Outside the window, in the rainy night.
Accompanied by flashes of lightning and claps of thunder, inhuman creatures were approaching.
A giant bat flapped its wings in the air, its terrifying form revealed by the flashes of lightning. Unlike a normal bat, its body looked very humanoid in the light.
It was like a creature from a fantasy setting, a bat-like humanoid monster.
Below it, on the town's streets.
Two hunched-over monsters were crawling on the ground.
From time to time, they would stand upright on their two legs, seeming to sniff at something in the air.
"One giant bat, two ghouls, a classic combination."
"What?" Aleris was a little confused.
Although they had been fleeing for their lives and had fought these monsters, they had never seen them before and, until now, had just called them monsters.
"The monsters' names. Wait, don't move."
Karna suddenly spoke, pressing down on Aleris beside him, and pulled his own head back, staying completely still.
It happened so suddenly that although Aleris was confused, she obeyed the command and stopped moving, like a wooden doll.
An invisible wave washed over them.
Amidst the rumbling thunder, a ringing sound occurred in both of their ears.
The manifestation is a bit different from the game, but not by much.
Karna thought to himself.
This was a method of detection used by the giant bat. If one moved even slightly too much when the wave occurred, they would be extremely easy to discover.
Even in a stormy night like this with lightning and thunder.
The way it manifested was by causing a slight ringing in one's ears.
If the ringing in the ears faded from strong to weak, it meant the detection sonar had passed through the person without detecting them.
If the ringing suddenly appeared and then vanished, as if it were an illusion, and you happened to be moving, then you have been detected.
Without understanding how this mechanism worked, no one would notice anything unusual, and then they would be found in their hiding spot by the giant bat.
Especially since these monsters had only just appeared.
"Haoo!"
In a lull between the thunderclaps, the howl of a ghoul from below could be heard.
It seemed those three soldiers were done for.
"We can move now. We need to get out of here. First, take off your armor, it will give away our position."
Aleris's armor was already severely damaged and made a very distinct sound, which could easily expose them.
Besides, her mobility was currently impaired.
"But..." Hearing this, Aleris wanted to refuse.
"Listen to me, Aleris, we have to escape from here."
"...Yes."
Aleris compromised and nodded.
Her left leg was already broken, and wearing a full suit of plate armor would indeed be very inconvenient.
She then began to remove the armor.
After a short while, Karna, who was watching the situation outside the window, noticed that it had gone quiet behind him.
"What's wrong?"
"My apologies, Your Highness. I can't take it off by myself."
Right, this wasn't a game, there was no one-click-equip-swap. Karna came back to his senses.
"Then I'll help you."
Karna didn't dally and immediately took action.
But as soon as he started, he ran into a problem. How do you take this thing off?
The game wasn't realistic enough to require you to slowly put it on yourself.
"Your Highness, from here..."
Aleris directed him while watching Karna's actions, her thoughts a mystery.
Soon, the outer armor was removed. Underneath, Aleris still wore a light inner armor that could provide a little bit of defense.
"Let's go, we need to leave this building first."
Saying this, Karna helped Aleris up from the floor and handed her the sword that was beside her.
After being helped up, Aleris pointed to a nearby corner.
"Your Highness... your sword."
"Oh." Karna nodded in realization and went to retrieve the sword from the corner.
Looking at the sword in his hand, Karna's eyes lit up.
[Crimson Flourish]
But judging by its appearance, this should be the version before it was corrupted by the crimson power.
Without the dark crimson special effects, it actually looked even cooler.
He pulled his thoughts back. Now was not the time to think about these things. He fastened the sword to his waist.
He supported Aleris and quickly went downstairs.
As the two moved quickly, the old wooden building let out a series of piercing creaks.
"Your Highness, we're making too much noise. It might attract the enemy."
They had fled all the way from the royal palace to here, encountering these never-before-seen monsters along the way.
Aleris also knew that these monsters had extremely keen hearing.
"Don't worry about it now. They've been drawn away by the soldiers from just now. Let's take this chance."
With that, he quickly descended the stairs. Just as they reached the broken hole on the side and were about to go out, they heard a scream from the distance.
It was only discernible as male.
"That's Matt." Aleris recognized whose scream it was.
So it was that foul-mouthed soldier?
If they had followed them, their survival rate might have been higher. Of course, this was only from Karna's current perspective.
"This is our chance." Karna said, immediately helping Aleris to quickly wade through the muddy water under the downpour, weaving through the alleys between the town's houses.
"Which way?" Karna asked. He had some vague memories in his mind, and they became clearer the closer he got to the time of his transmigration.
_But the original owner was the original owner. His mind contained no useful information at all, only various states of panic and cursing.
"That way, that's the town's exit." Aleris pointed to the other side of the town.
Well, great. So they had hidden as soon as they entered the town.
Thunder rumbled.
Suddenly, Karna stopped, pressing his hand firmly on Aleris's shoulder.
Aleris instantly understood, and the two of them stopped in the shadows.
The ringing sensation in their ears came again.
Staying still twice in a row, both times accompanied by a faint ringing in her ears, even in her extremely poor condition, Aleris instantly grasped the important information.
Ringing ears meant they were being scanned.
But the problem was... she looked at the motionless Karna.
After a moment, Karna's voice sounded.
"More than one squad? This is trouble."
If it were in the past, even at just level two or three, he would have the confidence to clear out these two Bloodkin sentinel teams in this town.
Although he didn't have a personal status panel, he could still feel from experience that this body was at most level one.
And it only had the base stats of a Wretch.
This feeling was all too familiar.
After all, when he participated in the closed beta back then, the shocking feeling of experiencing a virtual reality game for the first time was something he would never forget.
He had also played several accounts after the public launch, so he was very sensitive to the feeling and stats of a body during the novice period.
Still, it would be nice to have a data panel or something.
They continued to move with haste.
The square was just ahead. With no cover, it was too easy to get caught.
He looked at a nearby house with a hole in it and decided to take a detour through it.
Just as they ducked inside and reached another room, a gust of wind whistled down from the side.
"Crack!"
The sound of a wooden stick breaking.
"Monster, die!"
Someone from behind the door had attacked them, but the wooden stick was blocked by Aleris.
The stick shattered against her arm, and Aleris threw a backhand punch, striking the enemy.
The person, who was likely a town resident, was slammed against the wall by the punch and passed out.
"Ah!"
A sharp shriek.
It's over, we've been discovered.
There were still people in this town.
They didn't flee with the main group, stayed here, and hadn't been caught by the Bloodkin scout teams.
And of all people, they had to run into them.
"Your Highness, you go quickly, I'll cover the rear." Aleris said as she drew her longsword, leaning against the wall on one leg.
Karna glanced at her, thought for a moment, and didn't refuse, nodding: "Then be careful."
He turned and slipped out through the inner door.
Aleris watched Karna's back, her eyes showing no sign of sorrow or desolation.
That's right, this is how His Highness should be.
She thought to herself.
After Karna woke up, his behavior along the way had made her think she was under a spell.
Now that Karna was acting as he used to, it actually put her at ease.
Gripping the sword in her hand, she looked in the direction the sound came from.
She never thought she could escape from here in her current state, only thinking that perhaps she could help His Highness a little more before she died.
It wasn't that she was particularly loyal to Karna, but entirely because she was loyal to the Queen and grateful to Karna's mother.
And just a few days ago, when the capital fell.
The Queen had found her at the very end, hoping she would protect Karna well.
To the request made by her savior, the kind and perfect Queen.
She naturally agreed and swore an oath of allegiance.
She would die before His Highness.
A loud bang.
The wooden wall was smashed to pieces, and the enemy charged in.