Her opponent had managed to cause a slip, with a brilliant wrong footing move and she couldn’t get her balance back before he had hamstrung her on both legs, reducing her mobility to basically – nothing. At that point, he lined up a killing blow, and waited to see of
the referee would call the victory. The referee took a moment, but as Mathilda clearly couldn’t use either leg and was bleeding copiously, eventually called the victory, and the opponent bowed to her and withdrew.
It later emerged that her opponent attained his 26th win, after having been a gladiator over 10 years, fighting at the minimum rate (once every 3 months). He had a few lucky losses of his own early on, but had no losses since he got out of novice class. He was immediately commissioned into the military after winning free of the arena.
Will Mathilda! be back next Saturday, or will she need longer? Expectations are that we will see her as usual, but those who were betting on a whitewash card have already now lost their bets. The new gamble now is how many more will she lose before it’s all over, and will her luck finally run out?
It was an amazing match. The crowd was on its feet when he took out her legs. There was a moment of silence and then the cacophony as both sides screamed their wants to gladiators and the referee, myself included.
My purse is heavier for the loss but I am glad to see this member of Spec Ops continues to fight in the arena. I look forward to Saturday’s match.
May fortune smile on you, Ms. Leon.
She is still alive. That’s what counts.