His goal was to point out that it wasn’t worth it to mess with him, he’s going to fight back hard and take you out. It was about deterring him from wanting to ever pick on him. Right, his goal wasn’t to permanently disfigure him, but to establish a permanent idea that it isn’t worth it to pick on him

That’s fair, though he was trying to permanently end the bullying, which is what i think OP was referencing at least. Since, you know, that would end bullying permanently

I think it’s more of a book reference to his fight with bonzo, who was bullying ender. Ender was a few years younger and knew he had to win the fight “permanently,” so it’s inferred that he knew what he was doing (not intending to kill him but that’s obviously a possibility).

Iirc, the officials told ender that bonzo was sent home. In reality, he did actually kill bonzo and was lied to about it.