VҜβØ¥ ŇØV€ŁŞ

At Viktor’s bread booth, a narrow-chinned man with a walking stick was seated at the table, a dead fox lying on the ground beside him. Sariyu just got to the spot and asked him about the booth owner. “He’s gone for a bath,” the narrow-chinned man replied in a somewhat disappointed tone. “You can go and fetch some bread if you want.” “No, no, I didn’t come here for bread, but…” she paused for a moment, “wait, I can have bread even though the booth owner is absent?”

Many entries, for all their prominent and precocious tussling talents, never made it out of the ring with a win under their belt against Bruiser, and no soul any longer dared to give it a try, at least not until a scar-faced boy came along. Though some had feared on the inside that he’d act his age when it came to finishing the test in the last few seconds, they were all glad he proved them wrong. Some, however, believed that Bruiser’s arrogance proved his own undoing. A very few, though, reckoned Bruiser lost his edge and conjectured they had a chance of beating him now.

There were less than ten seconds left on the test clock, and though many hoped for Lirzod to display a knack for the narrow escape, they weren’t entirely sure of it happening. All those who knew Bruiser comprehended what was transpiring in the ring was not a joke. As many eyes witnessed everything taking place in the ring, Bruiser endeavored to claw his way back and take the lead. Lirzod’s teeth, however, chewed into the tail and dragged the headband along its length, also bringing bits of flesh with it to the tail end before sputtering the flesh and the headband high into the air, thereby giving himself a victory that was three minutes in the making and also a license to move on to the next deck.

On the tenth belt, there was a saying among men: if there isn’t much going on in your life, and things are quiet where you have been living, and entertainment is a bit hard to come by, then come to the twelfth deck. After all, one could see ravening cats in action, not just inside the cat ring but outside, too. One could often witness cats preying upon not just rats but also spiders, snakes, and scorpions in the streets. For the onlookers, their hunts were satisfying at many levels. Cats were rarely looked down upon by hollows because the felines made the deck a safer place, except for causing people to step on concealed cat crap all the time.