If I had to describe the scene at the moment Anders thumped teacher, then I’d liken it to a tableau etched into a stone wall – carved for the ages of memory to retain. In other words, the children bore stupefied expressions as they watched their beloved Teacher get hit by the honoured guest. I wish I could say things escalated immediately from there, however Teacher clenched his stomach with his hand before keeling over and coughing.

“Do I…hah…take this to…mean you wish to spar against me…Anders?” I heard him question through strangled breaths.

“Of course! What better way to stoke the fire in their hearts than to show how a proper fight looks?!”

“…A little forewarning would have been nice…”

Teacher ordered us all to move a little further away for our safety, before he and Anders called for their respective crystal beasts. Anders’ arrived first, with white crystalline fur covering its whole back as the rest of its body was wrapped in bristly black fur. “Crystal Honey Badger,” I vaguely recalled it being, however I didn’t understand how I knew that.

From the fair distance I was – with regards to the crystal beast’s location – I could see its height easily reached up to Anders’ hips, with long sharp grey claws on its forelimbs. Glancing to its hind legs, the grey claws on its paws appeared shorter but no less frightening in their capacity for cleaving and cutting. Even from observing at a safe distance, I detected the bloodlust contained within its eyes.

Teacher’s crystal beast entered the clearing a few moments later, bearing a regal poise as its blue crystal horns jutted out from its head. Its fur had taken on an elegant shimmer of grey with a stripe of dark blue fur lining its back. My mind somehow pulled out the name of a Crystal Eland from the deepest recesses. I began to wonder if I had seen these beasts in a book that Teival had read at some point but thought no more about it when the spar started.

Going by the destruction I witnessed both sides causing, I rapidly realised what Anders had meant by showing a proper fight. Well, I say a proper fight but I believe they were holding back tremendously in order not to damage the village. Standing straight as I stared at the spar, I couldn’t withhold my excitement over the scene. “Yeah! Get him Teacher! No! Dodge out of the way! Ooh! You were luring him in! Ah! What’s that move?! Teach me that! I want to know how to do that!”

I wagged my tail enthusiastically as I witnessed Teacher’s crystal eland gracefully jump around the arena while narrowly avoiding the assault of wind blades fired from the crystal honey badger. Briefly turning to examine the reactions of my peers, I noticed how they too were entirely enraptured by the demonstration.

At one point, Anders had ordered his crystal beast to double its defence, resulting in its fur increase in size and turn even more spiky than before. Teacher responded in kind by commanding his crystal eland to completely soak the enemy with numerous powerful water jets out of its horns. Just as the jets had thoroughly saturated the crystal honey badger’s fur, Teacher then had his partner freeze the fur – presumably in a bid to slow it down.

My ears prickled at the laugh emanating from Anders as he had his crystal honey badger shake its body nonchalantly – removing the ice with an aura of wind before redirecting the shards of ice towards the crystal eland. It was then that I realised there was an entirely different battle occurring between the tamers. Anders’ appearance had drastically changed from wearing black clothes to having a kind of black stone – or maybe even crystal – around his entire body.

Turning to Teacher, he had also assumed another form as his body was cloaked in ice and water. I have to admit, the sight and sound of the battle was mesmerising. There was the colourful clash of crystal beasts duking it out in a calamity of chaos, while the tamers were dancing in a duet of danger where deflections of daggers didn’t detract from the songs they sang for spells. My vision was filled with an almost anarchic beauty that evoked the desire to bear witness and not miss a single thing.

Eventually, the crystal honey badger had managed to climb onto the crystal eland’s back and began absolutely ravaging its foe’s flesh. I winced at the sounds of pained agony from the crystal eland, as I saw the crystal honey badger actually start ripping it into chunks of meat and devouring it. Averting my gaze from such a squeamish scene, I witnessed Anders kicking Teacher in the throat before he observed the situation with the beasts and laughed humorously.

I shuddered in revulsion at his reaction before being overwhelmed with displeasure over his following actions. He ran over to the crystal beasts and broke the horns off the crystal eland before stabbing them into its hind legs. The cries of anguish from Teacher’s crystal beast caused me to tear up as I couldn’t bear to watch any longer. I padded over to Teival and buried my face into his leg while whimpering.

My master must have detected my discomfort as he sat down and hugged me while scratching my ears. “Master, you wouldn’t let such awful things happen to me, right? You wouldn’t allow such cruelty, right? Ah, that feels nice, keep scratching there.” With my mood no longer morose, I gathered my courage to have a peek at the battle to find Teacher and his crystal beast unconscious.

Anders was standing over Teacher with his hands on his hips – no longer coated in stone – and laughing in elation over his victory. “Looks like I didn’t hold back enough! Well, since Solomon is incapacitated you can all have the day off! Remember to keep this demonstration in mind when developing your crystal beasts: it takes the both of you to be skilled in order to win. Weaklings only hold their partners back! Dismissed!”

Teival stood up and scratched behind my ears before following the rest of the excited children out of the clearing. I padded behind Teival a few steps away with my ears and tail drooped – noticing Dinara running up to Teacher to presumably check on his condition. Along the way to our humble abode, I constantly heard Teival singing his praises over how strong Anders was – well, not literally singing – and saying how he wanted to reach that level one day.

I felt a little conflicted over my master’s goals, since I knew it was good to strive to be better…however, I didn’t approve of Anders’ style. I had determined him to be cruel and calculating, with a sort of sadistic love of violence and infliction of pain to others. “Teival, I don’t want you to take pleasure in violence…Brutality is bullying. Don’t become that which you hate in the villagers…”

Entering our room, I saw Teival immediately head for his new books and begin to avidly read from one on the bed. Feeling mentally drained from the day, I jumped onto the bed beside him and went to sleep. The last thing in my mind as I drifted off was the reminiscent sound of laughter drowning out despondent screams.