The Mutated Alpha Wolf summoned a new wave of elites every five minutes, and every time an elite died, it healed the Alpha.

  The assembled players, most of whom weren't even level 30, looked impressive in number, but in reality, only a hundred or so of them could deal meaningful DPS to the boss. Their attacks, ranging from a few hundred damage to a paltry few dozen, were barely scratching its hide.

  With that kind of tickle damage, there was no way they could kill the boss in five minutes.

  The boss, on the other hand, was killing players with terrifying efficiency. The number of Priests with a resurrection skill was limited, and soon, people started dropping like flies.

  Trying to take on a field boss an entire gear tier above them was proving to be a fatal mistake. Many of the guilds were ready to call it quits.

  "Boss, we should bail."

  "Yeah, once we get some of that level 25 Legendary heavy armor from Arbazon, we'll have a better shot at tanking this thing."

  "I think we should just come back when we're level 30."

  "There are too many people here anyway. Splitting the loot would be a nightmare."

  ...

  Draevan, the guild leader of Titan Guard, was seething with frustration. A few days ago, he had completed a hidden quest and obtained an Ascendant weapon, the [Obsidian Greatsword], which had massively boosted both his attack and defense. He had then spent days organizing the main teams of the ten largest guilds in Ironclad Citadel to clear this wolf den.

  The spot had become a hot topic of discussion; a pack of thirty elite wolves led by a chieftain boss was a bizarre combination no one had ever seen before. They were all convinced it had to drop something extraordinary.

  But the difference in raw power was just too great. Draevan had hoped that with his Obsidian Greatsword, he could be like the legendary Dawnbreaker and turn the tide of a battle single-handedly. Reality had just dealt him a heavy blow.

  Draevan sighed. Forget it.

  With even Draevan's confidence shattered, the other guilds gave up as well, and their forces began to withdraw. Though their main teams left, each guild left a few scouts behind to make sure no one else tried to ninja the boss.

  Seeing that the crowd had thinned out, Kael walked over to the dejected Titan Guard leader.

  "Need a hand?"

  Draevan turned and saw a name that was both familiar and terrifying: Dawnbreaker!

  The moment Draevan saw the name, a single thought flashed through his mind. I'm a dead man.

  The rumors claimed Dawnbreaker was an arrogant monster who killed other players without reason or warning.

  TikTok was filled with montage clips of his greatest hits: the time he was hunted by hundreds for a five-million-dollar bounty and killed them all; the Blackwind Brotherhood siege, where he slaughtered his way through thousands; the battle for Starlight Village, where he'd been surrounded by tens of thousands and still emerged victorious.

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  The fact that he'd had a bounty on his head for nearly a month straight due to his absurdly high Crime Rating was all the proof anyone needed.

  No one knew how he managed to teleport between main city hubs with an active warrant, which only fueled the most popular theory: "Ullr" and "Dawnbreaker" were the same person.

  Draevan's knuckles whitened as he gripped his Obsidian Greatsword. He wasn't thinking about attacking; he was praying that when he died, the Ascendant weapon wouldn't drop.

  Kael had no idea about the complex drama unfolding in Draevan's head. When the guild leader just stared at him blankly, Kael waved a hand in front of his face. "Hello?"

  "Ah!" Draevan snapped back to reality, instinctively holding the Obsidian Greatsword defensively in front of him.

  Kael smiled. "How about we work together?"

  "Work together?" Draevan looked at him with suspicion, wondering what the catch was. "Cooperate on what?"

  "Simple," Kael said. "You have your people kite the elite wolves away. I'll kill the boss."

  Draevan blinked, his heart starting to pound. "You'll kill the boss alone? Do you need any help?"

  "Nope. Just need you to pull the adds."

  Draevan’s suspicion deepened. "What do you want? What's your angle? Are you just going to use us to distract the mobs so you can kill us all afterward?"

  Kael was speechless for a moment. He couldn't be bothered to explain. He just pointed to another guild party that hadn't left yet. "Fine. I'll just go ask them for help."

  He turned to walk away.

  "Wait!" Draevan quickly grabbed his arm. "Let's... let's talk about the loot split."

  Kael nodded to himself. He'd interacted with Draevan many times in his past life; the man was straightforward and a good friend. It was why he'd approached him directly.

  "Any agility-based gear the boss drops is mine. I don't want any of the other equipment or materials."

  "Is... is that it?" Draevan was stunned. This wasn't a player trying to steal a boss kill. This was a god-tier player offering to carry them for free.

  "One more thing," Kael added. "After it's dead, I need to dig up a quest item here. I'll need you and your men to stand guard for me while I do it."

  The request was odd, but Draevan couldn't see any sinister plot behind it, so he agreed.

  This generous offer was Kael's way of assuaging the small pang of guilt he felt. Once he dug up the Behemoth's corpse, this amazing leveling spot would likely revert to a normal patch of grass, lost to the players of Ironclad Citadel forever.

  With the deal struck, Draevan invited Kael to his party and began to organize his troops.

  Kael immediately activated his skills. Clone and Summon: Ghostly Form shimmered into existence, creating a team of himself and four duplicates.

  To avoid the boss's AoE attacks like Chain Lightning, Kael positioned the clones far apart from each other.

  Draevan watched, his jaw slack. He'd seen the Clone skill before, but it usually only summoned one or two copies. He'd never seen anyone summon four at once. Not only that, but there were three normal clones and one ghostly one.

  He knew what ghosts were, but he'd never heard of a player being able to summon a ghostly clone. Is that a level 30 skill?

  Once he was set up, Kael gave Draevan a nod. "Okay, have your men pull the adds."

  Draevan relayed the orders, and his nearly one hundred remaining guild members sprang into action. Since the boss had disengaged from the last fight, it ignored the skirmish happening around it, returning to its idle state.

  Kael stood 50 yards away, raised Galeharrow, and his clones mimicked the action. He released the string.

  Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!

  Five arrows flew in a staggered sequence.

  -15725 (Silkbind Shot)

  -9742

  -10299 (Silkbind Shot)

  -37012

  -24032

  The Mutated Alpha Wolf roared, Enraged, and tried to charge. But golden threads from the Silkbind Shot ensnared its legs, rooting it in place.

  It struggled furiously, shattering the threads in just over a second. It lunged toward Kael again, but before it could take a step, another arrow wrapped its legs in a fresh set of threads.

  Against a level 32 boss, a single Silkbind Shot couldn't hold it for long. But Kael had timed the clones' shots with a precision of tenths of a second, ensuring that the moment the boss shattered one set of threads, another arrow was already there to replace them.

  Kael was so confident because he had a massive range advantage. His own attack range was 50 yards, while the boss's spell range was only 30. He could kill it without ever taking a single point of damage.

  His damage output was immense, averaging around one hundred thousand DPS. A boss with ten million health would be dead in under two minutes.

  The Mutated Alpha Wolf, repeatedly trapped, could do nothing but stand in place and howl in futile rage.