The Autumn Games - 3

 At the start of Round 3 of the games, the Prestige stands as follows:

Catherine - 2 Prestige
Me - 7 Prestige
Tertius - 7 Prestige

Catherine also needed a new gladiator to replace the retiarius Medusa. Since she had one of each weight-class she had a relatively free choice, so went for he barbarian Andromache. barbarians are similar to the murmillo in tone, but less heavily armoured and with a trait of their own. 

The Editor made his preferences known and we ended up with the following bouts:

Victor (Me) vs Artemisia (Catherine)
Apollo (Tertius) vs Andromache (Catherine)
Rufina (Me) vs Scylax (Tertius)

Round 3 - Bout 1 - Victor (Crupellarius) vs Artemisia (Thraex)

The Editor joined us for he first bout, but quickly lost interest.

Victor got off to a strong start, deflecting Artemisia's attacks and pressing forward aggressively. 

A shield charge pushed her back.

And another knocked her down. A third came close to inflicting crushing damage, but she evaded that and even managed an attack from the ground that hurt Victor. 

Artemisia back up and fighting.

The lithe thraex soon got into her stride, and quickly finished Victor. 

This was Catherine's first win and earned her 2 Prestige. The crowd were entertained and spared Victor, so I picked up 1 Prestige. In addition, Victor has survived two bouts, so is eligible for a skill. 

Round 3 - Bout 2 - Apollo (Velite) vs Andromache (Barbarian) 

I didn't get any pictures of this bout bar the starting setup. Andromache pressed forward and, as a good velite should, Apollo fell back. Apollo is skilled, and made the most of his abilities to deflect Andromache's probing attacks. However she pressed on and evaded his javelin throws. A sudden furious attack, fuelled by the enthusiasm of the crowd, saw Apollo on the back foot and defeated!

Another win for Catherine, and this time it was an unskilled gladiator defeating a skilled one, so earned her a whopping 3 Prestige. Apollo was spared by the crowd, giving Tertius 1 Prestige.

Round 3 - Bout 3 - Scylax (Armoured Scissor) vs Rufina (Thraex)

The agile Rufina got to face an armoured behemoth with two blades. 

The fight lasted just long enough for Rufina to close ...

... and strike down Scylax with her first blow.

The crowd obviously wanted to see more of Scylax because, despite this abysmal performance, they spared him. Tertius earned 1 Prestige, whilst Rufina picked up 2 Prestige for me. 

So at the end of teh third round these are the positions:

At the end of the second round the standings are as follows:

Catherine - 7 Prestige (One win, one win against an experienced gladiator, two losses with Missio)

Amazon (Myrmillo) - 1 Bout
Medusa (Retiarius) - 1 Bout
Teucris (Sagittarius) - 1 Bout
Margareites (Secutor) - 1 Bout
Artemisia (Thraex) - 1 Bout
Andromache - 1 Bout

Me - 10 Prestige (Four wins, two losses with Missio)

Volubilis (Myrmillo) - 1 Bout
Victor (Crupellarius) - 2 Bouts
Rufina (Thraex) - 3 Bouts - +1 Speed
Sabrata (Veles) - 0 Bouts

Tertius - 9 Prestige (Three wins and three losses with Missio)

Spiculus (Dimacherius) - 1 Bout
Scylax (Scissor) - 1 Bout
Danaos (Hoplomachus) - 1 Bout
Apollo (Velite) - 3 Bouts - +1 Defence

I need to choose a skill boost for Victor. I'll probably boost his attack; boosting a speed of 1 hardly seems worth it and his defence of 6 is already maxed out.