Xiao La Rouge vs Tabitha "Starlight" Aimes

Xiao wasn't one to be defeated so easily, you couldn't consider yourself a lady of war if defeat was something that could easily occur to you after all. Still Xiao felt the pain in her head, and it was a sign that she had been sloppy. Something that wasn't acceptable to the oriental rose, where sluggishness was should have been removed with grace in it's stead. Perhaps it was this realization that was helping to spur Xiao back into the battle, this had been her first match in Friction. And if she were to make the statement known, victory was the only option.

Starlight didn't seem to try and carry on attacking Ms La Rouge, perhaps not liking her chances of getting close to the Chinese/French woman while down on the ground. Which was understandable, Xiao had some nasty surprises in store should she be able to perform them. Still the young lady caught Starlight's head bow, and gave a small nod in return. Respect was a big thing in the wrestling business Xiao had come to learn, and Xiao admired it when it was mutually displayed.

Xiao had gotten to her knees, taking it slower this time around. Though the will to fight was still very present in the oriental rose, the fight had progressed however. The aforementioned will was going to come into play very at this juncture, Xiao slowly stood back up with a deep breath and settled into her stance. Once more unto the breach......

The respect between these two women was apparent. Enough so that Starlight found no reason to take a cheap shot while Xiao was still getting up. If she was going to win it would be because she was the better woman between them in this match. Now that they were both back up standing, Starlight wanted to see if she could assert her control over the match further now. For as much as Xiao had control, she never had Starlight in danger of being pinned just yet. In her own mind at least, Starlight felt like she was starting to establish control over this match.

With the knowledge that her opponent would almost certainly want to strike out at her, Starlight would attempt to reintroduce herself to Xiao by trying to sneak in a straight kick to the belly once they both readied up. Neither would be all to interested in attempting to tie-up, and Starlight was certainly willing to use her kickboxing since she felt it was her strongest asset. If she could frustrate Xiao into another mistake, she might just be able to stun her long enough to get the coveted three count to win the match.

Xiao knew that this was coming down to the wire, she felt it in her bones. And also thanks to her years of training, it gave her a sense of progression in the very dynamic environment that was called combat. But even so as the fight would progress to it's natural conclusion, the oriental rose had to admit that she was enjoying very much. Perhaps it was also due to the fact that this was Xiao's debut match over in Friction as well.

The awareness of that had served to spur Ms La Rouge onward, and she had tensed herself up as she went back into this. Even so perhaps Xiao was unaware of this though, there was a little smile on her lips. It was rare for the oriental rose to display something like this, usually she was stoically calm in the midst of combat.

Xiao grunted and winced as Starlight promptly kicked her right in the stomach, in response the young woman relied on absorbing the impact as best she could. Drawing on her years of sparring with her Brother Leon, who used kicks for the part thanks to his martial art of savate. Xiao knew not to try and catch the leg though, the last time she tried that Xiao got clonked on the head for her troubles. Instead the oriental rose would try to toss the leg down and then move in close, to try and fire a palm strike up Starlight's chin and the other palm into her gut. Hopefully to send her staggering back into maybe the corner if she could get the locations of the hits just right.......

Starlight would find herself able to land the kick that last time was caught by Xiao. It was her beginner's luck she thought that had caught Xiao by surprise this time, but it was instead Xiao who had already adapted to Starlight's rather simple attack pattern. She would have her delight turn almost into a shocked horror as Xiao would absorb the blow and go immediately into a counter attack. The first attack that Xiao would throw had Starlight reeling as she just barely was able to avoid it. Starlight however was off balance and would be a sitting duck for the secondary attack that slammed into her own stomach.

The blow would send Starlight staggering, and the only thing stopping her from eventually falling was that she ended up in the corner of the ring. Reaching out for the ropes beside the turnbuckle, Starlight was at least still standing. She was clenching her body as the last strike had surprised her but it was unable to knock the wind out of her. If Xiao would charge in at her, she was also putting herself into a position where she could raise her legs and catapult herself into Xiao feetfirst were she to make the mistake of charging the wounded Starling in the corner of the ring.

In battle Xiao tried to learn about her opponent when she could, and it had gotten to the point where the oriental rose could paint a rather decent picture of her. Starlight seemed to have tried to go back to the well, but Xiao's experience in coping with strikes was giving her a slight advantage. And at this point any and every edge would need to be taken advantage of, and given the oriental rose's strikes displaying both precision and power it seemed that Xiao was now leading.

Starlight got sent for a loop to the corner, and seeing that was where the enemy landed Xiao had an idea. She proceeded to move forward, with the enemy cornered Xiao was perhaps going for one of the moves she had developed for in this position in the ring. Called the Mark of the Jiangshi, which took advantage of the iron ring post behind the padding.

But it seemed it wasn't going to work out that way, Starlight had much greater in-ring experience than the Chinese/French lady of war. As shown when Xiao had walked right into the feet of Starlight, Xiao's eyes damn near bulged out of their sockets as she was knocked back hard. Xiao's body hit the mat back first once again, and that attack just near blasted a hole in the young lady's body. The oriental rose pondered on this as her arms proceeded to cover the affected area, to try and vainly soothe the pain of course.

Xiao seemed surprised by Starlight's desperation counter move. It was probably for the best, as Starlight wanted time herself to recover from the beating she has been taking so far in this match. Both of them had been giving it about as good as they had got so far, but the crowd would likely say that Xiao was starting to creep out a slight advantage in the match. Starlight knew this advantage needed to be destroyed and her act of desperation was an indication of how far she might go to keep the match from getting too far away from her.

Sending her opponent reeling, Starlight would get the few moments that she wanted to recover. Setting out to attempt a follow up, starlight would simply try to start stomping Xiao into the ground. If she showed signs of getting up, then Starlight would try to take her head off with a knee strike. Either way, she wanted to start stomping her opponent into the ground to simply weaken her now.

Xiao was down, and now getting stomped on. She was no stranger to this, it had happened in the past. One notable time being this girl in high school who tried to ambush the oriental rose, Xiao had wanted to cultivate the image of a graceful lady of war. And right now this wasn't how she envisioned this going, it wasn't looking too good for the oriental rose currently. In spite of how she'd refuse to admit it. Still Starlight was playing well, Xiao knew that if she had a decisive chance she might be able to end the bout based off how long it had been.

Ms La Rouge grunted as she was stomped, her toned belly taking the hits. Starlight lacked the oomph that Leon had, but a stomp was still a stomp at the end of the day. And Xiao knew that if these attacks continued it would surely weaken Xiao to where she had to clutch her belly, if she'd get the chance. So with that in mind the Chinese/French woman tried to rise when she sensed a delay in the opponent's movements.

Starlight went for another knee to the head, but here it seem a case of going to the well just one too many times. Xiao had caught on to what her enemy was doing, and managed to wriggle her head out the way. While trying to wrap her arms around the attacking leg, to send Starlight down to the mat with her. Perhaps it was best to take this to the ground, Xiao was gritting her teeth as sweat dripped down her forehead.

Trying to get what she could out of it, Starlight was just trying to do the maximum amount of damage she could before Xiao were able to recover. Landing the stomps was easy enough, as she started to move around toward her head to give the last shot some extra emphasis, Xiao was able to evade. Slamming her knee into the mat was not entirely a pleasant feeling, and Xiao had already moved to take advantage of the mistake.

Pulling Starlight down to her level, Xiao would start to control the situation once more as Starlight would topple over onto her stomach. She did not seem to be in imminent danger, but Starlight knew this position was not going to be good for her. She was on the way down and Xiao on the way up. Half expecting Xiao to try to roll around and attempt to get control over her leg, Starlight would do what she could to attempt to prevent that by simply crawling forward and attempting to get herself back up to her feet. A scenario that Xiao would likely prevent from happening at all.

Xiao had luck on her side with this counter, the oriental rose wasn't one to really believe in things like luck and that. Though inwardly she thanked whatever force was behind her there in that exchange, it had to be a mixture of that and the fact that Starlight went to the well a second time with the same song and dance. Xiao had been kicked and stomped while she was down in the past, but the fight wasn't easy to take out of the young lady. She prided herself on being a lady of war, and that required being able to take a beating. Though Xiao was aware of her limits, and her toned chest was still feeling the brunt of those stomps.

Perhaps that would also work to help Xiao however, with a sort of desire to avenge herself. In spite of her ability to strike the enemy silly till they couldn't ponder on what just hit them, Xiao had some other tricks up those long sleeve extensions that she wore to the ring. Namely what to do when the opponent was down as the fight wore on? Why submission holds, and Xiao had one that she held dearly. And in Xiao's mind perhaps the fight had gone enough to at least attempt it, Starlight wasn't making it easy though.

The enemy might be thinking that just because Xiao had taken the leg, but that wasn't the target. The oriental rose would try to get up above Starlight, and try to zip around so that Ms La Rouge could cinch in a rear headlock. Making sure her toned right arm was wrapped as tightly round the neck as Xiao was able to muster, to try and wear Starlight down and prepare her for what could hopefully come.

Starlight would start to crawl herself forward. She seemed to get a few paces along the ground before the realization of what exactly was going on had hit her. It was not her legs that were the target at all, but Xiao was instead crawling herself onto of her to go for a different move entirely. Getting closer to the ropes would prove somewhat helpful as she felt an arm get underneath her neck and start to pull her head upward.

Xiao had used Starlight's inexperience again to her detriment as she was a sitting duck as it were for the headlock that was applied. Trying to get her arm in to prevent the hold from becoming more like a sleeperhold if Xiao got her arm lower around the neck, Starlight would be in some deep trouble if she ended up being stuck in this predicament for very long. Being still prone on her belly, it would limit her options to either getting her head free or getting to the ropes to break off the hold that Xiao was applying. Neither option would be easy and for now, Starlight made the mistake of trying to divert her attention toward both getting to the ropes and providing enough resistance to Xiao so that she could not fully lock in the hold.