[Ichthypresbyter]

No surviving Code Duello that I'm aware of (there are several, though the authenticity of most of them is disputed) says that duels have to be to the death.

There is a French one [0] which says that in a duel with swords, the seconds decide among themselves whether the duel will be to first blood or to the death, and do not inform the principals of their decision.

[0]https://www.geriwalton.com/french-dueling-codes-for-swords-p...

[jessriedel]

Thanks. In common usage of the term, duels don't have to be to the death, but they have to be with deadly weapons. Otherwise every disagreement settled by a boxing match or fencing match is duel. It's of course true that there is a continuum on how deadly a weapon can be, which depends on usage and has no sharp cutoff, but if the chance of death has been carefully eliminated, then the reader should be alerted to the fact that this does not really live up to the traditional understanding of a duel.