Wounded man

"No need to be on guard. I am not here to harm you."

Aiden retorted when he realized the man was talking to him. "No one who wants to harm will say so."

"I don't have to bicker with you." He leaned on a wall nearby for support and continued, "Look, I know you might doubt me. But I am here to help you. Listen carefully to what I say. I don't know if I'll even be alive to help you again."

Without letting Aiden interrupt, he held up his hand and continued, "Let me finish, ask whatever you want to after I am done." He took a more comfortable stance to take support and looked around to check if there was anyone around. There were none. Very few people actually even bothered to come to the outskirts of the town, as for the snacks, there were others in the town too.

"The ghost you are dealing with is far more powerful than you think. Humanity may not even have many capable of dealing with it. But there is a way to defeat it, a very minute chance. Before I tell you about it though, I want to ask, are you serious about dealing with the ghost?"

Aiden was shocked when he heard the man speak about what might as well be top secrets of the town. His first suspect was Elias leaking the news. But if Elias knew about a way to combat the ghost, he wouldn't have ran away.

Lucas is already trapped with the ghost. I would anyway have to deal with it. It won't hurt to listen to him.

He nodded his head, glancing at Mimi from the corner of his eyes. She was quietly standing behind him clutching his pants.

"Yes, I am serious. Tell me."

The man slid down the wall, it was apparent that the pain in his leg was too much for him to bear. He gasped and continued,

"What do you Humans call them? Supers? Yes. Supers. You'll need them for this plan —" He suddenly wheezed. Balling his fingers into a fist, he banged on his chest and coughed blood. Aiden, still wary of him, refused to approach him to help.

The man smiled, "Good. Stay prudent." Aiden watched the blood he had spat on the ground vanish away as the man continued, "There is equipment capable of dealing with the ghost. It doesn't have any other power apart from the fact that it is sharp. But it needs aether to work, just like any other equipment. Only supers can control aether, you can think of aether as the fuel which lets them use their power. The equipment has conditions that it must taste a liter of blood before each use, which lasts for an hour —"

"Even weapons need to abide by conditions and side effects of using the ability?"

The man laughed, "Of course, any and all abilities must follow the rules. Anything or anyone who employs abilities must go through conditions and side effects of the respective ability. Let me finish before asking your doubts brat."

Aiden looked to the side, a lady had exited the shop and was walking their way. But surprisingly, she paid no mind to the man, going her way after shooting a glance at Aiden.

The man smiled, "It is difficult if there are a lot of people but one person isn't a problem. They wouldn't be able to see or hear me. So, I was talking about the equipment. Its side effect is that it drains blood from the user as soon as it stabs into the target."

"Such a thirsty weapon." Aiden muttered. "Right? It's shaped like a short sword. Hidden behind the corner wall of the ketchup house." The man instructed, before he got up.

Sensing that their talk was done, Aiden quickly asked, "Wait, who are you? Why did you help me? Can't you simply retrieve the weapon yourself and give it to me? And are you not a human? Plus why do you think just a sharp weapon might help against the ghost?"

The man tore his shirt and started bandaging his leg as he answered Aiden. "I don't believe we'll meet again. I might be dead before that, so no use telling you who I am. As for why I helped you, it's because you are already in the process of dealing with that ghost. No other reason. I would have guided anyone capable towards the equipment had I met them first."

His eyes suddenly glinted with madness, the intensity of which scared Aiden as he backed up. The man's teeth grinded against each other as he answered,

"I am simply helping myself here, fulfilling my duties. My peer is hunting me, he has betrayed our master, who is now trapped." Aiden felt as if the man was about to attack him but he just continued with more hatred in his voice. 

"That betrayer sowed seeds of greed into our master's mind, causing her to attack the human group. That's where it all began, that's when she got trapped." Aiden quickly interjected, "Wait, so it was you guys who killed the team from the Bureau."

The man furrowed his brows. "We killed the entire team before they could even say anything so we don't know where they were from. You might be talking about the second team, you humans had a rather quick response time. They did speak about being from the Bureau and were also quite strong. 5 from that team managed to get away alive, but of course, we didn't come out of it unscathed either. Like I said, they were quite strong, only four of us including the master were left."

The Bureau said only one came out alive though. Aiden thought in confusion as the man continued,

"The betrayer plans to let the ghost feed on everyone here so that it can grow and our master can never escape. Although I doubt she can escape now even if the ghost simply stays alive. As for why I can't just give you the weapon, I might be found if I retrieve the equipment."

He smirked, Aiden a felt dangerous from the man that instant which immediately disappeared as he continued,

"The weapon reacts to us, Vampires. That should answer your question if I am a human or not. As for a sharp weapon. Heh, your sharp knives would hardly even penetrate it. You'd need a lot of force with that and that would only barely stab the ghost of that level. You'll need our weapon if you want to stab its heart."

The man was almost done tying up the wound on his leg, about to leave without even parting words as Aiden's question made him halt again. 

"Do you happen to know the conditions and side effects of the ghost?"