The nurse still left. Strange finally finished vomiting. There was still so sli from the bugs on him. Schiller dipped a towel in the water from the can and wiped him off.
"You're finally doing what an assistant is supposed to do," Strange said and went over to check on the patient.
"He's completely dead," Strange sighed, "Let's burn him."
Less than five minutes later, the two were squatting in front of the fireplace again. Strange reflected, "Knowing there was a ti limit, I was too hasty. Actually, if I had only made a small opening and slowly released the bugs, we might have had enough ti."
"I don't know why you had to cut him open all of a sudden. You knew those things would run rampant everywhere," Schiller said as he crushed the sulfur, "Our Mandala and sulfur supplies are limited, and I don't know if we can get more, so we really need to conserve."
"The next one will definitely be fine," Strange said, "I swear I'll recite the Hippocratic Oath first."
"I will too."
"Then recite it now."
"I solemnly swear, uh... I... whatever whatever to adhere to the oath, with unwavering loyalty... Schiller Rodriguez here makes this honorable commitnt."
Strange rolled his eyes and said, "How did you manage to forget all the substantive content and only rember the clichés?"
"Because I can only promise those," Schiller spread his hands and said, "I assure you I'm extrely solemn, loyal, and devout."
"To the patient?"
"To God."
"You hope God will protect them?"
"I hope God will protect ," Schiller said, "I know God will not protect them."
"How do you know that?"
"If God was protecting them, they would not have encountered ."
Strange couldn't help but clap for him, then said, "When God reclaims His own hands, I will relay this truthfully to Him."
After that, the two got up again, ready to receive the third patient. Strange did indeed solemnly recite the Hippocratic Oath.
Unfortunately, the third creature that slid down the channel was not human.
"God, what is this thing?! A werewolf???" Schiller took a closer look, and from the patchy, blood-stained fur, he could vaguely make out a wolf's face.
The thing lying on the hospital bed had a body type similar to a human's, but it was covered in fur, had a pointed snout, and its mouth was full of sharp teeth. Its hands and feet were clearly not primate-like, indeed appearing more canine.
"We should learn from our last lesson, secure it first, then block its mouth," Strange suggested a practical thod to increase the success rate.
Schiller agreed, so he found so rope from the tool rack next to him, bound the limbs of this peculiar werewolf, and tied it to the bed.
It might be difficult to gag a human, but the snout of a wolf protrudes outward, so it's just a matter of tying it up with rope.
After gagging the werewolf, its chest began to heave violently, and it trembled and convulsed frequently, resembling coughing.
Schiller, wearing gloves, touched the blood seeping from next to the fur on its mouth and discovered so powdery crystals.
"It's probably stone lung disease," Schiller speculated.
Strange had already brought over a tal amplifier. After placing it on the werewolf's chest, he listened closely. Hearing a deep breath that sounded like the tolling of a bell, he stood straight and said, "It's probably obstructive stone lung disease. Go prepare the dissolving mist, I'll do the thoracotomy."
"Be careful not to get bitten again," Schiller cautioned as he walked to the test bench.
The inhalant dissolving mist for treating stone lung disease required raven blood mixed with she-wolf bile distilled in a distiller, then the distilled vapor was pumped into a respirator.
Schiller searched through the rack filled with containers and quickly found a small bottle of raven blood and a large bottle of she-wolf bile, both of which slled quite bad.
After mixing them in proportion, Schiller placed them in the distiller. But only after he did so did he realize that he had previously used the distiller for sulfuric acid.
Schiller stood in front of the distiller and took a deep breath. He glanced at the remaining raven blood; the bottle was not very big to begin with, and now half was used up, leaving only a little.
"Forget it, a werewolf's vitality should be much tougher than a human's," Schiller murmured to himself. He started the distiller, then attached the tubing.
He took the breathing mask from the side of the bed rack, screwed on the other end of the tube and sealed it. However, he struggled to fit the mask; after all, a wolf's mouth structure is different from a human's, making it difficult to tightly fit the mask.
Strange clearly saw the problem. He said, "A werewolf's vitality should be much tougher than a human's, remove the mask, perform a tracheotomy instead."
After saying that, he made an incision right in the middle of the werewolf's neck and inserted the tube directly.
In just a few seconds, the Werewolf struggled like mad, almost flipping the surgical table. Shiller and Strange both dodged out of the way, reasoning that if the Monster got loose, it would bite anyone in sight, and who knows if it had rabies, better to run first and talk later.
When they ca back, the Werewolf was motionless.
"How did it die again?" Strange voiced a soulful inquiry.
But neither of them stayed idle, they pulled out the tubes and used the old thod to dispose of the body. This ti it was a bit more troubleso because the Werewolf's fur was everywhere, mixed with blood and sticking to the floor, Shiller took a long ti to clean it up.
Before throwing the torso into the fireplace, Strange specifically opened the chest cavity for a check, only to find that a good part of the Werewolf's lungs were gone. The manual hadn't ntioned this symptom, he could only shake his head and say, "It seems he ca too late, if he had co earlier, we definitely could have saved him."
"Yes, the poor dog," lanted Shiller.
Then he added: "Taking the Hippocratic Oath doesn't help, does it? Might as well pray with to God, maybe God will answer us."
Strange threw the claws into the fireplace, just about to say sothing when he looked around the room with so confusion, and then stated, "Do you feel like the lighting has dimd a bit?"
Shiller looked around and said, "I think it's okay, barely enough to see clearly. But fine operations in surgery really do need good lighting, should we make a torch?"
No sooner said than done, Shiller stood up and found so whale blubber in those bottles and jars. He sared the blubber on a strip of cloth, then wrapped it around a pair of tongs, and a makeshift torch was made.
Strange pulled the lever down, and the next patient was in place.
This ti the patient was even more massive, basically a mini Cthulhu. His head was a full octopus, with human torso and limbs, but the fingers and toes were also octopus tentacles.
"My God, how did I get this job," Shiller exclaid, "Treating Cthulhu, ?"
"Stop the chatter," Strange said, "this ti it must succeed."
Strange first checked the eyes, found no abnormalities, then checked the mouth. Following that were the limbs and bodily fluids. Since the Octopus Man had no hair, he skipped that check.
After taking off the upper body clothing of the Octopus Man, Strange listened to the chest sound. He paused in thought and then said, "A regular clicking sound, it could be heart gear cancer. I need to open it up and check."
Having said that, he neatly opened up the chest cavity and indeed saw gears gnawing at the flesh at the heart. The gears were proliferating, and they had now spread to the lungs.
Strange rolled up his sleeves and then said: "This will require manual removal and suture, might even need a bridge. Stand by my side to wipe my sweat."
It was a simple task for Shiller, standing by Strange with a towel, holding the newly made torch at an oblique angle behind him. Whenever he called for sweat wiping, Shiller helped wipe the sweat from his forehead to prevent it from dripping into his eyes and affecting the surgery.
Watching Strange perform surgery was a delight, his incisions had a certain magical rhythm. Even when removing things that had never existed in the real world, it was still neat and tidy, never nicking an extra piece of flesh or touching an extra blood vessel.
His slender fingers flitted through flesh with a bloody yet eerie beauty, the ugly flesh and the precise operations complented each other, with Strange's usual indifference and calm.
In about ten minutes, most of the gears were perfectly removed, with very little blood, only the last gear matrix left, stuck in a very tricky spot.
Strange took a deep breath and went down with the knife, digging out most of the matrix.
But just at that mont, the peculiar Octopus Man woke up. Although there were no major reactions, with the return of consciousness, the muscles started to tense, causing Strange's knife to go askew.
"Don't move!" he shouted, "More anesthesia! Quick, more anesthesia!!"
Shiller brought the injection again, but an octopus's body structure differs from a human's, so the drug had no effect. The Octopus Man muttered sothing in gibberish while struggling desperately.
Just as Shiller reached out to hold him down, the tentacles on his chin waved wildly, knocking the torch from Shiller's hand.
The red-hot tongs smacked straight onto his face. The fire ignited the tentacles, and the Octopus Man let out a terrible scream.
The two had initially intended to extinguish the fire, but as they did, a fragrant sll wafted through the air.
What could Shiller do? He had waited with Strange til late in the night without even a late-night snack. Now that it had co to this, they couldn't let it go to waste, could they?
Ten minutes later, Strange and Shiller each held a skewer of grilled squid tentacles while squatting next to the fireplace.
"I think there's a big problem with our thod of work," Shiller sighed and said, "It's bad enough for , but you're the best surgeon in the world, known as the 'Hand of God,' how could you botch a job like this?"
"I was thinking about the problem you ntioned earlier," Strange replied after biting into a squid tentacle, "How exactly did we get this job?"
Shiller swallowed a squid tentacle in one bite, chewed vigorously in his mouth, and then said, "I strongly suspect I might be an assassin, opting for this job because here I can kill faster and no one discovers it."
"What about then? I should be a miracle doctor," Strange said, "otherwise I wouldn't have been assigned to the sa surgery room as you."
"Co on, you're not that much better," Shiller sprinkled so salt on the squid tentacle and then said, "You have a real knack for being an assassin, I'm serious."
Having finished eating, Strange threw the skewer into the fireplace and stood up, clapping his hands and said, "Well, good doctors are good killers, I'll take that as a complint from you."
"Of course. After all, we might be unscrupulous, but we're definitely not quacks."
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