“Easy, easy. One at a time!” Arwen’s voice was clear and commanding while he tried his best to take as many bets in as possible before the next fight started. Abacus waited only a few steps away – ready to step in and remove a hothead should it be necessary. Meanwhile he had his eyes glued to somewhat of an odd sight at the other end of the enclosure.

“Whew. We might have to hire someone to help me with taking bets next week,” Arwen proclaimed as he was finally free to appreciate the fight himself. He was waiting for some kind of response, but was only met with silence. Eventually he too looked at the other end of the ring. “What… Is happening?”

A scrawny and dirty, grey kitten was sitting at the feet of one of the biggest fighters in the tournament and seemingly demanded his attention. Carraig was widely known in the city as one of the wildest, most fearless fighters of the bunch, but he hadn’t had a lot of luck in the tournament so far. And at that moment, he seemed to be doing everything in his power to ignore the kitten that just wouldn’t leave him alone. 

The whole spectacle was gathering more and more attention and Carraig seemed to be very aware of it. And then both Abacus and Arwen dropped their jaws as the mighty fighter looked down at the kitten and struck a deal. To everybody watching, it seemed like he asked it, if it would quiet down if he gave it some of the dried meat in his pocket. Apparently it agreed and then made a bed for itself on top of his backpack and quickly fell asleep.

“I wonder how that will affect his odds,” Arwen couldn’t help but muse.

After having dragged behind for the first two weeks, the thieves have finally started to redeem themselves and have now risen above the clerics in overall win percentage. The wizards are still holding 1st place with a 2-out-of-3 win rate. And they have even managed to widen the gap to the ranger runner up.

Perhaps due to their new, unlikely mascot, the Jawbreakers broke out of their losing streak this week and pulled out a 4-1 win against the Heroes of the Damned. Only their wizard, Atriok, held his own and honored his class by pulling out a win.

After 3 weeks, the Hand is still undefeated past their fight against Blood, Sweat & Beers. It was a very close fight though with 4 out of 5 matches dragging on to a 3rd battle. Both wizards and both thieves pulling out a win in this matchup.

There isn’t much hope for competition for the Hand either as only Drink, Smash, Repeat has managed more than a single win up until now. But amongst the four bottom tier teams, the Smugglers seem to be holding their own with a win-rate that tops even that of Drink, Smash, Repeat. This next week should be defining!