Ew. Strange can't help but wrinkle his nose as he looks at the dripping black blood. Still, Tyki's right: that answers that and they do have an answer as to what exactly those tentacles were comprised of. "Unless your blood's undergone a change that you didn't know about, I think we can firmly say that the tentacles are more magic than man."

Though the fact that they reacted so violently tells Strange that though they're more magic, there's still a bit of animalistic instinct to those things. This makes him all the more curious to find out just what precisely they can do. With one hand, he quickly sheathes his dagger. As he steps forward, with the other hand, Strange sticks a finger directly in the black blood that pooled from the tentacle. He isn't tasting it (yet), though he does rub the liquid between his fingers and bring the fingers up to his nose for a tentative sniff.

He doesn't realize that walking forward puts him in direct range of the tentacle again: the tentacle that he just wounded.