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For the third time Vergilius geared himself up and made his way to the arena, his opponent today was a relatively experienced one, a Secutor called Leonitius. The man didn't have the kind of physique you'd associate with a warrior, he had an exceptionally slender frame but despite this his muscles were strong which gave him incredible speed even if he did pay for it in power, he was a master of exploiting his opponents openings.
A great deal of appreciation was shown for both of the fighters by the crowd as they'd both already proven themselves today, word of them both would spread through the region and if they survived long enough they may even find themselves in Rome, provided they didn't kill each other now. The signal was given for the match to start and the gladiators approached each other eager to see what they each could do. Leonitius lived up to his reputation of speed and easily out paced Vergilius to the centre of the arena, he remained in the centre and watched cockily as his opponent approached.
Vergilius saw his opponent effectively taunting him and charged forwards to the sounds of metal on metal echoed into the distance only to be quickly drowned out but chaotic cheering, with neither gladiator really gaining an advantage they both stopped and stared each other down as the two of them stood toe to toe.
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Todays match up, a small man with a total of 12 attribute points (2 more than us) who fights in the style of a Secutor (Chaser), this could be a tricky one. All his stats are pretty high and he has two more bonus dice to start off as well, he is indeed a very dangerous opponent, but that only means the rewards will be higher for beating him.
The match began and there's no prizes for guessing who reaches the centre of the arena first, once he reaches the centre Leonitius decides to hold his ground in the middle so I move in to try and gain some ground, he uses 2 bonus dice right off the bat and they make a difference allowing him to attack me on the unshielded side, unable to make any progress both of the gladiators catch their breath in the zone and a new turn begins.
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| My attack turned into a counter, luckily no attacks got through. |
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The lull in activity didn't last very long as Leonitius quickly charged forwards with his shield out in front of him, Vergilius stood firm as the impact reverberated through the stands. With a solid push forwards Vergilius managed to shove his opponent away and the two of them took long deep breaths in an attempt to recover from the intense excursion. Taking the initiative Vergilius rushed forward swinging wildly, it was a brash move which could have had extremely harsh repercussions, he found himself off balance as his opponent casually stepped out of the attacks path and braced himself for the worst, but it never came, as he looked back up he found Leonitius had barely moved and was standing with his arms down by his side almost inviting an attack.
Slightly riled by the way Leonitius was carrying himself, Vergilius charged forwards looking to push his cocky opponent back, as they came together Leonitius quickly saw the intention behind the attack and therefore was able to parry it away, once again putting Vergilius in a disadvantageous position, he was expecting a counter attack and had once again braced himself but yet again when he looked up his opponent was just standing there waiting for him, this time a bit further back controlling the centre of the arena.
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Then comes my turn, unsatisfied with how things were going I chose to charge forwards and try to get things going, unfortunately I get completly outmatched in the manouver stage again and find myself 4 sucesses down making another bash a possibility, strangely enough when I rolled to see what would happen Leonitius backed off into the centre of the arena and caught his breath rather than attacking (I put it down to arrogance).
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| Yea he's definitely a cocky one. |
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The arena fell silent as for what seemed like an eternity as the two gladiators gazes locked together, so far it'd been a back and forth fight but there was still no bloodshed. Vergilius was the first to flinch and he ran forwards to try and force his opponent back from the centre, Leonitius' shield was proving to be troublesome however as it formed a solid wall for him to run into, a short scrap broke out with both fighters launching attacks and parries, in the end a lightning fast slash from Leonitius tore the flesh of Vergilius' belly leaving a shallow wound and forcing him back slightly.
Clutching his wound Vergilius looked back at Leonitius who was still just standing there making no attempt to advance, as frustration built once more Vergilius charged recklessly putting himself off balance before he even reached his opponent, Leonitius passed up another advantage and chose to step back a few paces, it really did seem like he was just toying with his opponent.
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The next couple of turns ended up being a short moment of rest for both gladiators as Leonitius was unwilling to attack and I desperately needed to recover some of my bonus dice, however I couldn't afford to wait for a whole three turns as while I was standing here my opponent was also recovering dice so I moved forward to attack. Leonitius was trully a beast in the manouver stage and once again I found myself on the wrong end of a bash attack after he beat me by 3 successes. The attack phase was the only time I'd really be able to get an advantage so I threw in 3 bonus dice to this one and....managed to score one less success...great, luckily that meant there would now be a retake which gives me an advantage right off the bat, finally after two more retakes and two bonus dice from Leonitius he managed to best me and inflict a minor wound on my belly while forcing me back a zone.
Thankfully my opponent was not interested in pressing the attack yet and we spent another turn recovering, then I decided I needed to do something pretty quick, after 4 ties (I wondered if I'd ever see a winner) my opponent managed to narrowly win the speed check but was still choosing to hold his ground, I however knew I needed to do some damage to stand any chance of winning so I charged forwards yet again finding myself losing by more than 3 successes, this time my opponent decided to retreat back a space and catch his breath rather than take advantage thought, it was and interesting move and to be honest one I was content with (I did not want another shield bash to the face).
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| Yea, Run boy!!!!!! |
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As Leonitius stood there as if nothing had happened Vergilius composed himself and charged in again, it seemed like despite his best efforts he would not be able to win this match as he found himself flying backwards through the air with a nasty cut in his chest. All feeling of pain had been taken away by the sheer adrenaline and anger he was feeling right now, ignoring his wounds he clambered to his feet and with all of his strength entered a furious exchange with his opponenet.
A parry followed by an attack with a block after it to defend against the counter, it was easily the longest and most intense fight of the match, both gladiators were giving it absolutely everything. At the end of the day there was only so much more Vergilius' body could take as a blow to his head rattled him and sent his world spinning as he tumbled to the dirt and slipped out of conciousness completely unaware that a few feet away his opponent had also collapsed, breathing heavily through the sheer exhaustion.
Leonitius had been declared the winner as he controlled the fight and inflicted more wounds on his opponent, however Vergilius could also be considered a winner as even the most serious of his wounds healed quickly and with no noticeable after shock.
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Leonitius seemed to be making a point of not doing anything he didn't have to as once again he caught his breath, I started to get impatient at this point and charged forwards into another shield bash, I used a bonus dice to try and force a re-roll but my opponent threw in 3 of his dice and managed to score a massive 5 more successes than me. The result of the attack was a knock down as well as a serious chest wound for me to deal with.
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| Sooo....call it a draw? |
The next turn I'm extremely luck that my opponent doesn't try to attack while I'm still knocked down, that could have been a very bad time for me, instead he chose to catch his breath again to try and keep his dice pool as full as possible. At this point I knew I probably wasn't going to win this match, but what's the point of a game if you can't take insanely stupid risks that would normally result in certain death? Charging forward again we both used 2 of our bonus dice to start off what would become the longest chain of re-rolls this game, a total of 4 bonus dice were used by me and 5 by my opponent, leaving us both with none left, usually this would result in both gladiators collapsing but the combat wasn't finished yet, as I saw a further two re-rolls before conclusion was reached. Being beaten by 4 successes saw me take a light wound to my head (Thanks to my heavy armour) before both gladiators were declared spent.
Leonitius won this fight causing 2 light wounds and 1 serious wound while receiving none himself, I rolled to see how my wounds would heal and was pleasently surprised to see a speedy and full recovering on all of them. In the end I don't think this was a bad result, he was more skilled than us and we were always fighting a losing battle, but it was fun and because it wasn't a death match we can continue our career and hopefully get into Rome where some of the more interesting game mechanics come into play.
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