Cleopatra waited patiently in the bush, not knowing that she had already been spotted. Yu Pengkai looked for his options, but considering Cleopatra's charms, it seemed that a hard fight was the only way out.
He considered the possibilities. His magic resistance would enable him to try and put up a fight, but considering she had two completed items, the Immortal Armor alone would not be enough. Even if he could stun her and launch the minions onto her, one charm and orb from her would be the end of him.
His eyebrows knit together in frustration as he pinged for that bush.
A giant red exclamation mark lit up, and a shrill "Ding, Ding, Ding," sounded for all ally players. Unfortunately, only Kevin seemed to take note of it. To think, of this entire bunch, somehow, Kevin had the best map awareness. That thought alone was enough to send Yu Pengkai chills.
"Ooh, I'm coming! I'm coming over!" He commented excitedly as he began his trek from the base, putting all of his previous encounters with Cleopatra over the top of his head. "Wait for me!"
Yu Pengkai would have retorted that giving this Cleopatra a single kill was better than feeding her with two kills, but he was not in the position to be sarcastic.
Cleopatra had finally made her move, strutting out of the bush and tossing out her scarab beetle charm, hoping to catch Yu Pengkai off guard.
He easily side-stepped the charm, moving to the right of the screen ever-so-lightly. The golden charm barely scraped past his shoulders as the champion whirled around.
"Woah! How did you dodge that!" Josh immediately exclaimed. "I would have never seen that coming!"
"Practice," Yu Pengkai mumbled, directing his Q towards the approaching Cleopatra.
"What?" Josh repeated, but Yu Pengkai's eyes narrowed in concentration.
Although he managed to dodge away, a single orb from Cleopatra had wiped his entire wave of soldiers. As his allies fell to their deaths, his passive ability was rendered entirely useless. Another golden orb lit her palms, the dazzling rays threatening to end his life.
Yu Pengkai smiled, realizing that this would be the first fight he had encountered all game—the only somewhat worthy opponent he had found.
He feigned a lunge forward, moving to the left at the last moment. And exactly as he had predicted, Cleopatra threw out the charm in that wrong direction. Once again, there was barely a hair's distance between the charm and his champion.
Taking advantage of her cooldowns, he activated his W and managed to get in two hits before retreating back to a safe distance. However, thanks to Paracelsus's healing abilities, it was almost like he had not done anything to begin with. Thus, as he stepped back, Cleopatra's health bar remained virtually undented.
Shaking his head in annoyance, he spawned three more soldiers in Paracelsus's direction to give him something to be busy with and turned again to Cleopatra.
Like before, she had been slowly amassing her orb, the radius of it growing noticeably bigger by the second. She released it straight at Alexander the Great, and the golden ball sped towards him.
As he dodged again, this time to the right, the first thought that crossed Yu Pengkai's mind was that she did not learn her lesson. The second thought was that he was dead.
Almost immediately after casting her orb, she tossed out her charm to the right of it, and the golden scarab beetle hit Yu Pengkai firmly on the chest.
It would be a lie to say that he wasn't shocked. Whether it was due to chance, a misclick, or intentional, this Cleopatra had predicted his movement patterns near-perfectly with this skill combo.
Paracelsus finally landed one of his mercury pools, and the silvery liquid bubbled underneath the trapped Alexander the Great. Another orb hurled through him, this time smaller than before. Nevertheless, he was now down to a quarter health.
Yu Pengkai tried to flee towards his tower, realizing that he had wholly over-estimated Alexander the Great's base health regeneration rate. However, the enemy Cleopatra was not going to let him go that easily as she hurled down a row of silks behind Alexander the Great.
If he tried to walk on them, he would be immediately slowed, the perfect opportunity for Cleopatra to hit another charm.
All he could do was fight; he sighed before activating his W and lunging forward for a stun. He raised his sword and struck his target, knowing that it would only delay his inevitable death.
"I'm coming!" He heard Kevin exclaim, his voice slightly muffled by the headset.
"No! We'll just both die!" But it was already too late. Joan of Arc charged from the bushes, acting like the warrior that she was, and Yu Pengkai was forced to activate his Ultimate.
Once again, white stallions materialized from thin air beneath Alexander the Great and Joan of Arc as the two suddenly gained a burst of speed. Joan of Arc sent out two soaring swords, and cannonballs soon followed.
Yu Pengkai's first instincts were to ditch Kevin and run for his life, but that relied on Cleopatra not having a brain. Unluckily, she seemed to be one of the select few of this game that brought a brain along as she recast her barrier spell right behind Alexander the Great, preventing him from going back.
One more charm and he would surely be dead.
Joan of Arc suddenly dashed forward, raising her blades into the air in a circle-like fashion. The familiar charm hit, leaving Joan of Arc at a sliver of health, but the blades fell anyway, spinning as they pinned Cleopatra into the ground.
In the heat of the moment, Alexander the Great rushed to the scene, hoping to block the next charm for his ADC friend. He jumped at Cleopatra, using whatever of his abilities he could in hopes that Paracelsus's healing would not be enough to sustain her sliver of health.
However, only as she raised her hands into the air did he realize that he too had committed the very mistake he scoffed at Kevin for making.
The swarm of scarab beetles was beside her fingertips. He activated the Immortal Armor. A holy sword sped by.
"Shut down!"