jane’s courage does not fal­ter. She under­stands the dan­gers ahead but choos­es action over fear, prepar­ing her­self for what­ev­er may come. In doing so, she proves that brav­ery is not reserved for war­riors alone.

Tarzan’s jour­ney even­tu­al­ly leads him to the coast­line, where the sounds of pan­ic and shout­ing seize his atten­tion. A sin­gle scream cuts through the air—a sound he knows instant­ly. Though his body protests, he hurls him­self for­ward, climb­ing through branch­es and over boul­ders with the fury of a father and hus­band who has wait­ed too long to act. Gun­fire fol­lows, ignit­ing his rage and sharp­en­ing his focus. His injuries are for­got­ten in that moment, replaced by a pri­mal urge to pro­tect. When he final­ly arrives, the scene before him is one of betray­al, vio­lence, and chaos. Yet Tarzan doesn’t hes­i­tate. His arrival is not a rescue—it is a reck­on­ing.

Jane, though trapped, main­tains her com­po­sure even as the sailors she once relied upon begin to turn on her. Their fear of Rokoff out­weighs any sense of decen­cy they might pos­sess. She stands defi­ant, unwill­ing to beg, her spir­it unbro­ken even as dan­ger clos­es in. It’s this unyield­ing strength that Tarzan sees when he crash­es onto the scene, and it steels his resolve. What fol­lows is not a sim­ple fight—it is a war of jus­tice, with Tarzan unleash­ing both his fury and his cun­ning against those who dared threat­en his fam­i­ly.

This chap­ter explores more than just phys­i­cal sur­vival; it delves into emo­tion­al endurance, the instincts born from love, and the deter­mi­na­tion to reclaim what has been stolen. Tarzan, torn between man and beast, reveals the fusion of intel­lect and sav­agery that defines his pow­er. Jane, grace­ful and intel­li­gent, demon­strates her own brand of strength that mir­rors her husband’s resolve. Togeth­er, though sep­a­rat­ed, they rep­re­sent a force that can­not be sub­dued by fear, betray­al, or cru­el­ty. The wilder­ness around them is mer­ci­less, but it is also where their true selves flour­ish. Their sto­ry in this chap­ter doesn’t just move forward—it evolves, deep­en­ing their bond and set­ting the tone for the bat­tles still to come.