It all depends on your intent... if you (the GM) want to kill the player, or wanted this event to be significant, then you should use an extended contest.
If it isnt important to the story line, is incidental or random, then use a simple contest and rationalise the result in any way you like - 'why' the tick doesnt finish him off isnt important.
Even if you get a complete victory the player still isnt dead, he is dying... and with but a single follower or friend will survive. The intent of HQ is not to frivilously kill players. The benefit of Simple vs Extended contests is that it allows me to signal to my players where their lives are at risk, or just their egos.
Ticks normally dont intend to kill by the way, death is a side effect, they would much prefer to come back later and feed again.
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