They collide. The elf is very fast. She gets a hand on the smartgun. Tikki swings the Viper like a club. The elf falls onto her back on the sofa, bleeding from the head. She nearly seems out of the fight, but then she twitches strangely, up at the waist. Tikki feels something plunge into her belly. She staggers back from the sofa, looking down at the raw red wound streaming blood from just under her waist. She looks up to find the elf sneering, rising, standing up. The bloody blade protruding from the elf’s midsection abruptly vanishes. A belly blade. Tikki should have expected that, something like it. The elf smells of metal.