Talk:Drake/@comment-86.20.144.144-20130910174310/@comment-5166842-20131008183330

As far as I know none of the enemies you named flee, but others do, so it's definitely part of the game. Like anonymous said, griffins do, and goblins and humans (I'm outta here!) at least try to flee sometimes.

I'm still more inclined to believe this is a bug because... well, just because, I guess, but the fact that the drake's behaviour changed so drastically after the Dark Arisen patch says that they probably did try to modify it in some way. Maybe they were trying to remove the bug where the Drake gets taken by The Brine -- which was EXTREMELY rare -- or maybe this drake's behavior got mixed up with the Wyverns at the start of The Fallen City, which fly up and away in much the same unrealistic manner (they float up like they're in an invisible elevator/lift) if you target them early, though those dragons come right back, or maybe Capcom did exactly what they intended to do, like anonymous suggest.