You know, being surrounded on all sides by rows upon rows of conjoined seats filled with members of the Schwarzerberg Clan, while I stood beside Teival in the centre of the Main Stadium, was quite daunting. One could even describe the effect it had on the inductees and crystal beasts alike as intimidating. Of course, the cacophonous clamour of Clansmen talking with one another over who they thought was going to pass was unbearable for my poor, sensitive ears. “Why do humans talk so much? Can’t they keep quiet for even five minutes?”

I turned to look at Armin who was standing beside my master with a stiff expression full of nerves; his usual smug confidence no longer present, as the gravity of our situation had punched him in the face at great speed. Saying that, I don’t think Teival was doing much better since I couldn’t help being drawn to his constant clenching and unclenching of his fists. I suppose this would be a major turning point for these children, becoming fully-fledged members of the Clan, though I wasn’t too thrilled as a minor migraine was beginning to creep in that was most annoying.

After spending a few minutes enduring the opening speech from the Head Instructor – whose name I still didn’t bother remembering – our instructors then guided us to a large waiting room for us to stay until our match was up. As for the matches, according to Liesel, the top class had been seeded for the tournament – supposedly meaning they were going to start in the later rounds. Of course, though I had no idea what seeds had to do with the tournament – nor the reason why the top class were given some vegetation – I found it somewhat unfair that there were those who didn’t have to work as hard as others in this final trial. That was, until I remembered the Clan’s motto of the strong reaping all the benefits.

I sighed as I wondered if this would end up affecting Teival’s position in the ranks. I mean, from my deigning to listen to Liesel’s explanation of how the trial tournament would pan out, it seemed that only the top twenty overall would be allowed to pass. That meant forty children were going to be disqualified today. I was initially curious over how the instructors would measure one’s rank, until Liesel further explained about some kind of point system.

I tried to take in what she was saying, however I fear the convoluted descriptions of match brackets and positions based on them made my brain shut off out of boredom. I do recall her mentioning something about how first place got sixty points, and the last ten places got one point – so I imagined it would be in my master’s best interests to gain as many points as possible. This leads me to the next part of her explanation: the events.

Apparently, this tournament was going to rank the inductees on two things: one was on the Tamers themselves and how well they could fight against other Tamers; the other was on how well the Tamers had developed their crystal beasts, having us spar against each other. The latter event reminded me of the many sparring sessions Teacher in Penfallow made us do – which finally made me have just a sliver of respect for him for being able to provide me with many experiences of fighting. Only a sliver, though, since his magic theory lessons were useless.

As such, I was foisted to the side lines of the Main Stadium while my master ventured out for his first match. In terms of skill, Teival far outshone many of his opponents when it came to spellcasting. I mean, he wasn’t even giving it everything he had yet was still managing to defeat them without much effort. As for his later matches, it seemed that his opponents had been paying attention to his lack of using close combat, resulting in them closing the distance rapidly.

Although my master was doing quite well, by the later rounds he seemed to have exhausted his mana thus resulting in him having to resort to close combat. I have to say, the sight of Teival utilising the advice Armin had given him over the past several weeks was quite thrilling! “Ooh, dodge to the right! Oh, watch out for your legs! Ah! Don’t let him corner you, master!” I must admit, although my master ended up getting knocked out at eleventh place, I couldn’t help but wag my fluffy tail in happiness over how much he’d improved. “You weren’t an embarrassment, Teival! Now I won’t be scared to show my face when it’s my turn!”

With regards to other notable people I took my time to observe, Dinara had got knocked out at seventeenth place, Adelaide got knocked out at the place just above Teival, tenth, and Tabitha managed to reach sixth place. As for Armin, suffice it to say, he didn’t fail to prove his superiority in close combat when he reached the respectable third place. I think he would have won if his opponent hadn’t succeeded in getting sand in Armin’s eyes at the last moment, causing him to not be able to defend in time from a kick to his chest before being pinned to the ground. “You fought well, Armin. Even though you shouted the entire time.”

By the end of the final match between first place and second, the noon sun had reached its apex in the sky. The winner was some random boy I’d never seen before who had very tanned skin and a tall body – I swear he was at least two heads taller than Teival! As for the one in second place…well I didn’t bother allowing him to enter my vision after his dastardly devious deployment of sight-deprivation on Armin! “Humph! Such a cheating child! Using the soil to blind someone!”

Since it was lunch time, and the first event was over, I was elated to hear the Head Instructor announce a break for people to have their meals in peace. Nuzzling my dear master, I pawed at the box of treats he’d packed for me – impatient for him to open it so I could eat. “Teival! Give me the food! I’m starving! I’ve been working hard all morning watching boring stuff! It takes tons of energy to do that, you know?”

My wish was granted with no delay as Teival offered me my meal before stroking my head, “Be sure to not over face yourself, Kia. You’ll be fighting in the afternoon and I don’t want your gluttony affecting your performance.”

“Whashteva do you mean Cheival? I each enuff chu shushtain me!” I replied with a mouthful of food while wagging my fluffy tail in relish.

Unfortunately, after a few short and fleeting minutes, Teival took the treats away and said it was enough. I whimpered at him since my stomach was barely half-full, but he just responded with a shake of his head, “No. I don’t want you being sluggish!”

“I won’t be sluggish from eating more! I swear that I will be full of pep and vigour if you let me have my fill! I work better on a full stomach, dammit!” Alas, my protests were ignored as he packed the box away and did some last-minute inspections of my claws, paws and teeth. As such, I may have accidentally eaten some of the legs from the crystal centipede I was fighting against in the first match. I mean, I was hungry!

The next few matches were undeniably boring as I easily defeated them as if I was catching worms from the soil on a rainy day. My only problem came when I had to fight against a crystal eagle. Albeit, my opponent was nowhere near as large as those in the SAC, nor as big as Adah’s, however it still proved to be infuriatingly annoying – nonetheless.

Throughout the entire match, the crystal eagle refused to fight fairly! While I was stuck on the nice and safe ground – free of any chances of gravity harming me – that bothersome bird thought it would be fun to just fly in the air and swoop down for a cheap attack. It was getting to the point where my attitude had turned tetchy as I’d eventually had enough of being at a disadvantage and just decided to dig a hole. Sitting in the hole, I closed it up and created a few tunnels – all while using my superiorly sensitive ears to listen out for whenever the crystal eagle descended.

My shift in tactics proved effective as within a minute of me delving deep into the land, my opponent had had enough of waiting for me to come back up and so rested directly above me. “Hehehe! Such a foolish feather-brain! You had thought you’d seen the last of me, but here I pop!” I pounced through the loosened soil, landed on the crystal eagle’s wings, then proceeded to rip the feathered limbs to pieces. “Take that, you fowl fiend!” Of course, due to my expert plan, I won the match with ease and even managed to acquire a gift for Teival from it – a large feather with a crystal quill.

With the battle with the bird over, I bounded towards Teival with my present for him and dropped it on the ground. “For you, Teival! I thought it would look nice in your hair!” As I was explaining my gift to my master, the Head Instructor announced our advancement to the next match, currently placing us in tenth place. Since we were nearing the end of the final trial, I began wondering who my next opponent would be – hoping it wouldn’t be another airborne annoyance. “Ah…I’m hungry again…”