The beam caught the first of the onrushing beetles. It seared through a second. A third reeled and stumbled.
Haral lunged for the chiefs' stand.
Sark stood there, stiff-frozen. Xaymar lurched back in terror.
Haral cried: "Die, curse you!"
He whipped up the ray-gun. But Sark shrieked, "Wait, blue man—! You and all Ulna die here with me!"
His gross body twisted, and Haral saw the fat fingers still locked on the cymosynthesizer switch.
In the same instant the raider chief's other hand darted beneath his tent-like tunic, incredibly fast, snatching out a Venusian xlan-tube.
Blue fire belched at Haral.
He threw himself flat. But it was the end. It could be no other way.
This was where destiny and the road to empire at last had led him.