It was only when the townspeople finally carried another boat down the hill that the injured live owner was rescued back to shore.
Henry bandaged him Musk, and then the crowd took him back down the hill. Although they wanted medical attention as soon as possible, in a small town like this it was better to call an ambulance than to just get a car and drive into town. So the town found another car and rushed the injured man away.
By the way, when rescuing the injured person's hand, the crowd saw the injured person's hand, one side has been the whole palm is gone, broken pits, blood flow; the other side of the missing half, originally held in the hand of the mobile phone is also gone. The crowd also tried to find the disappeared hand and mobile phone, anyway, there is no boat, the lake can not be seen. Besides, the crowd was still afraid of the thing that had appeared on the lake, so they could only give up for the time being.
When the injured were finally sent away, those who had come to help, watch and take videos, finally dispersed gradually.Musk was exuberant after such a big encounter on the air today, and wanted to find Henry again to ask why he was able to warn them in advance, when Henry, Middendorffi and Eli were nowhere to be seen.
They had returned to their room in the restaurant and were meeting with The Collector in an online conference.
"So, the white thing bit off the guy's hand?"
Lupin spoke on the line, "Then it's very dangerous, we should apply for the closure of that wild lake right away, we have to get rid of it somehow!"
"It wasn't necessarily a bite off, it was dictated by the injured man himself." Henry returned, "I've observed the wound and there are no visible teeth marks. More like corrosion if you ask me. I'd suggest having his wounds firmed up immediately."
"Well, I'm working on the application now." Laura was also online, "No identifying information on him yet though, that'll have to be pulled up first ... Hey, any idea which hospital they'll be going to?"
Henry said, "Not sure. But now that they're driving to a hospital in town, odds are they'll contact the traffic department to help clear the way, so you can ask the traffic police."
Laura agreed, "That's right, I'll mute it and give that side a call."
"I'm applying to close that wild lake too." Lupin said, "You said someone was live streaming? Send me the live streaming room, I'm going to pull up the video and use it as evidence for the closure."
"Well, I know just two, or I heard them in passing, so I'm sending them to you now. I'll send it to you later if I go down there and inquire about something else." Henry said, "By the way, this is a big deal, I think you could keep an eye on online opinion. Maybe, there are screenshots and live room IDs on social media platforms by now."
"Understood." Lupin replied back, "But I've brought up the closure request urgently first, so at least approve a 72-hour one first, and you guys can get the cordon up first."
Henry remembered the huge crowd of people watching today, especially the few young men rushing to the forefront to take the video, and frowned, "Even if I go ahead and pull the cordon later, it may not be enough to protect against that many people. The ones who are baking, doing research, and wild fishing are already a bunch of guys who are not afraid of seeing what's going on. Now there's also a mysterious case with blood, I guess in a few more hours, journalists with or without credentials, marketing numbers, all get it."
"All I can do is try to rush the process, and contact the local police in the meantime to see if I can get everyone on the scene down first." Lupin said, "By the way, this thing, can you guys get rid of it? Do we need to send other people to assist?"
"I didn't even get a good look at the thing before it happened, not a good judgement call." Henry said honestly, looking to Eli again, "What do you say?"
"That thing had no fixed form, your gun sure didn't work." Eli said, "I could, but according to your rules, no other ordinary person can see that scene."
"And your sword can split it?"
"Use your chi and shatter."
Henry immediately understood, the movement was probably not small, at least visually it was going to be very shocking again. It was a bit of a shame to say that about today's wounded, but Eli had calmly refrained from making a move during that awfulness this morning, and Henry felt he'd done the right thing.
What Henry didn't realise was that it wasn't like Middendorffi was the one who got hurt, Eli wouldn't have minded his own business.
"Looks like closed isolation is still the first priority." Lupin said, "Anything else to say? If not this short session will be here for now, we need to hurry up with what we have on our hands, there's a lot to do."
"Not at the moment, just to hurry up and talk to you guys about the scene." Henry returned decisively, "That's it for now then, keep us updated in the group if there's any news."
The impromptu online meeting ended there. But Henry hadn't left yet, he was still talking to Eli about destroying the white stuff, "Didn't Bear say that it was attracted by anomalous energy? If you step in and shatter it, will there be a new gathering?"
Eli answered more conservatively to that, "No guarantees."
"Tch. So, still have to work out a way to stop those energies from bubbling up? But how the hell did all that stuff come to be ...," Henry wanted to ask Middendorffi about the details of what he was feeling at the time, and with a twist of his head, he found Middendorffi looking down and swiping on his phone, and said helplessly, "Bear, you seem to have been looking at your phone for a for a long time, and you've been swiping it since the middle of the meeting. What exactly are you looking at?"
"Mr Vega said they got details of that white thing climbing onto the boat, and I said I wanted to see it, and they agreed. Now it's importing the video into the computer and sending it to me." Middendorffi spoke up and summarised the format again, "I asked them if it looked like a hand and they said they weren't sure, it looked like a hand, and something flowing, and a tentacle."
"Fuck, I forgot there was this long line of research scholars!" Henry stood up at once, "I'm going to go to the village and find the others with HD equipment and ask them to send the video to look at as well.Bear, remember to send the video to Lupin as soon as you get it as well.You guys don't go out and wander around for a while, I guess we'll have to go up the mountain again later on, so you guys should also take some rest and conserve your energy."
Middendorffi answered, and Henry hurried out the door.
Put the room once again only two people, for a while no one to talk, Middendorffi instead of playing with the phone.Eli can see his tendency to action, then straight to say, "want to talk about what?"
Middendorffi thought for a while, really said something that hadn't been mentioned before, "I feel that white thing, and I'm a bit like."
Eli didn't look surprised, "Do you mean its untouchability, or its corrosive properties?"
"Both." Middendorffi counted slowly, "No fixed form, little consciousness, perpetuates its existence by devouring energy, and even looks a bit like fog too."
"So it only appears with abnormal energy because it also ignores other objects that don't have high enough energy?" Eli said, "If that anchor hadn't reached out to it, it wouldn't have actually attacked actively, just as it has always ignored others on the shore."
"Hmm." Middendorffi said, "Just like I used to, after following you for a while, I don't go for the weaker prey anymore."
Eli laughed softly at his comment about before, "I thought you did because you were waiting for me to feed?"
"Pretty much." Middendorffi returned, "I wasn't much of a thinker back then, but habit did take precedence over waiting for you to give me the rest of the prey carcasses. After all, you were very powerful, and the objects you hunted were always tricky and rich in energy for me."
He paused for a moment, then added, "That white thing, if you throw it with those ores, spells, and such, it'll probably follow you as well."
"How could you even think of such a thing?" Eli was finally surprised this time, "What would I do with nothing to recruit that thing to follow me around ... Do you think that just because I raised you, I'd raise something similar to you?"
Middendorffi said, "I'm just speculating, if you want to take it in as well ..."
"I'm not taking it in!" Eli interrupted his speculation, "It's with me, it's either a soul or nothing to do with me. I raised you by accident, and you're the only one. You don't have to speculate about how I'm going to take in other beings, not now, not ever, understand?"
"... Understood." Middendorffi looked at him and hesitated for two seconds, "You, upset?"
"Not upset. No, a little upset." Eli nudged his brow, "I don't know what you think of me, what makes you think that I might go and take in something else? Is it possible that in your eyes, I look at you in the same way that I look at any other being?"
"I don't know." Middendorffi said honestly, "I seem to understand you, but then again I can't seem to fully understand humans ..."
"If you say that again, I'm going to think you're being condescending and jealous, so you're pouting." Eli pinched his mouth, "You've been saying you don't understand all day, but you're very good at putting words in my mouth. How dare I look at anything else more than that when you've said that? Catch it all and feed it to you too."
Middendorffi couldn't really feel the emotional words "aggrieved," "jealous," and "petulant," and didn't retort, just said: "I didn't use words to set you off. You're so powerful, how could you be trapped by words?"
"And say you didn't, silly enough." Eli couldn't tell if he was laughing or grumbling, and murmured something in an uncertain tone, "But there's nothing awesome about me being trapped by the words of a fool."
Middendorffi really doesn't get it this time and tries to extract the point, "I'm a fool?"
"You're not, I am." Eli shot back somewhat unenthusiastically, then changed the subject, "So do you want to eat that thing? I'll cover for you if you want to eat it, you can swallow it if you want. You can also eat those energies that popped up at the scene, right? That white thing will disappear in time today, it should be because you grabbed all the energy at the bottom of the lake, so that thing slipped away?"
"Hmm." Middendorffi's attention was really diverted, "But the energy and that white thing, there's not much of it, so I can eat it or not. Maybe if that weird 'door' at the bottom of the lake hadn't just appeared for a moment, but could have stayed open longer, maybe more energy would have spilled out. I'd like to try that one."
"You want to try one of those doors with spatial properties again?" Eli was right about him, after all, "eating energy" was Black Mist's only "hobby", "I can try, but you don't want to share most of your power, you need to stay by my side. If the spatial attribute of the 'door' sucks a part of you away, cut it off, don't chase, don't fight, understand?"
"Got it." Middendorffi paused, then asked, "What would happen if, say, I could keep holding that door open and the energy kept overflowing and I couldn't swallow it all?"
"There would be strife in the land of energy overflow ...." Eli didn't go into detail, but then bluntly stated the outcome.
"Fighting over a spirit vein is not something that can be solved by one or two people."