"Hiiyaaaaah"
Suddenly a goblin jumped from the top of a tree targeting its stone dagger towards Ann.
*swing*
With a single slash of her sword, the lifeless body of the monster fell to the ground like a puppet whose strings were cut.
One by one, goblins started emerging from between the trees in all directions.
As their presence was exposed they started coming out in numbers from all sides. And without a moment to waste began attacking everyone in sight.
Since their primary job was to protect the carriage carrying the relic, Eugene and Ann stuck together while the others scattered around forming the perfect defense.
"How many of those do you think there are here?" Ann asked in the middle of cutting down two goblins at once.
"Since their strength is in numbers. Probably around seventy to eighty" Eugene estimated while climbing to the top of the carriage.
"A goblin army" Ann scoffed.
"Sweet!"
Suddenly a rock flew towards her face.
"Whoa!" She exclaimed, dodging another rock the size of a small pumpkin.
One of the goblins was throwing stones at her hiding while in the bushes.
'This nasty hoarder! Tsk!'
Ann clicked her tongue almost immediately spotting the location of the stone-throwing goblin. He was sneaking glances at her through the gap between the bushes.
"Grrr..."
The goblin peeked from the bushes searching for the blue-haired human female that was guarding the shiny box. Although she was standing there just until a moment ago, she was nowhere to be seen.
"?"
He looked around confused when someone tapped on his back.
"Looking for me?"
"!"
Before he could react, Ann cut him off with a single strike leaving behind a lifeless body.
Within a second, another goblin jumped at her with a fierce cry,
"Hiiyaa.."
Just as Ann was about to swing her sword and slice it into two, the goblin fell dead to the ground courtesy of a headshot by Eugene.
*thuck*
"Hey! He was mine!" Ann complained, throwing her hands in frustration.
She turned around to find Eugene standing on top of the carriage with a bow in his hand.
Though she was about to complain about him stealing her prey, when he revealed his face from behind the bow, the frustration she felt earlier vanished into the sky.
"You changed into a bunny!" Ann exclaimed in a high-pitched voice.
The appearance of a greyish-white fluffy rabbit in a dark mercenary outfit holding a large bow was an eye-catching sight.
Beastmen maintained their basic human physique while inheriting the physical boosts of their beast ancestors making a perfect and powerful blend of the two. A single beastmen was capable of defending against a platoon of generic human soldiers and an entire unit of them could fight a war.
Hence the Nero mercenaries covered the front guard of the entourage leaving the entire Tullus mercenaries as rear guards though they were large in number.
It was not only Eugene but all the Beastkin members of the Nero mercenaries had transformed into their true forms.
The twin foxes Noah and Oliver were standing side by side covered in bright blue fur, their faces having transformed into that of a cunning fox. They were tearing apart the goblins left and right, their usual playfulness entirely gone as if a switch had been flipped.
Jade morphed into a fierce leopard, his brownish-yellow fur covered with its signature spots as he mauled down every monster that came to his path. His carnivorous instincts allowed him to track the monster hiding on the trees as he climbed to the top taking out all the hidden goblins that were shooting arrows at them.
Yet the most outstanding transformation out of all of them was of Raeden's shapeshift to a mighty black wolf standing at the front line with his sharp claws ready for battle. He removed his coat revealing his large stature in the black sleeveless shirt. His sharp canines were enough to instil fear in his opponents as his eyes narrowed at the enemy. At the speed of light, he jumped from one location to another clearing dozens of goblins at once.
While people and goblins alike were intimidated from witnessing the Nero mercenaries' true form for the first time, there was one person who felt different.
"I wanna hug that fluff!" Ann's eccentric reaction to it left everyone confused.
Unable to contain the joy, Ann retraced her steps back to the carriage terminating anything that came her way leaving behind a bloody green path.
*slash* *slash*
'Even their blood is green. I am seeing a lot of green things today' Ann thought as she dodged an arrow from the trees.
It had been weeks since she saw Eugene beastify and there was nothing that could stop her from patting him. Especially since he had been deliberately avoiding transforming in front of her due to her intense obsession with cuddling him.
"This is not the right time for it!" Eugene tried to stop her, just as she was about to climb the carriage.
To be cuddled like a teddy bear in front of his colleagues in public was the last thing he wanted. Though it had already happened multiple times in the past he wanted to avoid repeating an embarrassing history in the presence of people he barely knew.
It was not like Ann to be behaving like a child during a live fight. In fact, she would actively take part compared to any of the others as it came under the scope of her responsibility.
But professionalism went out the window when fluff was involved.
It brought out the insane person living inside of Ann. And once she was taken over there was no return until she was satiated.
Without any options left Eugene bit his lips and said in a sorrowful voice,
"I'll let you......touch my hair.... later"
He was forcing himself to say the words that he would definitely regret later,
"As much....as.....you like. So stay focused"
*thuck* *thuck*
"Later when?" Ann raised her eyebrows in question.
"Later!" Eugene yelled, firing one shot after another.
"Fine! But when this is over, you better let me brush your hair"
"Grrrrr"
The ground surrounding the carriages was filled with corpses of goblins. It was not a sight for the faint of heart. Since aside from Kalan all the other Orion merchants were inside the safety of the carriages, the only person she had to protect was him.
'Though he doesn't look like he needs any protecting'
Ann saw Kalan sitting on top of his horse expressionlessly watching the chaos around him. If it weren't for her stopping him, she was sure that he would have joined them for the fight.
"Beauty. You know the drill" Ann said, nodding her head towards him. It was the signal he was waiting for.
*neigh*
Beauty jumped up excitedly. His owner was about to let him do the one thing he always wanted.
"Smash everything"
Beauty snorted as if he was waiting for it.
He ran across the pathway chasing three goblins like he was the horse of death. His eyes were flaming in excitement running like a maniac, as he missed colliding into Jade by an inch.
"Crazy horse" Jade commented, jumping out of the way in the nick of time.
The horse was throwing goblins into the sky like juggling apples.
It was the first time he had seen a horse behave so unusually, making him wonder about its mental state. Rather than following its instinct and running away from danger, it was running towards it.
Then he recognized who the horse was and realized whom he belonged to.
"Aaah"
It was a classic case of crazy attracts crazy. He shook his head and continued to claw the monsters jumping from all sides ignoring the horses' existence.
'That's right, Beauty. Go full hulk!'
Ann saw Beauty charging at a group of goblins trying to run away from the scene.
Then when she pulled her sword out of a goblins' head, she realized something.
"Now that I think about it. I didn't receive a single flower at the flower festival" She complained to Eugene.
"Is that really important right now?" Eugene shot down a goblin piercing its shoulder, which was then killed by Ann.
"It is to me!" She yelled at him after slicing a goblin into two.
*slash*
*thud*
Ann had cleared out all the goblins around the central carriage.
After fighting for a whole twenty minutes, the herd was finally thinning out.
When she looked back to see if the Tullus mercenaries needed any assistance, they were handling the situation better than she had anticipated. They were cleaning off the remaining goblins on the ground having killed the majority of the active ones.
Ann walked a bit front to find that Raeden, Jade, and the twins had also finished up.
Jade was checking the conditions of the people inside the carriages, while Raeden and the twins scoped the surrounding area.
On the other hand, Eugene shot the last goblin hidden in the trees.
"It's over" He signed.
Right when he thought the fight was over, a goblin jumped out of nowhere and lunged towards a vulnerable Kalan, who was no different from a sitting duck. When he reached behind for an arrow, the quiver was empty.
"Look ou..."
*thunk*
But before the goblin reached Kalan, it fell to the ground lifeless. On the back of its head was attached a dagger with an Eagle emblem engraved on it.
Kalan followed the direction the dagger came from to see Ann sign in relief having made it back at the right time.
"Now it's over"