Ox - Of Man and Manta, No. 3 Author:Piers Anthony "It had a shiny black finish, solid caterpillar treads, a whirling blade—and it was fast. It was seemingly a machine but hardly the servant of man. — "Veg fired his blaster at it. The projected charge should have heated the metal explosively and blown a chunk out of it. But the polished hide only gave off sparks and glowed m... more »omentarily. The thing spun about with dismaying mobility and came at him again, the vicious blade leading.
"At that point Veg realized he was in a fight for his life."
So begins the story of OX, the fantastic tale of an alternate world inhabited by savage robot machines...and three trapped scientists. Their names: Cal, Veg, and Aquilon, the most resourceful — and rebellious — of Earth's dimension explorers, and with them came their alien companions, the mantas. Strange flying beings, half-animal, half-fungus, the mantas possessed the keenest senses of any creatures in the universe, a gift which more than once saved the lives of their human friends. And here was the perfect time for the mantas to use their powers to the fullest.
Somehow the trio had to find the aperture back to their own dimension before each fell victim to the death-dealing mechanical creations that roamed this weird land.« less