And the combat ceased for want of combatants.

The line is commonly used (often in English translation) to convey an anticlimactic ending: a struggle stops not because it is resolved, but because there is no one left able or willing to continue it. Its irony lies in the circular logic—combat ends for lack of combatants—suggesting exhaustion, attrition, or mutual withdrawal rather than victory. In broader literary use, it can imply that conflicts sometimes terminate through depletion (of people, resources, or conviction) rather than through justice or agreement, and it can be applied metaphorically to debates, rivalries, or political contests that simply run out of participants.