Instinct or Resolve?

New pov:

I can't believe that the other cult member actually died to this "Funny" guy. Well she was kind of useless. She couldn't even assassinate him properly!

Well now my vacation is completely ruined by him. They've assigned me to kill him. I'm actually going to be careful here and observe him. It's not because I'm afraid though! I've killed many powerful cultivators!

Anyways, I saw him disappear when he finished talking with a little boy in the middle of the woods. And I thought we were the real criminals…

Maybe I could use the boy for bait? He seems like a caring guy. I started to approach the boy until something stopped me. This boy reeked of garbage! I definitely didn't want to touch him. Instead, I opted to maim him.

I ejected my special mushroom from my body at him. To my surprise he actually dodged. Then he started to scream as my mushroom exploded into acid right next to him. It only slightly landed on his arm.

"Hey kid, nothing personal or anything, but I kinda wanna use you as bait. You ok with that right?", I asked him. The little bastard started running away!

Well now I definitely had to chase him. I caught up pretty easily though. This kid really thought he could run away from me with only a few days of cultivation under his name? I started to rapid fire my mushrooms now.

Everything started to burn away as acid touched it. The kid stopped when acid was blocking his way.

"Look kid. I'm not a child beater so just come to me and I'll only tear off a limb, I promise!", I offered. That seemed to set him off. He looked at me with a glare.

I easily blocked all his attacks as he started to charge at me. I then let out a move I like to call "Acid Nova". I just spin around and let out mushrooms all over my body. It looked pretty silly, if I wasn't releasing acidic attacks every second.

He realized his mistake and tried to protect himself with his arms. What kind of idiot blocks acids with his arm? This time he didn't scream as acid went on his arms. Sadly the acid wasn't strong enough to completely destroy his arms, since I didn't put enough qi in them.

He ran again now that the acid that was previously blocked his way was gone. Well I obviously wasn't gonna let him get away again. This time, I charged up a big mushroom from my body and aimed it at his legs.

The moment I threw it, he forward like his life depended on it. Well it does, but whatever. This kid had an amazing instinct, but that's it. All I have to really worry about is that Funny guy.

Damn it looks like I was distracted in my own thoughts. I really need to stop this bad habit. Well he walked behind some trees, so he couldn't be far. And that's when I saw him jump into a pond. The pond wasn't too big, but the problem was that I couldn't see inside of it.

"Kid! If you can hear me just know you made a horrible mistake!", I warned him. Well I couldn't blame the kid for not knowing what acid does under water. I sent a barrage of mushrooms into the lake. After some mini explosions happened in the water, acidic bubbles started filling the entire surface of the lake. Damn I wanted him alive, but I guess I won't be able to use him to my advantage.

Wait I just remembered! I should probably check if the boy is still alive. He could've dug a hole in the pond. And people say I have no brain?

I dived inside the pond. I needed to find where the kid was quick. The acid in the pond was going to spread, and eventually I might have to use qi to protect myself from the acid. I saw a vacuum of water going down to a specific place on the pond floor.

I avoided all the disgusting half disintegrated fish that still had the will to live. Once I reached the place it had a hole. I started instantly filling it up with my mushrooms. This kid was quite the fast thinker, huh? Too bad he had to go up against me.

I left before I got caught up into the blast of acid. But before I could leave I felt a strong kick on my back! I fell right into the acidic blast that formed when I placed all those mushrooms in the hole!

"FUCKKKK!", I screamed in agony. I got severely harmed before I spread qi all around my body. Even then the acid ate away at my qi. I turned back to see that stupid brat swim away as sand washed away from him. He must've used the dirt and sand from the hole he dug to cover himself!

How does a kid think of this stuff?! Dammit I have to swim away quickly. My qi is depleting way too fast! The kid is definitely going to be waiting for me. Wait isn't that what he wants? Dammit I have no choice.

To really prove how much of a prophet I was, the kid was definitely waiting for me, but he has a giant damn rock on him! Luckily, it looks like he wasted a bunch of qi protecting himself. Looks like he was really tired.

I decided that qi was my only chance. I knew I was going to die, but if I took care of such a future threat, the Fungus God might forgive me in the after life. I can't believe I made fun of that girl for getting beat by Funny, when I couldn't even beat a kid.

Even though I was still in the water, I still stopped protecting myself with qi. I wanted to completely end this with one punch. I jumped out as parts of my skin and muscles were getting ripped apart by the water.

It looks like the kid realized what I was trying to do. He got in this strange position I've never seen before. I circulated all of the remaining qi I had into my dominant arm. I will never leave any job that the church gave me unfinished!

That is my resolve!

I did a straight jab at him. One hit, and I knew the kid's brain would be blown out. Of course, I knew he would try to dodge. That's why I am actually going to finish him off with a kick!

He believed in his survival too much! It was almost like a crutch for him to follow his instinct. He was too afraid of dying, I had the greater resolve!

As I was ready to turn this punch into a kick, he did something unbelievable! H-he leaned towards my punch! His shoulder got completely destroyed by my punch. Then he converted the force that went into his shoulder to lift up the rock!

As the rock smashed into my skull, my whole body went limp. I could feel the blood rush out of my deformed skull.

"Looks like you've finally grown some balls kiddo", I said, slowly struggling to keep my consciousness.

"Long live the Fungus God!", I said with my final breath.

Pov change:

The child finally collapsed onto the floor. The child didn't know why it wanted to risk his life like that. For once, the child didn't listen to his instinct. It didn't know why it didn't. All his instincts were telling him to dodge.

The child now realized what Valentine meant. They weren't in the slums anymore. They had real resolve now!