Leaving the forest, I made sure that some of the other kids knew that Rena was in the forest so that they could take care of her if she fell asleep. A young girl asleep in the forest is not good news, especially with the pedophile on the loose. Speaking of the pedophile...

"Spirit! You're coming with me."

"Where are we off to?"

"kuku, we're going to meet someone special. So make sure you're prepared for anything, okay?"

"...What do you mean, 'anything'?"

"Just  come with me, and stop asking questions."

Following his retreating form, I just shook my head. "What has this world come to, with young girls of a tender age following questionable old men into the forest voluntarily?"

"If you want, I can make it involuntarily."

"...No thanks."

Keeping up with the old man was surprisingly hard, and I had to take two steps for every one of his. After two hours of walking, the old man had still yet to show signs of fatigue. Which reminded me of how I had not needed to sleep since I'd died, which was kinda convenient. I just noticed that the old man hadn't slept yet, either...

Magic.

"Elkrieg"

Sparks flew from nowhere, and shot toward the shaman-

"Aura"

The sparks were deflected off of a glowing half-sphere, which disappeared after a second. But, the attacker wasn't done yet.

"Gobslick"

Shards of earth came shooting from the leaves of the trees, splitting branches and cutting bark as they came. However, they were deflected by the same half-sphere as before, though a few cracks appeared on it before it once again faded from sight.

"Kuku, don't be so foolish, Sha'Go."

A green creature fell from the trees, dressed almost the same as the pedo.

"Kakaka! It seems I still can't make a scratch on you, old timer."

Wearing a smug smile, the pedo thrust out his chest like a farm boy who just got praised by his father in front of his crush.

"Indeed, I am, after all, the most powerful and handsome being in this forest, except of course Ugachaka, who's magnificence cannot be compared to that of mortal men."

The green creature-who I now realized was a goblin, based on his appearance-wore a sly smile. "Is that so? Do you agree, App'Go?"

"Gobslickig"

A spear of earth shot from behind the shaman, and I somehow knew that before he could react, that spear would go through his back. My body moved on it's own, and I stepped between the spear and the pedo. Analyzing faster than I could comprehend, I reviewed several options. Just stopping the spear with my body would not be effective, as the spear would just tear through me and continue on into the shaman. Thus, I quickly reviewed the elements used by the shaman in order to make the 'Aura' spell, and used a sixth of my pool to bring several the necessary amounts of elements together. Assembling the elements together, I once again had the feeling of something missing from the spell. However, I didn't have time to modify it, and simply used the spell as is.

"Aura"

To my eyes, a translucent sphere of light erected itself around me, As the spear neared my aura, the area the spear would intersect started to light up, and when the spear hit the sphere a solid light shone from the immediate area. Cracks appeared, and I saw the tip of the spear break through the sphere, but it was stopped successfully. The spear slowly disintegrated, and the sphere became translucent again. Seeing that the sphere was still damaged, I once again gathered sufficient elements to repair it. Seeing the cracks disappear, I sighed in relief. The I had the urge to throw up, as I realized I had just saved the pedo's life.

"Gods fucking damnit!"

Falling to the ground, I put my head to the floor in shame of my actions. The goblin shaman had a shocked look on his face, and rushed forward to lay his hand on my shoulder.

"It's okay, it's okay. I know almost losing your master is tough to deal with-"

Knocking his hand off my shoulder, I turned to the pedo. "You! It's your fault! Why couldn't you have died like the bastard you are?! How long are you going to cause me misery before you finally bite it?!"

Looking away, the goblins shaman looked just as depressed as me a second ago, and muttered to himself something like "...Just trying to help, jeez...you don't need to be so rude..."

A new voice broke through my anger. "U-um, I'm s-sorry if I d-did something w-wrong, b-but I h-hope you'll f-forgive me..."

Turning around, I saw another goblin, however this one was much shorter, and gave off the air of a young boy who was very nervous. For some reason, I had the urge to run forward and hug him, and rub my cheek against his. I think it's safe to say that this is the strangest thing that has happened to me since I died. Walking forward and barely resisting the temptation to clasp him to my chest as hard as I could, I felt like I should go down on one knee to bring our eyes level, even though he was only a couple inches shorter than me. Trying my hardest not to pat him on the head, I tried to comfort him.

"It's okay, you didn't do anything wrong. It's all the bad pedophile's fault."

Sniffling, he said "W-what's a p-pedophile?"

Giving in to the urge to pat him on the head, I told him "You'll find out when you're older."

Wiping away his tears, he smiled and looked up at me, which made him go from cute to jaw-dropping  adorable. Unable to hold myself back anymore, I wrapped my arms as far around him as they could go, and squeezed.

"Kyaaa! How can you be so cute!"

"*Cough* Y-you're c-*hack* choking me-"

Letting go as fast as possible, I quickly checked his ribs to see if any were broken, and sighed in relief when I found that none of them were. A few were cracked, though.

With App'Go holding his ribs in pain, I turned to see the pedo grinning. For some reason, I got embarrassed, which made me even madder.

"So, why are we here, mister pedo?"

"Why are you calling me that like it's a title!"

"Because if there were to be a competition for pedophiles, you would win the grand prize."

Unable to come up with a comeback, the pedo grunted and turned toward the goblin shaman.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Now that I got a closer look, I saw that he was about five feet, had long drooping ears with points on the end, and had slightly gnarled hands. Seeming like he wanted to say something, he made a respectful gesture to the pedo.

"kuku, what is it? And I never thought that you would use such underhanded methods such as trickery to kill me..."

"Kakaka! Well, I have no other way to threaten you, and I really wanted to see your trump card again."

"Kuku, you know I can't just use that willy nilly."

"Kakaka! But I just can't get that one time out of my head. Ever since, I've always hungered to know more..."

"kuku, maybe some other time. I see you've brought your apprentice, and there is something I'd like to check."

Stepping backward differentially, he made a 'go ahead' gesture. Grinning in a way that made him seem more like a pedophile than ever, he stepped closer to the cute goblin. I quickly stood up, and turned toward him.

"Listen here, fucker. I can overlook your previous sins of defiling little girls, but I will not let you spoil the innocence of this little ball of hope!"

"I've told you! I'm not into little girls! And why would I want to take away a boys' innocence?"

Jutting out my chin, I replied with "Maybe because you're a perverted old man with a long and bloody history of defiling children."

Once again left without a coherent reply, the old man threw up his hands and took a few steps back. Fuming, he called out to the young goblin. "You! App'Go, was it? You're going to spar with this pain in the ass until I have properly assessed your ability."

Even with my quick reflexes, I still couldn't keep the look of surprise from my face. However, what he said next made my jaw drop a couple feet.

"And you! Pain in the ass! Under no circumstances will you use 'Fell Wind' got it?"

"I don't have to listen to you-"

The pedo grin was back.

"kuku...oh, but you do have to listen to me. claus sixteen, paragraph thirty seven, states that "The signer of this contract hereby revokes his or her own basic rights, and submits themselves completely to the creator of said contract."

My jaw just kept dropping. "But-when-how-where was that?! I didn't read any that!"

"kuku...like I said before, it's in the fine print."

Hearing this, my body and mind stopped functioning properly, and all the thoughts in my head were: Dear gods, if you are out there, I have only two words to say.

"U-um, I-i don't know... d-do I r-really h-have t-to fight?"

The goblin shaman nodded, and the young goblins face hardened in an incredibly cute way. His fireball was a little less cute.

"Fell Win-"

My throat closed, and my spell canceled half-way.

FUCK YOU!

Activating aura once more, I just barely blocked his fireball. Because I only used the bare-minimum elements required to make aura, the fireball spread foot-long cracks throughout my sphere. Analyzing his spell, I recreate the elements used, then remove all the unneeded formations and optimize it to use the least amount of element for the greatest effect.

"Maximized Fireball"

Out of thin air, a ball of flame three feet in diameter appeared and hurled itself toward the cute goblin. Even though this took about half my mana, I felt the effect was worth it. However, much to my surprise-

"Quelck"

And there goes my fireball...meanwhile, the old pedo's were watching us like two betters watching a cockfight. The old pedo had even taken a bag of fingers, and was eating them like snacks!

I think one of them was mine...

"kuku, serves you right!"

"kakaka! My little App'Go's quite the spell caster, eh? But that fireball...she must have practiced since she could walk to do that kind of magic!"

"Kukuku, I taught her everything she knows!"

You taught me jack shit, you lying fucker!

For some reason, I was unable to copy the "Quelck" spell. Thus, the fireballs he threw at me were quite difficult to deal with. Because they followed me wherever I went, I was unable to dodge them, and even worse, I had about a third of the mana I started with, and even that was draining fast while I desperately maintained my Aura.

Even so, it looked like App'Go was feeling the pressure too, and sweat had broken out on his face. Seeing his cute concentration, I could barely resist the urge to giggle in delight.

What? Giggle? Since when have I wanted to giggle!?"

The ridiculousness of my situation hit home, and I calmed in an instant. I got the idea that. if I can study the formation of his spell, why can't I make a spell to disrupt the formation?

Thinking thus, I carefully studied the formation of elements in each fireball, seeing the meticulous formations, and started thinking. How in the world would I disrupt a spell in midair?

The answer came in the form of Fire Bolt. But, instead of gathering enough fire element to shoot a Fire Bolt, I instead made a formation out of a small amount of fire element. Taking careful aim, and getting the timing down, I lined up my spell-

My Aura fell. I no longer had the mana to maintain it, and the next fireball that hits me will destroy me completely.

I thought I would be out of breath.

I thought I would be nervous.

What I really did surprised, horrified, and strangely...excited me.

I was smiling.

"Diffusion"

A small spark, just a few millimeters wide, flew from my hand straight into the fireball. For a second, it did all the good of a moth flying into a lamp. Then, the fireball sputtered out and disappeared.

Silence, from both the old men and from App'Go.

And from this silence, spoke a barely discernible female voice.

-True Form- is available. Would you like to activate this ability?

Feeling a tug at my lips, I slightly shook my head.

Not just yet...