Round 1
The old dusty tomb had been struck with a bit of a dry spell. Xiaoyu crept nimbly on her toes through the shadows with her palms ready to attack. She was alone in the darkness.
Suddenly, there was a booming sound that filled the tomb. It was like the hallowed ground itself had opened with a deep echoing yawn. After the eerie noise stopped, two shining crimson eyes stepped out from the darkness. They were quickly accompanied by two shining crimson breasts.
Xiaoyu crouched to defend herself as her elegantly-dressed vampire opponent emerged from the shadows.
"Ah, and who might you be?" Eliza said with a sleepy sigh, politely cupping her hand over her mouth. "A curious trespasser, it smells like."
"The only thing you should be smelling is trouble," Xiaoyu quickly snapped in return. "I pummel freaks like you for gym class!"
"Such rudeness you've brought into my bedchamber. You'll have to be taught some manners." Eliza twisted her mouth in insult.
Xiaoyu beckoned with her palm, drawing the vampire princess to attack first. The Baguazhang master spread her feet and tucked her waist to duck under a spinning kick, then answered with a jumping palm strike. Eliza backstepped with an ill-tempered look as Xiaoyu continued pressing her rapid attacks. The vampire relied on her unnatural instincts to gracefully block three palm strikes and a forward-flipping high-kick. She sank back into the shadows at the end of the combo.
Xiaoyu quickly looked in every direction trying to track her opponent's movements. Eliza's distant giggling voice echoed all around her, throwing off her perception and leaving her feeling lost.
Xiaoyu walked backwards through the dark with her palms out and her legs poised for leaping. When giggling faded, she couldn't sense anything, not even the walls of the crypt. Then her shoulder blades bumped into two soft, warm, and large things.
Eliza had Xiaoyu in a headlock before she even knew Eliza was there. The vampire princess pressed the tip of her nose to Xiaoyu's neck, purring.
"Mm. I'll never get that French vanilla parfait I've always wanted as long as Lili keeps declining me, but I am still rather hungry. I guess I'll just order some orange chicken take-out to sate my appetite."
Eliza's fangs tenderly sunk into Xiaoyu's throat. Excruciating pain sunk into Xiaoyu's consciousness. The mortal fighter screamed and struggled through the whole feasting, forcing her heart to beat faster and the blood to flow more anxiously. Eliza tidied up when she was done with a small flick of her tongue across Xiaoyu's tiny puncture wounds. Then she finally let her prey free from her grasp.
Xiaoyu stumbled around to face Eliza as she panted for breath. Her body felt weak and her muscles ached for the fresh oxygen that had been stolen from them. The vampire princess shifted her pulsating eyes in thought and clicked her tongue softly against her lips.
"Easier on the taste buds than I imagined. I always assumed you Oriental beauties were made from more a spicy recipe."
Her eyes fixed on her mortal opponent. A smile crept across her pale face.
"Yes. I believe I'll keep you. I've never created a Jiangshi before."
"I'll never work with you, you sicko!" Xiaoyu stubbornly exclaimed, forcing herself to stay focused.
"Oh, but you don't very much say in that matter." Eliza cackled softly through moist ruby lips. "Your heart is already infected with a small sprinkling of my power. If I manage to drink from you three times before the next new moon, the curse will become too powerful for you to resist and nature will simply take her course."
"You'll never… beat me…" Xiaoyu grit her teeth, but the symptoms of her sudden loss in blood pressure were getting the best of her. Her vision blurred from dizziness, turning Eliza into a fuzzy red satin blob with goat horns. Her own voice sounded distant and muffled to her ears.
"I'll see you in a few nights, my lovely orange sherbet!" Eliza said cheerfully. "Keep those platelets warm for me!"
The vampire princess dissolved into a cloud of fog. Her smiling fangs gleamed in midair before they disappeared.
Round 2
Xiaoyu was drawn back to the tomb once she trained harder and regained her strength. She was determined to settle the score on her own terms. At least, that's what she told herself.
Eliza made herself much easier to find this time. She was hovering length-wise four feet off the ground with her legs crossed and her arms stretched, lounging in empty space like a Romanesque beauty on an invisible couch.
"Ah, there you are," Eliza said to her visitor expectantly. "I'll have to sort you out quickly this time. I'm missing my beauty nap."
"Please," Xiaoyu groaned. "Nobody's going to care about how you look after they see how many bruises I'm gonna leave on you."
"Behave yourself, girl. These fangs," Eliza said as she tapped the polished nail of her index finger against her left canine, "have a date to keep with that jugular vein." She pointed to Xiaoyu's throat.
Xiaoyu lost her temper and started the fight this time. She threw her first punch before Eliza had even finished lowering her feet to the ground. The two fighters were evenly matched with their kicks and palm strikes, until Eliza grew bored and fell back on her disappearing tricks.
Xiaoyu wasn't about to make the same rookie mistake a second time. She remained planted in one spot in the darkness, keeping her ears open to the slightest sounds around her and not letting the mysterious environment overwhelm her. She constantly looked back and forth and slowly turned herself in a circle, waiting to see which corner her opponent would re-emerge from. She posed with one palm pointed forward and the other held over her head, balancing her weight on one foot with her ankle tucked behind the opposite thigh.
"Lovely view, don't you think?"
Xiaoyu instantly whipped her head in the direction of Eliza's voice. She came eye-to-eye with her opponent, inverted.
Eliza's limber form was hanging upside-down from an invisible trapeze beam. Xiaoyu tried to sweep her down with an uppercut, but Eliza hooked her though the armpit and lifted her an inch off the ground. Then Xiaoyu tried to curl into a high-kick, and Eliza roughly caught her by wrapping her other arm under Xiaoyu's thigh. Xiaoyu was tangled up like an orange dragonfly in a spider's web, giving Eliza an opportunity reel her in for a quick bite.
Xiaoyu's reaction to Eliza's second kiss was more of shock than pain, perhaps because her body was growing accustomed to these sudden and violent blood donations, or perhaps because Eliza had to work extra hard to draw Xiaoyu's life out against the forces of gravity as she remained hanging upside-down through the whole ordeal.
When Eliza had finished her terrible business, she unraveled from her vantage spot and left Xiaoyu dazed and collapsed to her knees.
"That's two taken care of," Eliza purred as she wiped her mouth with her red sleeve. She savored an easy victory, savored her own confidence, and savored Xiaoyu's sweet flavor lingering on her breath. "One more rendezvous with you and we'll have you undead in no time."
"Never…" Xiaoyu growled in weakened rebellion at Eliza's feet. She lacked the energy to even raise her head. She so desperately wanted to just tuck her head against two soft pillows and fall asleep, but she fought against the urge with all of her will.
"I'll let you cling to your feeble human life for another couple of days so you can get all of your affairs in order. Come back to me when you're ready to surrender it all," Eliza said with a grin. She faded back into the darkness.
Round 3
The vein on Xiaoyu's neck pulsed with joy the moment her eyes met Eliza's. Xiaoyu kept her hand constantly pressed against the side of her throat to stifle her own heartbeat and force her body to contain itself. She was clearly struggling to keep her fighting stance, constantly rubbing the pitch black circles around her eyes.
"You're in for it, bloodbags!" Xiaoyu shouted in an aggravated voice. "I'm putting you down and making sure you stay in the ground this time!"
Eliza brushed aside the threats with a sultry chuckle.
"Ah, yes. It's about time we put an end to these little appetizers and made a proper main course out of you, wouldn't you agree?"
Xiaoyu charged at Eliza in rage. She threw her left palm forward. Eliza caught it by the wrist with ease and pulled Xiaoyu's arm over her right shoulder. Xiaoyu tried to attack a second time with her right palm, and Eliza repeated the same technique with her left shoulder, setting Xiaoyu up in the proper posture for a waltz. Eliza's eyes glowed like hellfire, paralyzing her surprised opponent in her gaze.
She reached for the silly orange trinkets in Xiaoyu's pigtails and tossed them away, making Xiaoyu's long hair to fall freely down her shoulders. Eliza's crazed bloodshot eyes locked intensely on the two tiny puncture scars left from the earlier feedings.
"You poor thing," Eliza whispered into Xiaoyu's ear, brushing her fang against the lobe. "You have this vein so wound up in excitement for me, it's almost clotting itself. Let me relieve you of your burden."
She delicately blew on the edge of Xiaoyu's neck to draw a line of goosebumps, then viciously sprang her fangs inward. Xiaoyu sighed quietly, hopelessness seduced and never making a fuss.
Eliza feasted like a starving rabid beast, wrenching Xiaoyu closer for each gulp while Xiaoyu's arms remained happily wrapped around her shoulders. Eliza's nails traveled down Xiaoyu's spine, peeling through the shining orange threads on the back of the mortal girl's fighting qipao and leaving light scratches on her skin. Her palms continued fearlessly traveling downward and snuck somewhere underneath the rear flap of Xiaoyu's dress. Her fingertips slipped through the elastic barrier on the small of Xiaoyu's back and dove deep through her shorts until they found the firm warm buns contained within. Eliza's hands gave a harsh and greedy squeeze, pulling the prey lustfully closer as her fangs sunk deeper. Xiaoyu squeaked like the mouse that was getting gobbled up like a piece of cheese.
The mortal fighter lost consciousness less than a minute into the grapple hold. Her arms unraveled and dropped to her sides. Her head dangled limply over Eliza's shoulder. Her breathing was gravely shallow. Her heartbeat was almost undetectable and growing weaker. She would have collapsed into a heap if not for Eliza's solid grasp keeping her up.
Eliza drank one final hot gulp before taking her fangs out of Xiaoyu's neck. There was a quick elastic snap as she withdrew her hands from the back of Xiaoyu's dress. She kept her arms wrapped around the smaller fighter's waist for support as she smiled in silent victory. Xiaoyu leaned lifelessly into Eliza's shoulder like a dried out tangerine husk.
Eliza waited.
Waited.
And waited.
She sighed impatiently. She lightly stomped her heel to give Xiaoyu a cue. Yet the younger woman never moved.
"Hmph. And I thought I slept soundly," Eliza scoffed to herself.
Xiaoyu's head suddenly snapped up in full alert. Her eyes were glowing blood red. A pair of tiny ivory knives gleamed from her lips as she smiled. She gently slipped out of Eliza's arms and moved a few feet backwards with a single hop, slowly gliding through the air as if she were half her usual weight before landing on the toes of her slippers.
"Welcome to immortality, little one," Eliza said proudly to Xiaoyu. "Do you feel up for an evening stroll?"
"Maybe after I get someone to eat," Xiaoyu playfully hissed in the dark.
"Hm. Yes," Eliza gave a slow and courteous nod. "Vampirism can be an acquired taste."