Turning the Tides

Josh hesitated, a look of utter disbelief in his eyes. "You do realize we're the red team, right?" He paused, adding a bit sheepishly, "Like, we're the team that's currently losing?"

He tabbed, opening the popup screen detailing the current situation. "The first number is the kills, the second is deaths, and the last number is assists," he kindly explained, still thinking that Yu Pengkai had never seen this game before in his life. "That's why the word is KDA."

Yu Pengkai disregarded his explanation, instead focusing on the statistics.

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Red:

hashing_it_out (Joan of Arc): 0-3-0

amywalla_bf (Thomas Plunkett): 0-3-0

wallythewarrior (Alexander the Great): 0-1-0

Bearbear (Hou Yi): 0-0-0

I_suck_at_this_game (Emperor Qin): 0-1-0

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On the other side, it didn't take a math major or a professional Kings of Valor player to figure out that things were going obviously much better.

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Blue:

SupremeDragonLord (Cleopatra): 6-0-0 (500 Gold Bounty)

immabaddude (Paracelsus): 1-0-0

suuuuuuumdawg (Genghis Khan): 0-0-1

hanna_gurl_oxoxo (Jing Ke): 0-0-1

DoYouEvenSleep (Jebe): 1-0-1

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"Are you sure you want to play right now?" Josh asked again, his eyes wide with disbelief, gesturing again to the dire state of the current game. "We're probably just going to surrender in like ten minutes anyway."

Yu Pengkai maintained his smile, nodding as he reached for Josh's mouse. "If you don't mind, I would like to try," he asked calmly, a gleam of light hiding in his eyes as he smiled. "A challenge is always nice."

"Yeah, sure, but just don't expect too much for your first game. Alexander the Great has a bit of a skill cap and isn't super friendly for beginners," Josh removed his headset, handing it to Yu Pengkai before standing up. "It's all yours, though."

Without another moment of hesitation, Yu Pengkai smoothly slid to the chair one over and put on the headset. The cheap foam earpiece barely fit his ear, and the thin metal band was like a head brace, but all of that could be ignored at the given moment.

It was almost as if he was teleported to another world as he blocked out everything else around him.

"An ally has been slain." Those were the first words that greeted him as he took Josh's place.

After switching out the basic settings and reversing the lock-screen mode, he got to work.

He quickly glanced over Alexander the Great's skill sets, familiarizing himself with it. Truth to be told, he rarely saw this champion in either casual or professional play, and he had no guarantee that even he could turn the tide with him.

After all, it had been years that he played a tank and charged at the frontlines of the team. He was quite used to cowering in the backline, slowly picking off the enemies one arrow at a time. To ask him suddenly to get upfront with the enemies was actually quite a challenge.

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Alexander the Great

Passive Ability: All Hail Macedonia

All ally soldiers are granted additional attack speed and health when within a given radius of Alexander the Great.

Q: Commander

Alexander the Great summons three additional allied soldiers to fight for him for five seconds. If he is attacked during this duration, these three allied soldiers will gain double attack speed and movement speed.

W: Campaign Onwards

Alexander the Great's next attack deals additional attack damage.

E: Leader of the Men

Alexander the Great's next attack will stun the enemy champion for two seconds while dealing attack damage.

R: Onwards to Persia!

For five seconds, a horse materializes under Alexander the Great and all nearby allied champions and soldiers, granting both doubled attack speed and movement speed.

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Looking at this set of unfamiliar skills, it appeared to Yu Pengkai that the most efficient combo would be to trigger his W right before his E and immediately pressing Q afterward. However, he was already quite behind in lane, and normal trading would not be enough to quickly turn the tide.

Or rather…? A quick plan formed within his mind.

While he had no grasp on the tankiness of the champion nor the attack he dished out per skill, he knew that there was only one way to find out.

The assassin, Jing ke, was no big issue. He was more worried about the Paracelsus, whose poison could slowly chip away at Alexander the Great's health. Scanning the item's shop, he grabbed a quick Magic Resistance Cloak for 700 Coins.

He had 100 Coins left. After another second of pause, he grabbed two more health potions as well before heading out and marching towards the top lane.

Although geographically and visually, this lane was essentially a mirror image of the bot lane that he was used to playing in, it felt distinctively different. Perhaps it was just his hallucinations, but without the comfort of a support by his side, he felt that a part of his own champion was missing.

In the past, he and the support would spend hours analyzing various bot lane compositions and testing ways to maximize their collaboration, but now, he was all alone and making his way to an uncertain death.

Before long, he neared his destination, a half-health tower. In front of him, a glaring Jing Ke was rapidly hitting the tower, hoping to get one more plating before Alexander the Great arrived back in lane. Meanwhile, Paracelsus was nowhere in sight.

Alexander the Great charged forward, and although Jing Ke backed away from the tower, he appeared to have no intentions of going back to base as he stood in the middle of the lane, his ally soldiers still a bit of a distance away.

Yu Pengkai smiled, knowing that this was the chance he was waiting for. Rookie mistake number one: do not overstay your welcome.

Behind him, an entire wave of soldiers was gathering. Alexander the Great stepped in front of the wave, motioning to run towards Jing Ke, hoping that he would take the bait.

Seeing this as an opportunity, Jing Ke dashed forward, his jeweled dagger outstretched. He slashed through Alexander the Great's armor with a flourish, and the red health bar immediately dropped by a quarter. Seeing that Alexander the Great didn't move or hit back, he became bolder, drawing another blade.

"What are you doing!" He heard Josh's frustrated screech. "You didn't do any damage to him!"

Yu Pengkai smiled. His master plan was coming together.

He turned around in the opposite direction and lumbered towards his tower, knowing that Jing Ke would follow without a second thought.

As he neared the edge of his minion wave, he suddenly paused, and Jing Ke dashed to him, daggers drawn in both hands.

Seeing Jing Ke's assassination animation begin, Yu Pengkai immediately pressed his Q key, and the three angry soldier quickly jumped in defense of their general. Not only that, the entire wave of soldiers charged forward, all of their swords pointed toward one common enemy.

As Jing Ke worked on killing these three minions and getting them off himself, Yu Pengkai counted down for his Ultimate.

Three…

Two…

One...

Suddenly, a white stallion materialized underneath him, and Alexander the Great charged forward in one swift movement. Jing Ke tried to dash away, but it was evident from the little sliver of mana he had left that he could not call upon his Ultimate.

As hard as Jing Ke tried to hit back, relying on his auto attacks to finish Alexander the Great off, neither Yu Pengkai nor the entire wave of allied soldiers was going to let him do so easily.

E. With a swing of his broadsword, Jing Ke froze in place. The countless little swords and arrows from the allied soldiers stabbed away more eagerly than before.

W. One more strike, and Jing Ke fled with a sliver of health, flashing toward his own tower.

Yu Pengkai flashed forward as well, burning his Dash spell, finding himself just in range to launch one last Q.

As the three soldiers found their mark, the announcement was almost music to Yu Pengkai's ears.

"An enemy has been slain."

But Yu Pengkai's excitement was short-lived. An angry Paracelsus walked towards him, a vial of potions bubbling in his hand.