As top lanista I had to provide my most highly-skilled gladiator, so I put Pugnax forward again. He ended up facing Spiculus, the dimacherius from the school of Tertius. That would be the top bout on the bill. But firstly the lesser bouts. The day started with Helena (Tertius) against the retiarius Titan (Catherine).
This didn't last long. Helema and Titan approached each other warily. Titan sidestepped and swung his net, forcing Helena to jump back. She turned ...
... and a single thrust of her spear saw Titan down on the sand.
His appeal to the crowd was unsuccessful.
This gave Tertius a much-needed point of Prestige, and Helena a new skill. Catherine lost nothing but pride (and one of the nicer figures in my collection), since Titan and Helena were evenly matched in terms of skill.
The second bout matched Catherine's hoplite Danaos against my thraex Flamma. Danaos was Catherine's choice of contender, and the campaign rules state that he has to be matched by a gladiator as close to him in number of skills as possible. However we allowed this decision to be overridden, since it would have selected the spear-armed secutor Alumnus, and we wanted to avoid a spear vs spear bout. Flamma was the other choice - he has no skills, but the combination of a heavy gladiator vs a thraex was more interesting.
Danaos showed his greater skill from the outset. In the first exchange of blows he thrust at Flamma, who parried. But the parry broke Flamma's sword. Danaos then closed in with a shield bash, and knocked away Flamma's shield, leaving him unarmed and relatively unprotected.
Flamma recovered well, retrieved his shield and then proceeded to fight a superb game of maneuver, evading the worst of Danaos's attacks for turn after turn, whilst closing in and using his shield as an offensive weapon when he could. But eventually Danaos's skill caught up with him, and a mighty swing of the hoplite's shield smashed into the thraex's head, felling him.
Flamma appealed to the crowd, who'd had eight turns of entertainment, and spared the novice gladiator.
This win gave Catherine another point of Prestige.
And so on to the top-billed fight of the day - my murmillo Pugnax against Tertius's dimacherius Spiculus. Pugnax was very much the favourite in this fight.
The bookies lost a fair bit on it. Pugnax got in a few minor hits on Spiculus, who kept his nerve and inflicted two successive critical hits on Pugnax, knocking him off-balance with one sword, and then again with the second, forcing Pugnax to submit and appeal to the crowd.
The crowd were merciful again, but Spiculus's win saw Tertius gain two points of Prestige, and my school lose one.
So if you've been tracking the Prestige, all three of us are now on 4 Prestige. This round saw Tertius get two wins, and gain three Prestige; a great come-back. Catherine gained one Prestige, but lost a gladiator. I lost two fights and a point of Prestige. All of the bouts were decided by critical hits.
As for skills, Helena picked up Parry (defence bonus), whilst Spiculus refined a Signature Move (attack bonus).
In the next round the dice will decide which school the editor approaches for their best gladiator. Both Tertius and myself have two gladiators with a couple of skills, whilst Catherine has one. So you'll have to tune in next time to see which celebrity will be spilling blood in the arena for your entertainment ...
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