"Kill them," he flashed at Nelson, "for the grown monsters come."
But the lanky man with only two arms did not heed his order. In the excitement of the moment Nelson had reverted to the use of his ears—his mental receptive powers were as yet too untrained. Ho Dyak fought alone while Glade Nelson shouted to the girl to climb down a drooping limb toward him.
Ho Dyak drove the crawling lizard-beasts back until he stood beneath the tree. He held up his two upper arms, and the girl dropped her leafy useless club before she slid down the loose rough bark of the trunk. Then Ho Dyak turned and raced with her in his arms away from the lake.
Nelson roared with sudden fear. Almost upon Ho Dyak's heels a huge mouth gaped suddenly from the murky water and then a scaly six-legged monster came charging up over the low marshy bank. Behind the first drog came another, and then another. All of them were over twenty feet in length and their pace was not slow. They were overhauling the burdened ivory man.
Ho Dyak put her down and turned to face the drog.
Ho Dyak put the girl down. He gave her a push in the direction of the wrecked ship and with the same motion turned to face the drog's gaping maw. His stout double-edged sword was in his hand. He could feel its welcome pressure through the insulated layers of siladur that sealed out the chill air of the plateau.
His sword flicked up toward the eye of the huge dragon. He pressed the button that released the needle-like extension from the weapon's tip, and his prolonged weapon ripped through the huge reddish eyeball. The monster roared with rage, and whistling with its blasting breath, swung its head. Again the sword flashed and the blinded monster dashed itself against a huge smooth-boled tree. Its legs crumpled for a moment and then it was up ripping ferociously with great nails and rending jaws at the unresisting wood.