Bifurcated!

Cromak steps into the ring again, but his fame precedes him!  This time his opponent is from neighboring Mirish, a leather-armored spearman.

Bellon is a Savvy 5, Strength 4, Speed 3, warrior with a two-handed spear, and leather armor.  His extra Signature is Rage which give him +1d6 on Maneuver and Attack, but only so long as he still has 1/2 or more of his bonus dice.  His points are 6, equal to Cromak.

Almost immediately, Bellon scores a scratch on Cromak's belly with his spear (-1 Strength point).

Cromak and Bellon are pretty evenly matched, and have a hard time finding an opening on one another.  Both turns 3 and 4 result in no openings for either gladiator.  

Turn 5 goes to 6 rounds of retake attack, until Cromak finds an opening and scores a bleeder on Bellon's right arm.  Bellon is only Strength 4, so he only has 1 wound left on his right arm, and no Bonus Dice.

Bellon goes first on turn 6, and loses use of his right arm.  He then catches his breath, and regains a Bonus Die.

The next turn, Cromak advances, but can find no opening, and Bellon catches his breath.  He is fighting a losing battle, because he loses his Bonus Die as fast as he can earn them.

And then, Bellon moves in, seriously hampered by using his spear in his left hand, and being a bleeder.  He fails, and Cromak becomes the attacker, and gives Bellon a serious wound to the belly, another bleeder, knocking him down.

And in Cromak's half of the turn, he realizes that Bellon is about to bleed out, and so moves in and does a tremendous blow, again to the belly, with 8 successes!  So he cuts Bellon in half!

Cromak is getting quite a reputation for going for the soft belly on his opponents!  (Ah, the dice gods!)  He won his bet, but the odds were even, so he gains nothing.  He gets 100 talos for winning the match, and only 1 fame point, since he didn't dispatch Bellon in the center.  He uses one of his fame points to up his speed, to no avail.  At least he didn't get a "1".  He has a total of 7 fame points, but only 6 useable.

His toady is happy, and not noticing so quickly when his daughter slips off to "check on the cow!"

It really is amazing how this campaign is going.  Who would have thought that every kill will be caused by a belly wound, and that Cromak would get off so lightly each time?  I'm sure he will soon get his come-upetance soon.  And maybe his next opponent won't be so easy.  That "6" for "special" opponent must fall sooner or later.