Tell A Story Day: Part 20
This is Part 20 of the Genre Underground’s #TellAStoryDay blog chain tale! For the previous installment, click here. To see a list of all the posts in the series, go here instead!
Check back later today for Kat Richardson’s Part 21!
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Bullets and lasers spattered across the pavement with bright flashes of light, whizzing sounds like angry hornets the size of lobsters, and small explosions that ruffled the elf’s hair and clothing.
None of them touched him.
He seemed to be surrounded by an impenetrable wall of sheer charisma, which none of the android’s weapons systems could damage.
Simultaneously, the elf suddenly felt a strange, deep sadness, and a nearly overwhelming urge to get on a ship and head west… except that he was in Assembly, and nowhere near an ocean. Later, he decided.
Instead of firing wildly, the elf used the advantage gained by his temporary invulnerability to carefully aim his ironwood-wrought bow at the true problem standing between him and his goal—the damnable troll and his universal remote.
With effortless grace, the elf’s fingers released the taut bowstring, which snapped back with an audible twang. The arrow whistled as it sliced through the air, barely skimming past the missile launcher mounted on the android’s shoulder, and pierced the iDroid universal remote directly at its center.
The troll let out a surprised and angry snarl as the remote shattered in its hands. “Galdifrign-DAMNYOU!” it thundered.
At the exact moment that the remote died, the android’s weapons systems stopped firing. The elf had already pulled another arrow and drawn the bow, with the point aimed directly at the android’s central neural network.
A moment of silence passed between elf and android as their eyes met across the divide. “You’re going to have a problem when you get back to the office,” the elf said.
The android’s mouth quirked to one side. “Your humor algorithm needs to be updated.”
Behind the android, the troll began to pound the pavement toward them, shouting and ranting in three different languages.
“Get down!” the elf shouted.
The android flung himself to the ground, just in time for the troll’s fists to pass through the air where his head had been a second before. Instead of pulping the android’s head to milk, the troll’s fists slammed into each other. The cracking of troll finger bones resounded, and the creature screamed in agony.
“You’ve ruined everything,” the elf said to the troll, his voice cold as ice. His fingers trembled on the drawn string of the bow. “But maybe, just maybe, with you out of the way, I can still take the vengeance that I came here for. The Assembly General will be here any minute; he won’t be able to resist with this much chaos in his realm of order. Then we’ll see what he has to say.”
The elf sighted down the arrow, aimed directly for the troll’s right eye.
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