New Gods of North America

According to the Hunter Association's theory,

Some extraordinary people can transform into specific non-human material forms relatively stably under certain conditions.

Hunters call it the "mythical creature" form.

For example, the werewolf version of "Grey Wolf" Freddy that Wayne had seen before, or the rotten and spoiled version of "King Kong", probably belong to this category.

In the context of hunters, "mythical creatures" is an objective and neutral category that does not involve any intensity classification.

Along with this concept, there are also "Extraordinary Beings" who can maintain or restore their human form, "Extraordinary Items" and "Extraordinary Materials" that are not normally living things, and "Spiritual Beings" that are usually incorporeal - if we follow the conventions of the church, the term "evil spirits" is basically used to refer to all spirits except the Holy Spirit.

These are collectively called "extraordinary beings" and are all carriers of "extraordinary powers."

If we introduce concepts like "rank", "status" or "strength\

,"Then the vast majority of hunters who are obviously unable to defeat, cannot afford to provoke, and basically "lose" will be specifically called "superior beings".

——If we break it down a little further, those who are not considered to be too harmful to humans will be respected as "gods" or "spirits", otherwise they will be called "evil gods" or "demons" or something like that.

As for those hunters who feel they "may or may not be able to defeat them", they can call them whatever they want.

You can call them by objective classification, or call them "prey" in general, or even "monsters" or "trash".

It depends mainly on your mood. Whoever dies will be embarrassed anyway.

There is no concept of "battle" when dealing with extraordinary items and unconscious extraordinary forces. Generally, words such as "containment", "control", "channeling" and "absorption" are used.

Wayne felt that the "thin ghost" he saw was probably the "mythical creature" form of some extraordinary person.

First of all, it is obviously not a normal creature or a normal person.

In Wayne's vision of simple lines, its outline is a "flowing" dotted line, like a fancy light strip. When facing it directly, spiritual intuition also has a warning, although it is not very strong.

Secondly, it obviously has self-awareness. After the guards fired back at it,

Its tall and thin figure was like a stretched rubber band that was suddenly "loosened". The lines of its outline quickly bounced to the "middle" and then flew to who knows where.

At that moment, Wayne's simple vision could only vaguely capture the rapidly moving afterimage.

However, in a normal field of vision, the effect looks almost like the so-called "teleportation", and the thin ghost disappears in an instant.

Finally, Wayne asked the outer member who screamed, and found out that he was almost attacked and was almost entangled by the tentacle-like upper limbs of the thin ghost.

"What happened?"

Mr. Daggett and Chris saw Wayne was also there and quickly came over.

Wayne thought for a moment and said, "We found a 'monster'. It might be that the Skinny Gang released it to chase us."

According to the judgment of the detective agency, Mr. Daggett is most likely also a Beyonder, and his well-trained subordinates may also be.

Wayne is still willing to believe that the "Slender Man" is an external enemy, but he is not so sure.

So Wayne tried his best to describe what he saw to Mr. Daggett and Chris from the perspective of an ordinary person.

Ask them to remind members of their respective teams to be alert and prevent danger.

Just in case, after the preliminary inspection, Wayne asked Doug to use an owl to continue to monitor the peripheral member who claimed that he was "almost attacked" to avoid accidents.

They took turns to keep watch all night. Theoretically, at every time period in the camp, members of the three teams were on duty with live ammunition.

But at dawn the next day, Chris's team was still missing a member.

Several leaders gathered together to discuss for a while, but their opinions were not very consistent.

Chris naturally hopes that everyone will search nearby for the missing members:

"The way back is more difficult than the way here. Many steep slopes have basically become uphill roads. Even if we try to speed up, it will take at least three days to get out of this mountain forest.

"And judging by the weather, there will probably be heavy rain in the next few days, and the speed may come to a complete standstill. I suggest that we find that member first to confirm the situation, and then consider countermeasures."

Mr. Daggett's view is slightly different:

"We all gathered together to eliminate the 'Thin Guy Gang.' Now that 'Thin Guy' Charlie has caught up with us, it's a good opportunity to eliminate him. So what we should do is to find an opportunity to ambush him. As for the missing members... casualties are inevitable."

Finally, Wayne gave Chris some face and decided to move together with the whole group. They spent half a day to help him search for the missing members nearby. Regardless of whether they found them or not, everyone had to camp somewhere else tonight.

As for dividing everyone into small teams, there is no need to consider that. At least the common group annihilation routine in horror movies is "separation" and "queueing up".

…

Back at the detective agency, Inissa was quite interested in the tall and thin ghost and had already given a rough sketch of him:

"From what we know so far, it can teleport and seems to be quite aggressive, which sounds like it's not easy to deal with. But after a brief recollection, I found that there aren't any very famous or powerful mythical creatures with the same characteristics.

"So I can only make guesses based on the situation. Its overall characteristics tend to be in the 'dark' realm, and it should have weaknesses in defense or other aspects. It may be difficult to catch, but it should not be impossible to deal with.

"In the extraordinary realm, mythical creatures are 'unknown', which often means that there have never been strong enough individuals, or the number of groups is not enough - this means that they have never occupied a dominant ecological niche."

Lina's idea was very simple. "It seems that Mr. Daggett doesn't intend to continue his disguise. Just now, he was the only one who could clearly confirm that the guy who attacked last night was Charlie the Skinny. We should get more information from him if we have the chance."

The three of them chatted while sorting out their equipment.

Soon the three teams packed up their camps, gathered together, and began searching for the missing members around the camp.

The weather today is not very good, with dark clouds all around. Fortunately, although the sky is dark, it is at least better than at night.

Finally, the person was found, but he had already died in the bushes.

His blood was not drained out, nor did he rot quickly, but his overall condition gave people the impression that his vitality had been drained away.

As the muffled thunder gradually "rumbled" in the sky,

Many members who saw this scene fell silent in front of the corpses of their companions, giving Wayne a sense of déjà vu as if he had entered a horror movie.

Hmm...

Having too many people is not necessarily a good thing.

Before the heavy rain completely stopped, everyone quickly began to move and look for a relatively safe new campsite.

For the sake of safety, the large group needs some members to stand guard on the outside.

One of the reasons why the "Gary Adventure" was previously wiped out was that the "sentinels" separated from the main force did not have enough time to go forward for reconnaissance.

Considering that the tall and thin ghost may not necessarily act late at night, those who were assigned to the periphery at this time were relatively capable members.

For example, Inissa and Lina, several agents, and the elites of Mr. Daggett and Chris's team are now slightly scattered around the main force.

Wayne's own position was a little forward, with a simple line of vision to prevent the large group from being led into the pit.

The heavy rain finally fell in the afternoon.

The group found a forest near a stream and set up camp in an area with relatively dense trees to avoid the rain.

Let's do a quick headcount.

grass……

This time there is one person missing from the "main force".

What's more, the few people are from Wayne's side. Although they are peripheral members, they are relatively safe and reliable, and they originally had the opportunity to become "trainee detectives" of the detective agency.

The person in charge of guarding that direction was called over for questioning. He was a member of Mr. Daggett's team and looked capable, but he still said that he didn't notice anything unusual.

Other people in the large group also said that they did not hear any unusual noises.

After Lina knew that someone was missing, she went to see Emma.

The little girl stayed with Chef Parker and had nothing to do. She even had the mood to do some exercises in the carriage.

Wayne was not very credulous, so he took Lina and several agents back to search along the road for a while.

Horses recognize people. The horse of the peripheral member noticed the movement from Wayne's side and neighed in a bush.

When a few people went over to take a look, they found that the horse was fine, but the person was already dead. The cause of death was similar to that of the previous person.

When the other party plays like this, it feels like there is something going on.

Wayne and his men returned to the camp with the bodies. Chris seemed to realize something was wrong. "It feels like someone is trying to delay our actions. Maybe they are trying to buy time for reinforcements. Even without mentioning other forces, the Skinny Gang alone theoretically has 20 to 30 members."

That's true, but it's almost an open conspiracy. The two sides still have to "collide" in the end.

Inesa has now brought people to set up some traps and simple alarm devices on the outskirts of the camp. There is no so-called "collective rest" in the camp. Everyone takes turns on duty, keeping their weapons with them, and everyone must ensure that they stay within the sight of their companions.

After entering a deep state of alert, the three teams in the camp also began to drift apart from each other.

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, everyone chose to protect "their own people" first, and each of them hugged each other tighter in their small group.

Especially the teams that were missing members, they all showed more or less that they were "not confident" about the abilities or attitudes of other team members in the camp.

I plan to update more in the next few days. Thank you readers for your votes. Let's see how long I can hold on...