Iris was Iris, Rosa is Rosa. Wait, is this a fantasy game?

Iris's first sensation was the metallic taste of blood in her mouth. The pain hit soon after, a throbbing ache that radiated from the right of her head.

'A concussion.' Was the first thought that passed through her head. Iris didn't move, noting the absence of people near-by. She took stock of her body by feel first, then by moving limbs. 'My head is the only injury.'

"Cough." Iris sat up slowly and spat out the blood in her mouth. The late hour making itself known by the slowly darkening sky. A quick look around found her on a hill, rubble of a stone wall around her. She had been hidden among the rocks.

'What?' Iris's last memory was definitely not on a hill. She had been working at her job as an accountant. She had been sitting at her desk when a fierce rumbling shook the entire office.

"Oh no." Iris whispered. "I must have died."

The shock of the realization sent a wave of new pain coursing through her body.

She was not Iris.

Like in novels, her spirit had reincarnated. Iris was thirty when she died. Rosa was her new name, she was seven years old. She was a citizen of the glorious North Frost Empire.

Small memories came to her in fits and bursts, pain etched in every thought. Rosa had a loving mother, but no father. She lived in a rented attic above a shop where her mom sewed clothes. The most important memory was that this was a fantasy world.

There was magic, job classes, skills, star ratings, dungeons and monsters. This had been a field trip. Her class had gone to the outer wall to see the monsters lurking outside. It was a way to get the children to take their training seriously.

A monster raid had happened. Part of the wall collapsed and she went down with it. She was lucky to be alive. The pain faded to the aching throb of a normal concussion.

Closing her eyes she made a decision. Iris was Iris, Rosa is Rosa. Rosa now had the chance to change the course of her life with Iris's experiences. She wanted to live.

Rosa had to get back inside the city. Even if monsters roamed inside, it at least afforded her some hiding spots. She wouldn't survive the night if she stayed here.

Night are when monsters were strongest after all.

Quietly, Rosa made her way over to the hole in the wall that a huge one eyed creature had smashed in, a cyclops. The more she thought of it, the more she frowned. One second there wasn't a monster and the next there was. This was no normal raid.

It was eerily quiet. A quick glance inside had a literal path of destruction to the second inner wall. The city had three walls of defense.

Rosa lived between the first and second wall with her mother. In her old world's terms, she lived in a middle class area. The walls there was higher and stronger. She had to get home.

Rosa didn't dare walk down the path in the open. Quietly, quickly she kept an in tact building between her and the path of carnage taking the less used back alleys. She stopped at every noise and hid if she saw a hint of movement.

There was no sign of man or monster.

It was almost full dark by the time she got to the second wall. The gate was illuminated by small magic sun stones that recharged during the day and glowed until midnight. It was unguarded.

Rosa was now worried. Monster raids didn't usually last until nightfall. The guards being absent means they had retreated to the inner wall.

'But why would they retreat? The second wall is intact.' Rosa began to pull on her memories as Iris who had been a huge fan of video games and fantasy novels. No concrete explanation was instantly put forward. A few theories began to take sprout.

First, she was the only survivor. Both sides had used magic to kill the other in a clash of mutual destruction.

'Unlikely. I would have been found and eaten by opportunistic scavenger monsters. Like low level slimes or ratkin.'

Second, the fight is still going on somewhere.

'That's possible. This is the second gate. The first one could be fighting right now.'

Third, the monsters were under the command of an elite or greater monster.

'That's the worst option.' It meant that the monster raid had a boss. Cities bigger than theirs had been leveled by raid bosses. Monsters are terrible by themselves, but as a strategic army, they were cataclysmic.

The cyclops at the outer wall could have been a distraction.

'Mom please be okay.' Rosa knew that the gate wouldn't open for her with no one around to open it. She was a tiny seven year old, not a full grown woman. The best thing to do is to bunker down in an empty house for the night and hope no monster found her.

An idea formed in her mind as she saw the lower cities shrine in the distance. It had a bell tower.

'Most monsters have an area of agro. If I am up high, there's less of a chance to be detected.' Thoughts of game mechanics began to run through her mind as she made her way there. The beginning of a plan formed in her mind.