The mantis stalks the cicada unaware of the oriole behind

The goblins and babooches kept brawling, fighting for the rights over a cat girl collapsed in their middle and unaware of Ryu's group hidden not too far from them...

What happened was quite clear to the group after a while.

That girl seemed to be and adventurer. Maybe she strayed from her group, maybe she was alone... whatever she was doing, she got attacked and overwhelmed by goblins. The dead one in between her legs made it obvious the green pests got to her first, thought before they could enjoy their prize the babooches barged in and they began to fight.

Fight, and fight to the last one apparently, a detail Lia quickly noticed and planned upon.

Since those guys were so hung up about killing each other, why not waiting for them to do so? Then they'll just sweep in and clean out the remaining exhausted survivor, saving the girl and getting whatever loot they could from the dead monsters.

A sound and clever plan, one that worked even better than expected.

The goblin and babooches fought to the last man and only a single babooch was left standing by the time they were done. Not for long however, as a wind blade from Lia quickly ended his life.
The sudden attack alarmed those on the ground... but what could those injured and exhausted monsters do when they couldn't even stand up? It was a simple chore for Ryu and Fira to wander around delivering finishing blows while Lia and Nia went over to help the cat girl.

While the latter had fainted and was mildly battered, there was no real damage aside from her ruined clothes, slashed here and ripped here. With some healing magic from Nia soon enough the cat girl came to and expressed her thanks, also explaining her circumstances.

Her name was Cherry, an E ranked adventurer. She was a rogue and today just like usual she went solo for a gathering mission.
Her quest was the same, gathering Vivingeer roots, but her luck wasn't as good as their party. When she was about done she got ambushed by a goblin's group and overwhelmed by their sheer numbers, **** down on the ground and then... she lost consciousness after the green pest fiddling in between her legs got skewered out of nowhere by a rudimentary spear.

"And that's it. I don't even want to think about what would happened if you didn't... well, guess the risk is part of the job. I've gotten my roots though so i'm ready to go back... or rather, i'd like to employ you to escort me back. I'll use half the reward from my quest to pay you guys. Deal?"