The next day....
Igneel was standing in front of Max with a serious expression on his face like it wasn't him who acted childish the previous day.
"Okay Max, today's lesson is still moving target practice...but since someone let the windrabbit go, we are going to have to substitute"
With that, Igneel pointed toward the forest and a lightning beam flew out of his hand into the distance.
Less than ten seconds later, the beam started retracting into his finger. Surprisingly at the end of it a creature was being dragged toward Igneel.
Even more surprisingly, despite having it's paw wrapped up by the silver lightning, the creature didn't seem to be getting damaged by it.
"This here is called a shadow panther, it's a level 4 wild beast, it has a bad habit of leaving close to strong creatures hoping to eat their left overs after they hunt."
"With it's ability to hide in shadows of the trees all around, it's way of life pays more often than you'd think, since most beasts below level 7 can't sense it and to those level 7 and above, it's not worth the effort to kill it since it's so weak and small."
"Though obviously today it got unlucky. Anyway, like yesterday you have to hunt and kill it. This time the creature is not only stronger but has better evasive techniques. Another reason I changed the creature is that I noticed you yesterday, at first you might've missed unintentionally but after a while you did it on purpose."
"It seems like your mother, you think windrabbits are cute or something along those lines which I don't understand. Just in case you don't want to kill this one too, I'll tell you bit more about it".
"It's a ruthless creature that leaves off the strong, if the strong don't sense it and leave their young ones behind and go hunt, it will kill and consume them. On top of that, even if it leaves off you for years, if you ever get wounded in battle and weaken significantly, it will attack you and try and eat you too."
"As for why it doesn't just hunt for lower level creatures you might wonder, it's because for some reason these creatures are born with the urge to eat higher level creature meat than lower level ones"
"Now that you know that it's an evil being through and through, I hope you can complete the task today.
"Oh and I know my control over lightning is great so stop gawking. You can worship me later after the task."
After all, I, your father am the peak, If I say I'm number tw....that sounds like a turd, if I say I'm number three, then there's no number one and two"
At first Igneel was serious in his explanations but he wouldn't be himself if he didn't act smug eventually.
"Okay father, I'm ready, you can release it now...and I will surpass you one day...maybe in a few days even, then I will be the peak, I will be the one beneath none!". Max said seriously to his father while looking at the shadow panther. Of course he wasn't serious about surpassing Igneel in a few days, just trying to get under his skin.
"This brat...fine, don't fail again or even I'd feel embarrassed to be your father". Igneel's lip twitched when he heard Max say he'd surpass him in a few days, what pissed him off the most was how he felt it was actually quite possible. Max was only a stage below him at that point in time after all, though he would never tell him that since he still wanted to keep his pride as a father.
As soon as the lightning binding the shadow panther disappeared, the panther which didn't look much different from a panther except for its sinister purple eyes and black spikes on its back ran towards the forest.
"Hmm?!" Igneel's suddenly shifted from the panther to Max beside him.
In his sight came Max, his entire body now crackling with silver lightning then....
boom!
The sound barrier was broken and in the next half second Max had his hand on the head of a roasted shadow panther that was just about to disappear into a tree's shadow.
{What?!}× 4. The elders who where watching from the distance all suddenly thought in their heads. Only Ron who could sense and accept that the young prince was already stronger than them wasn't shocked, since even he could pull off the speed the young prince did. So it only made sense for the prince to be able to do that at least.
"With that, mission complete". Max said as he looked back at his father.
"....Good job Max, now go hunt ten more just on this mountain". Igneel said with a stoic expression after being quiet for a few seconds.
Seeing his father not get shocked like before, Max was kinda disappointed but still turned around to go do the task he was given.
As soon as Max's figure disappeared into the forest, Igneel fell on his butt.
"That.. that brat, yesterday he could barely access one percent of his power and in one night he's already at ten percent, he's already as strong as a level 7....Grace, is the world really prepared for this beast we've made?". Unlike what Max thought, Igneel was again shocked, just that this time he was so shocked he couldn't react quick enough.
As Igneel said those words, the shock slowly disappeared and again a grin appeared on his face. At the end of the day, Igneel was a father and every father wishes for their child to succeed.
"That's my son...I do wish Grace could also see him though, at this rate, by the time she wakes up, I will be weaker than our son... sigh." Like always, Igneel's thoughts always circle back to his wife, which shows how much he loves her.
.....
Four hours later...
"Father I'm back!, these things really know how to hide, otherwise I would have returned long ago". Max could be seen walking back carrying ten dead shadow panthers above his head with one hand that were piled up in top of each other.
The sight was quite comical since he was only five, the panthers were all bigger than him.
"Okay, good job today son".
"And with that the objective for this training has been completed, tomorrow we can start combat training, you'll be fighting your aunt Iliana"
"Really?!, finally, something challenging for a change". Max started jumping around with joy.
{Sigh, this kid, he really doesn't care about his father's face does he?, after all the thought I put into the training I made him go through, he dares say it wasn't challenging right in front of me}
{Whatever, I, his father am a generous person after all... maybe I should tell Iliana to beat him up a little}
Max suddenly felt a chill go down his spine when he was looked at by his smiling father.