Princess.

Midnight came around, and the entire room was pitch black; there was no light. The only light source came from the cracks in the walls, but with no sun, there was no light. So, for the last four hours, I had been doing nothing but thinking about where to find the council member. From thinking, I assumed there should be an entrance somewhere in the entrance of the inn, most likely where the innkeeper was. But now the question is whether or not the entrance is guarded at night. I know the innkeeper mentioned something about a monster roaming at night, so that could be the guard dog. Only one way to find out, I guess. I got up from the floor and stretched; I had not moved since the bed tried to attack me, so stretching felt really nice. I wondered if the halls would be as dark as the room, so I opened the door, and indeed, the halls were lit, but that made me more nervous since the things lighting the halls were the art of the eyes that I had destroyed.

Instinctively, I let out a gust of mana to sense for any magic, but to my surprise, there was no magic being used, odd considering that the art came back but the magic didn't. I examined the hall; the hall had a dark orange color. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the map, then infused mana into it. The flow of mana appeared, leading towards the way I came from, so I took a deep breath and started to follow it. It was quite creepy how quiet the halls were. When I was here during the day, there was at least some noise coming from outside, but now there wasn't even the noise of a bug. I got halfway through the hall when I felt the sensation of something watching me, but this time it felt like someone was really there, not just some eyes. I turned around to see a giant eye with the most creepy smile looking at me down the hall.The sight of a giant, unblinking eye staring down the hall, its surface glistening as if it sees into your very soul, would make your skin crawl. Paired with a grotesque, twisted smile, it feels like the walls are closing in, with a suffocating sense of dread, as if you're being hunted by something that shouldn't exist. The giant eye was floating off the ground, just looking at me. I prepared a wind bullet and aimed it at the thing, and just like lightning, the eye moved with its mouth open, ready to eat me. I released the wind bullet and hit the thing right in the middle of the eye, but the wind bullet didn't even make it close its eye. With the eye about 5 feet from me, about to eat me, I released a gust of wind beneath me, propelling me upward and avoiding the giant eye's mouth. The eye couldn't stop its momentum and kept flying forward for about 20 feet, then stopped, turned around, and was about to charge at me again. This time, the eye freak wouldn't survive my wind bullet. The eye began to charge at me, so I started to form a tiny wind bullet and condensed it as much as I could until the moment was right. The eye began closing in on me; it was 10 feet from me, then 5 feet, then 3, then 2, and once it got a foot from me, the bullet was ready. I released the wind bullet right in the middle of the giant eye, and a thunderous boom occurred. The eye just fell to the ground, and the magic started to come undone as the eye slowly turned into rocks. I got up from the ground due to the recoil of the wind bullet and wiped down my clothes from all the dust the rock eye had created and started to make my way to the entrance. The loud noise surely had to be heard, so I needed to hurry up before more things showed up.

I made my way down the hall and opened the door leading to the entrance, then made my way down the few stairs until I got to the door that led to the main entrance. I crouched and slowly opened the door and peeked to see what was inside. Everything was as it was when I first entered, and the innkeeper was still standing in her place, with both of her hands placed over each other. I took out the map and infused it again; the mana flow led to where the innkeeper was standing, then went underground. I don't know whether or not to continue or just fall back and wait until William and Arthur come with me. My gut is telling me to just go back to my room and wait this one out; usually, my gut is right, so I guess this issue can get handled another day. I let out a quiet deep breath and turned around to go to my room when all of a sudden, I heard the voice of the innkeeper. I turned around, and her body was the same except her head; it had fallen back still connected now looking at me and, talking to me.

"Didn't I tell you to stay in your room at night, little girl?"

"Now, because of your insubordination, I have to kill you," the innkeeper said with a relaxed tone.

Her entire body fell to the ground then started to shake considerably. Then, one by one, four long spiky arms came out of the side of the body, lifting the corpse up. The arms were about 6 feet tall, almost reaching the top of the ceiling. After the four long spike arms were fully up, the body burst, revealing a long, elongated, sleek, and spiky body. At the front lay the head of a bug. It opened its mouth and let out a loud scream at me. I let out another deep breath, this one out of frustration. Why was I the only one doing this mission? Why didn't the old drunk come with me? I got up and fully opened the door, then started gathering wind mana for the fight.

Once I entered the room, the room dramatically expanded, making the room big enough for the bug-like creature to fully move around. I condensed wind into both of my hands, then let out two wind slashes at the bug. As I expected, the wind slashes didn't do anything as they hit the bug, so in order to kill the thing, I need to do the same thing I did with the eye I destroyed in the hall. The only bad thing is I need to hold out until I fully condensed the wind in both hands. So, I just need to play with the bug until I'm ready.

With a swift movement, the bug launched itself at me with both spiky arms extended. I used wind beneath my feet to launch myself into the air, then again to propel myself over the bug. The bug sliced at where I had been, its long spiky arms destroying part of the room. During my fall, I underestimated the distance and ended up a few feet from the bug's legs. As it sliced at where I had been, the bug used its long spiky foot in an attempt to hit me. I crossed my arms and summoned wind to mitigate as much damage as possible. The tip of the bug's leg pierced through the protective wind and into my right arm, sending me crashing into the opposite wall and onto the floor. Without a moment to recover, the bug came at me with its right spiky arm aimed at me. I pulled my left leg to the side and sent a gust of wind, attempting to dodge the deadly attack. I managed to evade the full brunt of the attack, but the bug managed to cut me on the left side of my ribs—not deep enough to reveal bones but severe enough that, if I didn't finish this fight in the next five minutes, I would die from blood loss.

One good thing about the bug's attack was that it got its foot stuck in the wall. This gave me the time I needed to fully activate my attack. I got up from the ground and closed my eyes to gather all the wind mana around me. I could sense all the white balls of mana, so I started forcing them all into my left and right hands. My right hand had been fractured, but I could still use it for the attack. After a full minute of channeling all the wind mana into my hands, the attack was ready, as was the bug, which finally pulled its arm out of the wall and screamed at me. I opened my eyes and waited for the bug to strike. It launched itself at me with both arms extended, giving me the perfect angle to swiftly cut off all its legs and arms. With the wind in my hands ready, I lifted my hands and released a huge cutting wind slash vertically, severing all the arms and legs of the bug. The only thing that reached me was its body as it fell and slid down in front of my feet. The bug's head looked at me, attempting to bite, but with another motion of my hand, the bug's head was no more. The entire body of the bug started to crumble and turn to ash, then the room slowly reverted back to its small size, and in a few seconds, everything was back to normal, the bug's body was gone.

I took off my cloak and started to tear off a piece to cover both my arm wound and the wound on my ribs. This would only slow the bleeding; I needed to see a healer to fully patch myself up. But for now, I needed to find out where the council member was. I took out the crumbled map and infused mana into it once again. It led me to behind the counter and under where the innkeeper had been standing. I examined the floor and noticed a small handle. I lifted it, opening a secret entrance with stairs leading down. Taking another deep breath, I made my way down.