Karta Stryker

Chapter 5: Friendly Ghost

The dusk ride was a very peaceful one, and the city of New York was presented in it's grand night-lit form. 'The City That Never Sleeps', as they say. I haven't been pulled over for not wearing a helmet, so I'm grateful even for that. But now, I needed to turn off my vacation mentality and get started in the right direction. I should probably head back to my shop in California, but that's a plane trip away. A voice in my head begins to speak.

"Fuck's sake, how does this thing work..." the voice said.

It sounded extremely familiar but it was also layered with many other voices of lost souls. 

"There we go, now it's tuned. Karta!"

This time the voice was more defined, and pierced through my ears like an arrow. 

No, it couldn't be!

"Trent?" I asked.

"Find somewhere unseen, somewhere private. We need to talk." The voice said. 

The more I want to believe that it is Trent, the more I tell myself that it's impossible. A tear rolls down my right cheek, feeling remorse for my mistake. We should never have followed Malik. I make my way under a highway bridge off to the side, next to a water reserve. I get off of the Harley and stand there, waiting for a response. To my right, a humanoid figure made out of flames emerges. 

"I don't have very much time. I thought I was in the Underworld, but this is something else, it's trippy. This is the last time I'll be able to speak to you either way, so..."

I pace back and forth, trying to process what Trent had just said. 

"Don't feel bad about what happened, please. There was nothing you could do." Trent said softly.

"Of course there wasn't! I was too quick to trust a stranger, we should never have followed Malik." I shouted, letting my temper get the better of me.

"That was Malik? Fuck, that changes a thing or two."

"I'll have to lay low. I've been through too much shit in the past few days to keep digging."

"Dude, this isn't something you can lay low from. If Malik is involved, the world and mankind could be at stake."

I grunted.

The ghost that depicted Trent took a glance towards my motorcycle.

"Since when did you have a bike?"

"Since yesterday."

"Mind explaining?"

I sighed.

"A bunch of shit happened after you died. I ended up in this forest in the middle of nowhere, where a mansion held a 'Water Elemental'. Then before I knew it, I was stranded on the 25."

Trent's ghost looked as if it had gasped.

"It's all true. Galgamere is really making moves." Trent spoke in his panicked tone again.

"Who the hell is Galgamere?"

"Karta, you need to find a way back to that mansion. I cannot stress how important it is."

"It's a pass from me."

"Fine. Go back to Manhattan, in that shitty apartment of yours that you barely hold together with your mercenary gig. Go back to evictions, overdue bills and the same drunken episode each month annually." 

I scoffed at Trent. 

"I know you're not getting paid to save her."

Trent knew about Arcadia. I almost snarled out of suspicion. Who could have possibly seen me and get that info to the Underworld?

"Or kill the Kites, or whatever. Point is, this is different. This goes beyond money, so do something truly good. Make something of yourself." Trent faded away to dust before I could even say anything.

A massive beast flew on top of a construction site, eyeing us down viciously. It seemed to be a hybrid creature; the two front legs and face being that of a full grown male lion, the torso and another head of a goat and a snake for a tail. All 3 heads looked around freely, but locked down onto Trent and I once it had landed. It was being chaperoned by two Therro, bound to a collar whilst the chained leash was in one of the Therro's hands. 

Trent looked as if he had put two and two together, realizing the importance of the Therro's presence. I had a strange gut-feeling that aligned my fear with Trent's, but I couldn't explain why. I made eye contact with the Therro, who held a malicious lust in their slitted irises.

The Therro holding the Chimera lets go of the chain.

The Chimera now free, jumps down from the construction building to where I am standing. The Therro roars into the sky, before creating a sonic boom from the force of its wings swiping downward. The Chimera stares at me with all of it's faces, pacing in a slow circle around me. I unsheathe Stryker from my back, pacing in the same fashion as the Chimera. The Chimera dashes towards me, trying to snatch me in it's lion snout. I wedge Stryker between it's jaws, keeping the Chimera at a distance. The beast's strength only grew, so I embraced the movement it would make. I fell to the ground on my back, coiling up my feet on the surface of Stryker's blade. I start to roll backwards on the ground and push my feet out, launching the beast up into the air. Stryker still in hand, I threw it upwards. The sword spun like a tycoon, cutting away at the Chimera's snake head. Gravity begins to take the Chimera back to the ground, so I jumped upwards grabbed Stryker. 

The Chimera roared as it landed back on the ground, fiercely intent on tearing my innards out. I was still airborne, while the beast was already sprinting towards me. It's teeth ripped into my torso, the pain shooting through like a serrated vice clamp. My eyes bared wide, baring tears as I coughed up copious 

We both made contact with the ground, Stryker deep in the Chimera's stomach. The Chimera laid sideways hisses viciously as large amounts of blood stain it's goat fur, and eventually the ground. It's blood was splattered across my face, and drowned Stryker in it. The lion began to speak as it died. 

"We have to tell Galgamere about this... he's too strong to be a mere mortal." The Chimera groaned. 

My eyebrows clenched, and an expression of perplexity came to my face. I stared down the Chimera intensely, but I was confused.

"There is nowhere you can run, nowhere you can hide. Galgamere's reach is limitless."

I took Stryker out of it's goat torso, and grinned. Both of my hands wrapped around Stryker's hilt, the blade pointed downwards, with the Chimera's iris staring directly at the blades tip. I pushed downwards and impaled it's eyes. The blade reached from one eye socket to the other perfectly, like an axle.

"Wasn't even paid to do that, and that felt good."

 I hear the Therro that I knocked to the side before bellow. 

"Galgamere will make you suffer!" The Therro flew away, leaving a cloud of dust around the debris.

I looked over to my motorcycle, still unscathed amidst all the fighting, so I tucked my hands into the pocket of my coat. All of these hours of riding lead to being told to go back, but after what Trent had said, it'd be outright wrong of me to not at least try. In his memory, I have to give this one good chance. I start up the motorbike, satisfied by it's warm bellow. As I start to ride away, the determination to get Arcadia out of her situation only grew.