Intimidating. Was the best word to describe the beast leisurely slumbering near Mason and his team.
The peak of the 16th mountain was completely flat with only a few rocks to disturb the perfectly levelled surface. The group of 8 expected the Drake to be guarding a cave or a coffin or anything really, but there was nothing of significance in sight. Still, this didn't discourage these 8 young cultivators, they would fight even for the slightest chance of a better future.
"Everyone get into battle positions," Mason whispered, trying not to wake the sleeping Drake.
The squad of 8 quickly but silently moved into their pre-planned positions and readied themselves for battle.
"Dawn, attack on three. One…two…three!"
Both Dawn and Mason rapidly circulated their Mana as they prepared to simultaneously cast their techniques to maximise their element of surprise.
"Prasufis Divine Arts: Devotees Palm!"
Dawn and Mason's aura surged as they performed an aggressive palm strike aimed at the Drake.
Sensing a disturbance in the mana around it, the Black Firedrake opened its eyes and saw two 20-metre-tall and 20-metre-wide palms made from mana as well as a unique Will dangerously approaching its body. It tried to use its tail to deflect the attacks, but alas it was too slow to react.
*ROAR!*
The drake roared in pain as the palms crashed against the tough scales that protected his body. However, even its proud scales struggled to negate the damage from the powerful palm technique.
"Allison, Adrian, Julian, Harold, attack before it takes to the sky!"
The drake unfurled its wings, but before it could stand up and take off, a scorpion whip wrapped around its back left leg. Allison tugged the whip with all her strength causing some of the blades on the whip to penetrate through the Drakes scales.
"Roaring Tiger Art! Bloody Rage!" Harold jumped into the air and punched the Drake from above. His shouts sounded like the roar of a tiger as he punched down with all his might. His punch connected cleanly against the spine of the Drake causing it to collapse back onto its stomach.
"Forseti's silent judgement!"
The massive blade of Julian's Axe swung down aiming to sever the drake's head from its body, but before the cultivators could celebrate an easy victory, the Drake opened its mouth and spewed out black fire from its mouth aimed at Julian's body. The black fire easily stopped his attack, but it didn't stop there and continued upwards.
"6 moulds of Prasufis: 3rd mould, Armadillo Armour!"
Just in time to save Julian from being roasted alive, an armadillo shell wrapped around him like a ball. Unfortunately for Julian, the armour seemed to be struggling against the heat and erosive properties of the fire as it slowly melted.
"Shit…"
Julian was basically trapped in an oven, and it was only a matter of time before he was baked to a crisp.
'That idiot used the wrong mould!' Julian raged in his mind. Mason told them before that this Black Firedrake fire has erosive properties, and Adrian was supposed to use the 'Divine Shell' mould so that he could still escape before the fire reached him, but Adrian was too confident in his techniques' abilities, and now he had to pay the price.
Mason saw this from the side and couldn't help but curse internally before dashing towards the trapped Julian. Gripping his pink spear with his right hand, Mason used his momentum to throw the spear as hard as he could, similar to how one throws a javelin, and the spear flew into the sea of flames. The spear split the flames into two halves and created a clear path to the armadillo shield that Julian was frying in.
*Swoosh*
When the spearhead came into contact with the armadillo shield, it was like a brick smashing through thin glass and the armadillo shield shattered into thousands of pieces. The spearhead came to an abrupt halt just inches from Julian, who looked like the most relieved man in the world and without, delay he grabbed the spear.
Mason made a pulling motion with his right arm and his pink spear with a human attached to it came flying back into his hands.
"Thanks, Mason, I owe you big time." Julian was sure he was a goner if it weren't for that beautiful spear. "Man, your family spear is a lifesaver. It's my first time seeing a peak Heaven-grade weapon in ac-"
"Hey, enough chit-chat, we still have a drake to slay." Mason cut him off and shook him off his spear before dashing back into the action. Since their first plan was a failure they had to change to plan B.
*ROAR!*
Mason suddenly saw the tall figure of Allison fly into the air with her scorpion whip in her hand and a shocked look on her face.
She looked down to see the Black Firedrake slowly getting up without any struggle. She then looked at Adrian with blazing anger. 'This idiot fucked up again!'
Adrian felt a cold sweat run down the back of his neck after feeling a cold gaze from above. He knew who it was from and pretended not to notice.
"Plan B!" They all heard Mason's commands and acted promptly. While still in the air, Allison used her whip to strike the wings of the Drake, her goal was to stop it from taking off into the air since it would be much harder to kill it if it does.
Dawn hit the Drake with a 'Loyalist Arrow' that pierced one of the Drakes wings. Adrian and Harold had their work cut out for them as they tried their best to avoid the deadly tail of the Drake. If that thick and heavy tail managed to directly hit their bodies, they knew that their bodies would turn into a bloody mist.
Trent and Yera were tasked with dealing with the Drakes' powerful legs and Razor sharp claws. They were perfect for the job since they both used swords. Trent used his large broadsword as a shield as well as a sword while Yera was nimble and quick. Her rapier didn't do much damage to the drake, but it annoyed it greatly. She was like a mosquito that wouldn't go away.
Mason and Julian were tasked with keeping the Drake distracted up front. They couldn't allow the drake to unleash its deadly fire upon their teammates.
And so a battle of attrition commenced between the Black Firedrake and 8 determined cultivators.
–––––
"They work surprisingly well as a team. Do you think they are going to win?"
"I'm not sure. Although it may seem they are in the driver's seat, it is far from reality. They haven't managed to severely injure the drake yet, and they are tiring both in body and mind."
"Oh, I understand."
Vasari and Hiromi casually commented on the battle taking place in front of them. They had been spectating for quite a while now without the Drake nor the 8 cultivators noticing them.
"Are you going to help them?" Hiromi asked as she glanced at his perfectly proportioned side profile. She wondered what he would do now because when they first arrived he wanted to fight against this Black Firedrake, but it seemed as if he had a different goal now.
"If they ask for help, I'll help them."
"You don't sound very keen…"
"Well…I admit that I might've underestimated the Black Firedrake at first. At the moment, late Beta stage beasts seem to be my limit." He wasn't ashamed to admit he misjudged the strength difference between late beta-stage beasts and peak beta-stage beasts. Without using his bloodline, he knew he stood no chance against a peak beta-stage beast as he was.
"You know you're quite sexy when you admit your mistakes." Hiromi teased him which earned her a nice flick on the forehead.
"Oh…"
"Is something wrong?"
"Keep watching, the battle might end soon."
Hiromi turned her attention back to the Black Firedrake just in time to see the black scales of the drake begin to glow in an eerie dark red hue, and its body started enlarging slightly. Its 10-metre long tail grew to 15 metres and its slightly plumped body grew sleeker and slimmer. The two small horns on its head grew three times longer. Its claws elongated and its previous black eyes changed to dark red colour.
"Uhm, what the hell is happening!" Adrian shouted while backing away from the even deadlier tail.
"Shit, everyone regroup! This guy is igniting his blood essence!"
By actively stimulating their bloodline, a beast can gain a temporary boost in strength. However, doing so had immediate and long-term consequences. The immediate consequence was that following the temporary boost, was the abrupt loss of strength and lethargy swept over the beast.
The long-term consequence was that their blood essence would become weaker. This meant that in the future, if they needed to ignite their blood essence for a boost in strength it wouldn't give as large a boost as it did before. It also meant that its offspring would have a weaker, more diluted bloodline.
The 8 cultivators backed away from the drake which was the complete opposite of what their previous strategy revolved around.
Regrouped and fully focused, the group of 8 kept their eyes trained on the Black Firedrake slowly flapping its beautiful wings and steadily rising from the ground.
"Everyone get behind me!" Mason ordered and fearlessly stood his ground.
His pink eyes and the red eyes of the Black Firedrakes locked together as they began an intense stare-down.
The Firedrake was the first to make its move, its enhanced state could only last 15 minutes at most given its already diluted bloodline. The Black Firedrake spat a massive black fireball from its mouth intending to incinerate the entire group in one go.
"Fuuuu!" Mason breathed in a mouthful of warm air before throwing his pink spear as hard as he could straight towards the incoming black fireball.
Before the spear and fireball could collide, Mason mumbled something under his breath and the pink spear suddenly released an almost blinding flash of pink light.
The 7 youths standing behind Mason, and Hiromi standing further back, watched with enthralled eyes at how the flash of pink and the giant ball of black flame met head-on.
The spear and fireball were stuck in a stalemate for a long time before the spear slowly started pushing the fireball back until it pierced right through it. The spear carried on its upward trajectory with the centre of the Drake's head as the target.
The Drake did not show signs of panic, using its tail to deflect the incoming spear. The Drake managed to flick the spear away, and the 8 followers of Prasufis watched it fly over their heads.
Hiromi's eyes nearly bulged out of the sockets when she saw the pink spear heading straight towards her. She screamed in fright and prepared to jump out of the way but just then, the broad back of Vasari covered her field of vision and she instinctively released a sigh of relief.
Vasari held out his right arm and caught the spear by the shaft just before the black spearhead could pierce his chest.
"Phew, that was close…" Vasari chuckled awkwardly to hide the immense pain that his right hand was in.
'This thing is fucking hot!'