Victory...?

Knowledge was power and I needed all the knowledge I could get. Knowing more meant I could do more tricks with Qi and adapt to any situation. Lightning appeared to be extremely effective in my last fight, but I used it just because I couldn't free myself otherwise. Its range was a bit short still and it was hard to control in the chaos of battle.I needed something to serve as my guide for Lightning. I just didn't know what."Watch out!"I turned and saw a smaller Drake pouncing from up high. It was a dark gray one, and clearly more Earth-oriented than the rest. A mutant. I fired a Sun Ray at it and scorched its scales. It missed me by just a few meters and shook the ground as it landed. It then hissed at me with its forked tongue and flicked its tail. It was long and smacked me right in the chest like a whip, only with the thickness of century-old oak.There was a loud crack as I went flying across the river, smashing into the other side of the canyon. I regretted putting back on my Ring of Weightlessness. With all my mass, I could easily resist a blow such as that, but not if I was as light as a feather.I groaned and pulled myself out of the rocky wall. I looked at the Drake and considered fighting it, before pushing the thought to the side. Too many witnesses. When I killed the other one, we were hidden by the rocks. The second one was completely exposed.Dropping down, I just ran, not bothering to look back. Others could deal with the beast, I needed to get to the front lines first.The main battleground revealed itself to me as I turned the corner. The nest was once more in sight, only instead of orange rocks and white bones, it was covered in crimson blood and black scorch marks. There were other colors as well, like frozen patches of white, and glowing golden swirls as Cultivators used their techniques, but those were fewer and far between.It was a brawl. A dirty, hands-on fight that drew much blood from both sides. Not a single member was undamaged, with the sole exception of the old man who was our employer for the time being. He manned the weird contraption, shooting beams and restraining the beasts so they could be attacked by the rest.[Why the fuck are they still using beast cores?!]The Cultivators for some reason refused to use their own energy and instead made use of the Qi they had stored in their gear and jewels. They used glyphs to trigger their Mystic Arts, turning that part of the canyon into a battlefield full of fireworks and explosions.I've seen men get mauled by the beasts, only for them to turn around and blow themselves up, killing or badly wounding the Drakes in the process. I saw at least three die that way and it angered me.Both their bodies and Souls were utterly annihilated, not leaving anything for me to consume.[Nooo! What are they doing?! Don't they know how to fight?!]Apparently, the answer was a resounding no. At least for some of them. I knew Rogue Cultivators were weak, but I didn't think they were so bad at staying alive. How did they even survive the century needed to reach the Golden Core? By avoiding fights?Well, yes, that was probably the reason why. They never risked their lives unless it was absolutely necessary.The strongest four were much better at avoiding getting snapped in half and were working on the boss from all sides. They were covering for each other, attacking from multiple directions. But that was when they were five against one.As soon as the other Drakes jumped into the fray, the dynamic of the fight changed."Don't let them get close! Watch out!"The boss took the opportunity of the distraction to fire off a massive beam of crimson flames and split the attackers, breaking their teamwork. It then thrashed around even stronger, breaking off some of the chains that keept it contained. It then rose on its hind legs and its chest began to expand as surrounding Qi rushed into its mouth."Stop it!" Lao Huli shouted from on top of the cliff. But it was too late.The Drake blew out a beam amid a maddening roar. The beam blew off part of the stone cliff, destroying the containment cannon. The remaining chains immediately lost their strength and fell apart. The beast was free."Shit! It escaped! Get ready!""Roar of the Mountain!" One of the five shouted, the large man with a bushy black beard, and his voice traveled through the canyon, amplifying itself and becoming stronger every second. His roar was long and loud, and the stone beneath our feet began to tremble, with the targeted Drake being pushed back as its body rippled.I had to cover my ears and yet the voice still reverberated through my bones, making it painful to keep listening. Thankfully he stopped soon, only going for about ten seconds or so.His attack achieved an amazing result, pushing the large Drake back while also disabling the smaller ones. As well as the Cultivators fighting them.Everyone except the strongest ones was disorientated, with blood flowing out of their eyes and ears. Some of the smaller Drakes recovered first, but instead of attacking, they stumbled away, and then ran up the side of the cliff, disappearing from our sight."Allow me…" The tall, lanky guy with the goatee said and took a stance before the beast. I could see him finally gathering his own energy as the Avatar formed around him and then jerked forward with an open hand."Scattering-Petals Palm!"A massive bright golden lotus bloomed between the two, and the man slapped it on the back, blowing its petals apart. The large, meter-wide petals wrapped themselves around the Drake's snout and clamped it shut."Crush!" The Cultivator shouted and brought his hands together. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead as Qi left his body in a torrent of energy. The beast resisted, thrashing around and slamming its head into the walls of the canyon."Quickly! I can't hold it for much longer!""I'm on it! Mountain-Piercing Lance!"A third guy pulled out his massive weapon and imbued it with his power. Then he slotted in a Spirit Stone and activated his Avatar as well. The avatar took the 4-meter lance and as it began to glow white from Spirit Qi, dropped down into a squat, and then exploded upward, piercing the Drake through the side of its neck.The beast roared, finally breaking free from the flower petals, and blew a plume of fire beneath itself, creating a fiery environment. Its wound forcefully closed and it became visibly enraged.It began spitting out fireballs, clawing at anyone nearby, and even began lashing out with its tail.People were smacked around, burned, and torn apart in its mad rush to kill everyone."Everyone! Get back!"Lao Huli roared from the sky, and as I looked up, I was shocked at the magic he prepared. An array stood in the air beneath him, with bright, glowing blue lines, and dozens of Spirit Stones feeding into it.He took a talisman and threw it, blasting it with his own power just as it touched the floating array."Frostfire Vortex!"Everything froze in its place, the crimson flames were snuffed out in a split second, and a copy of the array flashed on the ground beneath the Drake. The beast looked up and roared defiantly, spitting out flames, yet the orange was pushed down by the blinding white ice and snow as the roar of wind began picking up.The whistle of fast-moving snowflakes soon turned into a deafening roar as shards of ice spiraled into an ever tighter formation around the Drake. While at first the frozen constructs shattered at the mere touch of the crimson scales, the longer the Frostfire Vortex continued, the stronger it became. From a gentle gust of wind to a blazing hurricane. The shards of razor-sharp ice fragments began cutting into the tough flesh, and soon the cries and roars of the Fire beast were drowned out in the bellowing roar of ice and snow.The Cultivators gradually recovered but stayed at a distance, marveling at the grand display of Ice magic. I watched from afar, observing as the Spirit Stones were drained one after the other and replaced with new ones.It was a massive waste of energy. Lao Huli lacked the skill and efficiency to properly use Spirit Qi, yet he was able to show such a grand display of force. He deserved praise for that fact alone.His magic was slowly grinding down the beast, until its Soul finally left its body, and it died. But I doubted he could have done it alone. He needed a distraction to keep the Drake stationary for long enough, as well as to drain it first. A fully rested monster such as that would be impossible to bring down with a single spell like that. Not to mention the entire pack would have attacked him if Lao Huli was alone.The blizzard slowly died down, revealing the butchered corpse of the massive Drake. Its skin was all but gone, and the flesh was at some places stripped down to the bone. A gruesome sight, yet a glorious victory. I feasted on its Soul."We've done it!""Well, that was easy, haha!""Amazing…""Job well done, fellow Cultivators." Lao Huli said as he slowly landed on the ground and examined his work. The place around was all frozen solid in crimson ice, full of blood and pieces of flesh, yet the corpse was still steaming hot. The beast barely just died and the Cultivators were already swarming it like flies.Some of the other Drakes were killed, not as brutally as the big one, but they were dead nonetheless. A few escaped, but that was to be expected. We didn't have enough manpower to contain them all."You all have truly done a marvelous job! It went even better than expected. And almost exactly according to plan." Lao Huli praised while standing before the beast, his hands crossed behind his back.There was a roar of cheers for victory was ours. The few dead we suffered were instantly forgotten. The only thing that mattered were the rewards. Death was something every one of us was intimately familiar with. Heck, it was even expected. Such a dangerous job was bound to have some casualties.I looked around and didn't see Yaji anywhere. It was a shame, but such was life. Only the old ones survived. And then there was me."Oh, hey… The kid's still alive.""Hmph. Looks like his luck is not bad.""Come now, everyone helped, and now is time for a celebration!" Lao Huli announced with a smile.But then the ground suddenly shook, followed by a scream from one of the younger ones, and the man inflated like a balloon, his body squirming under his clothes, and then exploded into a shower of guts and gore.What the fuck.