punches down old tree

The two hurled their challenges, haranguing one another, neither opponent retreating or giving cause to believe that the other feared open combat.
Then, compelled by a mixture of rage and frustration, Zu-jar-bolgani turned his hirsute fists against the trunk of Tarzan’s sheltering tree.
These blows were powerful, and the tree trunk shook in shock. Tarzan was forced to grab at nearby branches to avoid being flung clear. There, he crouched like a lithe bronze-skinned man-ape.
His thought was to hold on until the beast’s rage had expended itself, but to the ape-man’s amazement, the fists continued to pound like pistons, bashing rough bark loose, smashing the trunk fibers into pulp and threatening to uproot it by the unstoppable locomotive force unleashed in its driving arms.
From a nearby fan palm came a shrill scream, “Tarzan, jump! He will eat you! He eats animals. He will eat you as well!” Nkima again.
Once more, Tarzan considered dropping onto the creature’s hairy head, and bringing his hunting knife to bear, but the prospects of success—not to mention survival—were not sufficiently reassuring.
Abruptly, the ape-man moved along a springy branch, and soared into space, clearing a great distance and landing safely in an adjoining tree.
Not immediately did Zu-jar-bolgani realize that his hairless foe had eluded him. He continued to pound until finally the great camphor tree toppled with a crackling of breaking wood and uprooted roots.
This was an astonishing sight. The tree had stood for hundreds of years on that spot, growing stronger and more firmly rooted with each passing season.
Now it was a splintery ruin. Once a mighty inhabitant of this primeval forest, it had been defeated by an alien invader, a monster of unrivaled and unimaginable power.


King Kong vs Tarzan, Chapter 63