By the time we managed to find Rick, his head was just barely sticking out of the muck. In fact, we didn't even see him. Instead, as we were walking towards the beacon Beth just "happened" to step on him.
We tried pulling him out of the muck by his helmet, only for it to come off. We tried pulling him up by his hair, and came away with a handful of it. Beth suggested just killing him and letting him respawn after a few days, but that'd derail our dungeon plans. In the end, I used Water Elemental Energy to freeze as much of the muck around him as I thought safe. Then, we dug him out while trying as hard as we could not to get stuck in it as well.
Note the previous attempts to remove Rick from the muck under reasons to NEVER get stuck and left at the mercy of my friends... or me.
After we'd finally gotten him loose and Rick had gotten done with trying to murder us, we had to decide on a course of action.
"Well, the Kobold job is a success." Beth pointed out.
"I thought it said to kill them before they finished summoning a drake?" I asked in confusion.
"In the mission description yes, but in the mission packet they handed us it promised full compensation if all the Kobold's die anyway. I think we can milk this, wait for a mission to kill the Drake to be released and then kill it."
"NO!" Rick said, a menacing look on his face. "Someone will pay for the state I've been put in and since you guys seem to want to keep me from killing the hair destroyer!" He glared at Beth, who grinned triumphantly, "I say we kill the damned Drake and worry about rewards later."
"I say we do what Rick says, you know the rules. We only shit on each other so much in one day." Connor said, while Beth looked slightly chastised.
"How? I've tried to attack a Drake before and couldn't get past it's defenses." I asked.
"My blade is enchanted it should get through defenses even if I don't use an attack ability. We just need it to be on the ground." Connor said.
Beth took a giant hammer out, apparently she'd been collecting any and all kinds of two-handed weapons, "This puppy will destroy it's wings if I get the chance to hit it. All we need from weather boy is to get the Drake on the ground for a moment."
"It won't be easy, and will probably require multiple tries. Rick, you up to tanking again so soon?" I asked, honestly a bit worried after seeing his originally shining armor dented and covered in burns, muck, and blood.
"I'll be fine, just give me a moment to meditate and I'll be ready to go." Rick said, before he very carefully tested the ground, moving around until he found a place that didn't give at all under his weight. Sitting down, he began to glow a bright light a moment later and to my amazement his armor started to clean itself. The dents popped and disappeared as if they were never there. Finally, the unnatural shine that attracted the Drake in the first place returned in full force.
"I'll start scouting." Connor said as he left us alone. With nothing better to do, I sat down and examined myself. I hadn't progressed at all in body refining in a few days, the process of cutting away my impurities is too dangerous to do in anything but the most safe of conditions. However, every time that I absorb Storm Energy I can feel the full brain massage of 'One with the Storm' slowly, but surely refining my entire mind. Even better, every time I create a barrier or take a hit that part of my brain absorbs more Storm energy then any other part. Refining it more quickly than I could imagine.
By now, I'd unlocked 11% of my brain. However, after unlocking a total of 20% the speed will begin to crawl and the only way to speed it up is to absorb more and more energy. Mindscape cultivation is nice in that it's a mostly passive experience, but sucks in that you can't actively pursue speeding it up beyond a certain point.
"Got it! The Drake went south from here, apparently it was injured when the fireball blew up in his throat." Connor came back pretty quickly, and we all took off as soon as Rick was done recovering.
"Damn!" I said as we walked up to the trail the Drake had left behind. Tree's were burning all over the place, but a stream of blood was leading us towards a hill that was just visible on the horizon.
Looking at the sun, Connor frowned and said, "Let's get a move on, I don't want to be fighting a Drake in the dark."
We all took off, moving at a fairly fast jog. The tree's whipped past, and within an hour we'd crossed the 30 miles to the hill. It was quite the trek, yet 30 miles to a 3rd level body refiner was nothing. I wasn't even sweating!
"Alright," Connor spoke as his chief strategist role came to the fore, "the goal is to remove it's ability to fly, after that we can wear it down at our own pace. Any options Sam?"
"I can try to create a massive down burst that throws it into the ground, but that'd be very temporary we'd probably only get one chance at that. Our best chance is to ambush it while it's still on the ground. I doubt it's flying with all the blood it's leaked."
"Good point, we'll just do the best we can. Beth, be ready with your hammer. Rick, be ready with your shield. Let's go!"
We moved swiftly, but quietly up the hill. Following the trail of blood, we found a lake with nothing around it. While my friends were investigating the surroundings, my gaze was drawn to the lake. Stepping around it, I noticed that several of the plants were wet and on the side closest to the blood trial it looked like water had splashed highly. Not only that, but the blood trail seems to have been washed away by a wave. As I was looking around, I noticed a boulder under the water that looked like a head. As I stared at it, it's eyes opened and stared back at me.
"It's under the water!" I screamed as I deployed my barrier and ran backwards. It's hard to describe just how massive a Drake is until you've seen one up close and personal. It's head was the size of a suburban, it's wingspan nearly as wide as a jumbo jet's. It shot out of the water at speeds rivaling a train as it slammed towards me. Pulling out my staff I didn't know what to block, but ended up hitting a tooth just to activate Defense of the Light's barrier. I could feel my Storm barrier weakening quickly as more and more Storm Energy was required to maintain it with the massive maw of the Drake biting down on it.
Suddenly, the Drake released me and I stumbled backwards as it howled in agony. While it'd been distracted by me, Beth had managed to run to it's left side and smash down with her hammer with so much force that despite the muscle and scales covering it, the bone connecting the wing to the body shattered in an instant.
As it was howling with agony, it raised it's head and left it's neck vulnerable to Connor's enchanted blade as it flashed with some type of sword energy and cut deeply into it.
Blood gushing everywhere, Connor yelled "Back off, let Rick handle the aggro till it's too weak!"
I didn't need to be told twice as I redoubled my speed, scrambling away from the massive beast. Blocking that attack had cost me more Elemental Energy than creating a massive tornado to destroy several thousand Goblins. Seriously, I'll leave that shit to Rick from now on.
For the first time since I saw him begin cultivation, Rick pulled out a weapon to go with his shield. A mace filled with holy energy smashed into side of the Drake as it rolled around in pain, grabbing it's attention. Looking at the shiny monstrosity in front of it, it must of remembered what had caused it's original injury and in a fit of rage it charged up a concentrated fire blast more powerful then any I'd felt so far.
Even Rick felt it as he was forced to take step after step backwards while the Holy Light Barrier emanating from his shield began to dim.
Before I could figure out what to do, my eyes glowed with that dark-golden light and Patrice shot lightning right down the Drakes gullet, causing it to flinch and raise it's point of aim above Rick's head. Blood was gushing from it's wounded neck as Beth stepped close and slammed her hammer into the Drake's lower jaw breaking it and snapping it shut. A minor explosion occurred inside it's mouth as the stream of fire was obstructed by it's lower jaw and blood started to flow from there as well.
Backing off, we waited with baited breath. I ran to the top of the hill and hid on the other side of it, only my head could be seen from the other side while Beth and Connor moved to bracket the sides of the beast. Whenever it made a move to rush at Rick, Beth and Connor would instantly attack it from the sides while Patrice and I decided to pepper it's eyes with shards of ice. Finally, after nearly half an hour it's vitality had run it's course. The drake fell forward in a massive crash as it passed out.
Before it could get a chance to recover, Beth pulled out an executioners sword more than three feet taller then her and swung it with a war cry. "DECAPITATORS!!!"
'She really won't let that go.' I thought to myself as blood flew nearly 20 feet into the sky and the head the size of a suburban fell off of the beast. Compared to the one Carlos had killed, this Drake was much larger. Normally, you'd expect that larger meant stronger, but in the cultivation world most high level beasts actually shrink their size to lower the amount of people that can attack them simultaneously.
Shuddering at the thought of how powerful that Drake must've been, I was incredibly thankful at that moment that Carlos had been the one to deal with it.