  Fights-to-the-death occur in many natural, medical and commercial settings.
Standard mass action theory and conventional wisdom imply that the minority
(i.e. smaller) group's survival time decreases as its relative initial size
decreases, in the absence of replenishment. Here we show that the opposite
actually happens, if the minority group features internal network dynamics. Our
analytic theory provides a unified quantitative explanation for a range of
previously unexplained data, and predicts how losing battles in a medical or
social context might be extended or shortened using third-party intervention.
