"The Beast comes!" said Marima tragically. "Oh Dahnjen, what shall we do?" She flung her arms around his neck and clung to him. "Is this the way our love will end?"
He bent his head and kissed her, then he grinned at her. "In just a moment you will learn more about that," he said. "But right now, you crouch down behind me and stay there. As soon as I can see, you'll find out that not only the Priests are possessed of wonderful instruments." He slipped the rifle from his shoulder and held it ready in his hands.
The searching ray swept over them several times, and the third pass found them. Momentarily it outlined them in its light, then swept on, as though in disdain. Finally it halted, down the valley, centered on a lumbering form, outlining it in the darkness so that its head could be seen looming high above the ground.
"The Beast!" breathed Marima.
And now, moving more purposefully, heading straight toward them, the monster came. Although they knew that it could not see them as yet, in the darkness, it did not deviate from its course, and they know that its feeble mind was under the control of the priests in the Temple far above them on the cliff wall. As it came, its jowls slavered, and its eyes glared ferociously. The light gleamed off its bared teeth, and reflected from the scaly ugliness of its hide.
Dahnjen Saan lifted his newly invented weapon, sighted carefully. Then as Marima Saan cringed back in terror, a sharp explosion echoed and re-echoed in the confines of the valley. A brilliant flash of light illuminated the scene for a moment, and then a second explosion came from the neck of the Beast. It faltered, uttered a tremendous roar of rage and pain, and blood gouted from its wound. Then roaring continuously, it charged forward once more. Again and again Dahnjen fired his rifle, and each time explosions shook the valley and jarred the oncoming monster. First one eye, then the other vanished in a shredding of gore, and then the mouth literally exploded, and the brilliant white of the bared teeth vanished in red blood.
The monster stopped, stood swaying, then came on again, but it was obvious that it had been seriously wounded, and was not guiding its own movements. Its giant head was turned sideways in an awkward stiffness, exposing its ear. Dahnjen aimed a shot directly into it, and the top of the head seemed to disintegrate. Brains flew through the air, mingled with red, and the monster halted again. For long moments it swayed, then with a crash that shook the rock beside which the two fugitives crouched, it collapsed to the floor of the valley and lay kicking gigantically, thrashing about in monstrous death throes.
"Dahnjen!" screamed Marima. "You've killed the Beast!"
He shouldered his rifle and lifted her to her feet. Then he bent and kissed her again. "It was what I had in mind," he admitted.