Namo:
The Drakes were previously nowhere near being an organization, but now there's organized activity on their part.
Individually they are weaker than before, but since they've come together, they've become more particular is what I'm saying. It's to the point that the return of the Undead was near undetectable.
The biggest issue is determining if there's a connection between the dimensional rifts in Dragon valley and the unusual events going on, and since we're limited in what we can do, we have to be especially fastidious.