A quick scan of the area showed the Grape Ape with Lena, the lady in charge, a couple other chimps that might be mages judging by their glowing hands and chanting, a handful of gorilla-type bruisers, and a few dressed like ninjas that might be spider monkey variants. Wendy was trading blows with two gorillas at once while Toadwart had set aside his bow and was lobbing flasks of questionable glowing liquids. One of the glass containers giving off a purple light exploded into a flailing mass of undulating tentacles. The disembodied appendages caught one of the monkeys and pulled them in, crushing them like a boa before hardening like stone.

I thrust my arms out, converting them to gun mode as I took aim and unloaded a barrage of steel rounds onto the purple hued giant. The beefy lad-- lass? I had no idea --recoiled from the shots but it didn’t look like I was actually penetrating their hide. I burst into the air and engaged the thrusters in my back, sending me feet first for their face.

They had their free hand up to shield them from my bullets but as soon as it dropped they got clocked by a solid steel rider kick to the side of the head. The hit, clearly, rang their bell as they dropped Lena and stumbled back. Without missing a beat, Lena hit the ground, slapping her hands near the ape’s feet. As she did so, one of her dirt walls erupted between the giant's legs and shattered at the nexus.

The gorilla was actually lifted a few feet off the ground from the hit and doubled over, crushing the dirt wall beneath it. Crashing down brought the ape lower to the ground and closer to my incoming fist, which connected under an arm. I heard, and felt, several ribs crack under their armor and they bellowed out in pain.

They lashed out with a massive back fist that was probably bigger than my main body was tall. I got my guard up, but the knuckles smashed into me sending me flying. I tried to control my trajectory with my thrusters as best I could, choosing the soft impact of smashing into a gorilla rather than the harder impact of smashing into a wall.

I got up and looked behind me to see the poor guy wouldn’t be getting back up again any time soon. Me flying into him was probably like a normal person getting smacked by a motorcycle. A small explosion ignited in the giant gorilla’s face and they crumpled again, completely hitting the ground this time.

Before Lena could follow up with a kill strike, she was assaulted by a barrage of icicles. The frozen missiles pinged and ricocheted off of her, forcing her into a jerky dance as she was buffeted and knocked about. I was very glad that I opted for the mithril blend with only a veneer of blood steel in her current construction.

When the ice attack died off and the thin mist of vapor settled, her black and pink kimono-style dress was in tatters and barely hung on her. Her skin beneath the shredded rags, however, appeared soft and smooth, and as crimson as the day she was born. The Princess’s face was a mask of rage and unbridled hostility.

The remaining ninja came at me, attacking with sword, but it honestly did zero damage, at all, to my armor so I stood there letting him swing away. The monkey pulled back and ran a finger along the blade, powering it up with magic. Just as his finger tips reached the point of his sword, I grabbed him by the chest armor and bodily flung him at the giant gorilla, who was just starting to get back up.

Lena screamed in fury as she unloaded fireball after fireball like a demonic pitching machine at the ice mage that had dared to ruin her clothes. A few connected, but most of them were blocked by an aura shield that had been hastily cast by both the mage and their boss. The smoke from the fire attacks engulfed them, blocking out normal vision, though I still had them on thermal.

A streak of silver sliced through the air and one of the heat blobs vanished. On the other side of the courtyard, the ice mage appeared, impaled on one of Remi’s arrows and pinned to the building. The other heat blob looked panicked and flickered out as thick, black shadows erupted from the dissipating smoke.

The shadows spread out, covering the area until everything was inky blackness. None of my visual systems were able to penetrate the darkness but it didn’t last long. When the shadows cleared, the boss chimp, giant ape, and the few remaining soldiers had disappeared.

Lena hit the ground near me and I realized that she must have shot herself up into the air as soon as the shadows started covering everything to keep from being nabbed in the dark. Clever girl, I thought, not for the first time. I wished that I had thought to do that too instead of just standing there blind like a doofus.

“Are you okay?” I asked, putting Convoy back into [Inventory].

“I am peeved. Genuinely and royally peeved,” she fumed. “I quite liked this dress. It was custom made and a gift from Milli for remembrance day.”

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“Ah. It was a nice dress,” I tried.

“And that little urchin! I can not believe he ran off with my necklace! Another custom gift!” she ranted. “If I find that little brat, I am going to string him up by his toes!”

“Come here,” I ordered. “Kneel down in front of me. Don’t give me that look, I’m not asking for fealty or anything weird, it's just ‘cause I’m short. Face the other way with your back to me.”

I stood behind her and draped my traveler's cloak around her shoulders. Her angry look softened a bit. I then reached my arms over her and wiggled my empty fingers in a mysterious way earning a quizzical eyebrow. I gently ran my fingers across my opposing palms, conjuring her necklace between them from [Inventory] as they separated. The idea of a magic trick was probably completely lost in this world where actual magic existed, as I thought about it.

Lena gasped and looked back at me as I fastened the clasp around her neck. Before I could think, she spun around and slammed her head into my torso, wrapping her arms around me. I stumbled a bit but held my ground, resting one hand on her shoulder and the other on the top of her head. It was a miracle that the devil horns of her crown didn’t puncture my armor.

“I’m sorry that I’m not squishy anywhere. I can’t be a fun thing to squeeze,” I said gently.

“I don’t care,” she mumbled into my chest plate. “I’m not squishy anymore either.”

Wendy looked decidedly uncomfortable as she wiped blood from her blade.

“Hey Toady, did you see where the assailants went?” she called out to the Lieutenant as he cleaned up his position from the rooftop.

“Sorry Captain. Nothin’ went in or out of that shadow cloud,” he lamented.

“Teleportation scroll?” Remi suggested.

“Yeah, probably. No way that big guy fit down a secret passageway,” Wendy agreed.

“Can you get up?” I asked Lena.

With her face still buried, she only shook her head “no” with small, tight movements. The tips of her horns made little tink tink sounds as they clinked against my plating.

“You did use a lot of mana up in that fight. You’re probably just barely awake, right?”

A similar response of tight movements of the “yes” persuasion.

“I guess it can’t be helped,” I said, with a mental smirk.

I placed a hand on either side of her face, letting her long demon ears nestle between my fingers. I bent over to touch my faceplate to the top of her head and top her off with my own mana. At the last second, her face shot upward and instead of making contact with her brass composite wire hair, I connected with her steel mesh lips. I tried pulling away in surprise and found that her own hands had snaked their way up to clamp my face.

I could feel my face burning up with embarrassment as all of my panel lighting shifted to a deep rose color. Unable to escape, I pushed my mana into her until she pulled away and released me. For being so bold, she looked away and pushed her head back into my chest.

“You can get up now, right?” I asked, dimming my optics.

Again, she just shook her head “no”.

“Such a spoiled little Princess,” I said softly. “It can’t be helped.”

I squatted down, breaking her hold on me, and scooped her up in a princess carry, wrapping her body up in the cloak. I heard a barely audible giggle come from her as she fluttered her feet in the air and rested her head on my shoulder.

I could only imagine the sorts of looks that were in store for me as we’d walk back to the temple with me carrying this girl that was clearly larger than me, like a fragile little flower.

I adopted my dragon skin [Cloak()] and marched through the back streets to the market with our odd little troop. As expected, I got several stares and looks of curiosity. I was slightly mortified to be under such scrutiny but if Lena felt anything similar she betrayed no sign of it. In fact, she happily swung her feet and hummed a little tune to herself.

I was regretting my decision but knew better than to change anything at this point.

We returned to the temple without incident, though Lena stiffened and tapped my shoulder when we spotted the simian dignitaries from Kokoli walking out from the temple. I set her down and she instantly looked regal despite being adorned in a dress turned rags and a cape that was too short for her.

“Oh. Oh dear. Did you take a spill Princess Relena?” one of them said, in apparent concern.

“You really must be careful. This city has so many ups and downs. So many steps everywhere,” the other added.

“It is nothing to be overly concerned about Lord Pahuka, though this city does seem to have a bit of a rat problem,” Lena responded, haughty.

“Rats? How dreadful,” the concerned one answered.

“Yes, it was quite harrowing. A few managed to slip away but if I find any more, I assure you that they will regret leaving the trees,” she said coldly.

“Rats... don’t live in trees,” Pahuka said, uncertainly.

“No. No they don’t,” Lena agreed. “If you will excuse me gentlemen. Good evening.”

She purposefully walked for the space between them, and like barn doors, they parted to make way for her.