Dozing meant "one who likes to sleep." The mountain earned its name from a peculiar clearing where, for some unknown reason, monsters loved to gather and sleep.

  And that clearing was Kael’s exact destination.

  In his past life, when Kael had visited this spot, he hadn't seen any sleeping monsters. Instead, it was filled with players AFK farming. For anyone under level 40, simply standing in this area granted a massive amount of experience and even a chance for random stat boosts. At the time, no one knew why the place had such a miraculous effect.

  Now, Kael understood. The corpse of the ancient Behemoth, buried deep below, was the cause. In life, the Behemoth had consumed countless beasts and men. In death, its body continued to absorb the life essence from the creatures that died nearby, then radiated a unique energy that created this phenomenon. Kael had been well over level 40 back then, so he’d never experienced the benefits himself.

  In this life, however, the clearing was occupied by a massive wolf pack.

  There were Mutated Frostbind Wolves, Mutated Blazewolves, Mutated Arcane Wolves, and a massive Mutated Alpha Wolf.

  [Mutated Frostbind Wolf (Elite)] - Level 30

  HP: 800,000

  Physical Attack: 5,100

  Magical Attack: 7,105

  Physical Defense: 1,510

  Magical Defense: 2,100

  .....

  [Mutated Alpha Wolf (Chief)] - Level 32

  HP: 10,000,000

  Physical Attack: 8,300

  Magical Attack: 12,000

  Physical Defense: 4,100

  Magical Defense: 5,100

  .....

  Individually, an elite mutated wolf was weaker than the average Mawflower from the Behemoth’s Hidden Realm. But there were over thirty of them.

  The players fighting them were mostly around level 27 or 28, with relatively low health and defense. If they failed to manage aggro and let two or three wolves focus on a single target, that player would be one-shot.

  Fortunately, the Mutated Alpha Wolf wasn't participating in the fight directly. It was lounging lazily on the ground, occasionally letting out a howl that buffed the other wolves with increased attack and movement speed.

  Over 700 players were engaged in the battle. Kael did a quick count and saw representatives from at least ten different guilds, plus a dozen or so independent parties.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Could a group of twenty level 27 players take down a single level 30 elite? Under normal circumstances, yes. A tank at that level had over ten thousand HP and, with healer support, had no fear of being insta-gibbed.

  A 20-person party would have at least four or five healers, allowing them to rotate, regen mana, and wait for cooldowns. The players were confident they could clear the elite wolves. Once the adds were down, they could zerg rush the alpha and claim victory.

  It was a clear, solid plan.

  Kael had to admit, the players of Ironclad Citadel were remarkably unified. Ten guilds and a dozen random parties, all cooperating without issue.

  In any other main city, the strongest guild would have already locked down the spot for themselves. This cooperative spirit was a direct result of the brutal difficulty of the monsters in the Mount Celestara range. Here, if you didn't work together, you didn't survive.

  Against a normal field boss, their strategy might have worked. But this particular spot had a gimmick, and the fight wasn't going according to plan.

  Just as the players finished wiping out the last of the elite wolves, the Alpha moved. It rose to its feet, scanned the surrounding players with contempt, and let out a piercing, otherworldly howl. Instantly, more than twenty new elite wolves materialized out of thin air.

  Worse, a new debuff appeared on every player: [Chaotic Howl].

  [Chaotic Howl]: Randomly attack nearby units. Duration: 3 seconds.

  It was a mass version of Mental Confusion.

  The unexpected ability threw the entire raid into chaos. The front-line Rogues had the worst of it. Standing close to the warriors, the unluckiest among them were ganged up on by two or three of their own allies and cut down on the spot. Some of the casters in the backline suffered a similar fate. Without their magic shields active, they were turned into pincushions by friendly archers.

  Three seconds isn't long, but for the squishy DPS classes, it was more than enough time to die a pointless death.

  As if the friendly fire wasn't bad enough, the newly summoned wolves were devastating. Since they had just appeared, they hadn't built up any threat. They pounced into the disorganized crowd or cast spells from a distance, targeting the low-health cloth and leather-wearers and killing them in two or three hits.

  After three seconds of madness, fifty or sixty players lay dead on the ground. Luckily, there were enough Priests on site to start resurrecting them one by one.

  But that was just the warm-up.

  A massive shadow fell over the front line as the Mutated Alpha Wolf finally joined the fray. Its eyes glowed an eerie green as it stared down the players.

  CRACK!

  A bolt of lightning split the sky, striking a player.

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  But the damage didn't stop there. It arced to nearby players.

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  Chain Lightning! It jumped between targets in a radius, its damage reduced by 10% with each arc.

  Next, the wolf launched a massive fireball.

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  The targeted player's health bar was instantly vaporized.

  Seeing that the boss was a ranged magic caster, the guild leaders quickly began shouting new orders.

  "High magic resist, get in there!"

  "Mages, shields up! Get its attention, pull aggro!"

  "Magic resist buffs! Get them up now!"

  "Kill the adds first, then the boss!"

  As expected of the top guilds from Ironclad Citadel, their coordination was tight. Within thirty seconds, they had adjusted their strategy.

  However, nearly every world boss has a few cheap tricks up its sleeve.

  Seeing that the high-magic-resist clothies were now holding its aggro, the Alpha Wolf simply stopped casting spells. It charged forward and began tearing at its target with its claws. A flurry of physical attacks later, the mage with the magic shield was mauled to death.

  Kael shook his head. The boss actually changes its attack style based on who has aggro? What a bullshit mechanic.

  But the players' headache was far from over. As the Alpha's health dropped, its claw swipes became area-of-effect attacks, and its spell damage increased.

  But the final, soul-crushing mechanic was the worst: whenever one of its summoned wolves died, it healed the Alpha.

  This put everyone in an impossible situation. The boss had too much health to be focused down first. But if they ignored the adds, they'd be overwhelmed by the damage.

  Was this going to be another wipe? To quit now would mean throwing away all their progress.

  Just as the players from Ironclad Citadel were caught in this impossible dilemma, a lone figure stepped out from the crowd...