Combat is meant to be quick, though not quite as quick as that. I think you missed that you subtract body from the damage.  First, attacks need to hit. I think everyone has wisely taken at least combative level 1, so for each attack it's a contest of d10+body (plus possibly speed defensively too, though I haven't confirmed that yet) to determine if a hit connects. Then, if it does, you subtract body+armor from it. So say someone has a body of 7, an armor of 4, and a potency of 9. If player A did 14 damage and connected with the hit, player B would lose only 3 potency. So based on how the dice fall, some battles will be over very quickly and some could last a while.