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Anton was going into a very tough matchup in this next fight. And it doesn't help the fact that both countries are hyping up this particular match to the extent it's being given the prime-time spotlight. The Royals don't currently have the best record from all the teams in Triessa, but they aren't all that far behind him. His team is already being predicted to be a strong contender to make finals, though not the favorite. And the team they are up against is Feran's second best team. The currently best teams don't actually play against each other at all this year. Meaning that this match is being considered as close to being a preview of what the finals may look like at the end of the season. And it's a match where he has to try and contain two Backlines all by himself. They're attempting to bully him out since they know they can't put Korin in this match. One of their backlines is a Lightning type and the other a Wood type. Both of them would put Korin at a disadvantage while both are neutral to him. So the team had put in to have him go solo, expecting them to field one and then found out they're putting in both.

So now he has to try and contain two different backlines by himself, neither of which he has any kind of advantage against. So this match above all others he has to play as conservatively as possible. His job for this one is to try and distract and protect. In essence he almost has to play his role as more of a long-ranged support. There really is no other way for him to carry out the fight. God Mode would only hurt his team. He's actually talked with Mellisandre about something he could do to take advantage of the situation. Since he is best served acting as a second support that he should probably play way up. It's definitely not something they'd expect. He'd create a large tornado and throw it and control it and then he'd take one Frontline and protect them while she take the other. Their Frontline should be trying to take on him and could give them an advantage, if however risky.

He's being paired with Beleor. Beleor is the better suited of the two in being able to handle his shortcomings. As they begin to go split up and make their way to the other side their two Backlines begin to set up their area to try and slow them down. There is a forest being built up around them and the lightning user is trying to spark up some attacks. But the forest also helps hide their presence. Anton hears something moving across the ground and so he taps on Beleor's shoulder. The two move off to the side and hide in the forest. He doesn't know how aware they are or not of everything in the forest so they make sure to not actually touch the trees. To further try and give the impression he's in the distance he fires a blade of wind behind him and then uses his eyes to curve it around the trees as best he can and then once he's certain it's gotten far enough away he tightens it up a bit and throws it faster, using the wind itself to help guide it as he sends it after the sound he had heard. The two then stay perfectly quiet, Anton blowing the wind to make them downwind of the sound so that there's no chance of them smelling the two and when he's confident that they're gone the two begin moving again.

Eventually, by manipulating the wind he's able to catch the scent of one of their Backline. And he's rather thankful that he can use the direction he's pushing the wind to tell direction as nothing would be more embarrassing than to be seen crouching down and sniffing at the ground like a dog. Following the scent they're able to find the Wood user. They've holed themselves up into a tree. Definitely a very well defended location. There are countless thorns and sharp branches near the bottom of his hiding spot and doubtlessly would know instantly when someone were to try and climb up. It would be extremely difficult for anyone to get to him. Even Anton going God Mode would probably have difficulties actually hitting him as he'd simply react too quickly. But what he didn't count on was Anton being with Beleor. The two of them nod and Beleor crouches down as much as he can and activates his ability.

Though not good enough to be considered true invisibility, the oversized, muscular chameleon is able to blend into his environment by being able to change the color of his skin to anything he wanted provided it isn't too complex. Coupled with a very thick and tough skin made him an idea frontline. Him trying to climb would eventually work but would be extremely slow. But they don't need that. Anton readies up his own power and then taps Beleor three times on the shoulder. Then he waits a second and taps two times. Then as he taps the last final time, he backs up a few steps to give some room. Following the timing of the taps Beleor leaps into the air as high up as he can. As he does so Anton uses his ability to push Beleor upwards and forward as hard as he can.

As Beleor flies he does his best to change the color of his skin to hide his appearance as best he can and other than helping to guide his trajectory, right now Anton can't really do anything else to help. If he were to attack now it'd ruin the element of surprise and he's too visible to go with. Beleor disappears to the point that even Anton cannot see the other at all any more. And then he sits and waits for a moment before he can hear the bell firing off in the sky.

"Wood is down," he can hear Beleor's voice over their coms, bringing a smile to Anton's face. And a moment later and in a much quieter tone Beleor talks through the coms again, "I think I might need some help getting out of this tree."

The rest of the match went about as one would expect given the situation. Their entire team collapsed on the other backline where the support was also stationed. With one backline down he didn't even really feel the need for subtlety anymore and instead flew the two of them after the other backline. And a four against two situation went about as well as one would expect. Following that it was a three against one scenario, with similarly predictable results. All in all, Anton was quite pleased with how their team did. They beat one of the best teams on this side of the border by out-strategizing them and coordinating their attacks better. They had sent their single frontline to try and hunt down a backline that wasn't there. They never even tried dealing with his tornado, just avoided it altogether, not that it did anything anyway. And then left one backline undefended outside of his power and another with a support.

In hindsight, if they had fought that match the way the other team was expecting they likely would have lost. Neither Rojan or Beleor would have been able to climb that tree easily, forcing them to go after the lightning user and the support first with the tree user having free reign to do whatever he wanted. And yet, he did not really expect the reaction that they would get from winning that match. In spite of the fact that there are no restrictions to where the frontline or backline have to be at any point of the match and in fact Anton frequently plays way forward. The whole point of his God Mode that they made fun of relentlessly in this country is the fact that he burns brightly and takes the fight to the other backline in an attempt to overwhelm them and they never had any real complaints about the legality of his move to do that. But on this particular match, because he dared to play up and effectively act as a secondary support rather than stay back and attack from afar like Backlines were 'supposed' to they accused the team of cheating. That by launching Beleor into the air into the air with his wind Anton had somehow broken the rules and everyone here was demanding that the results of the match be overturned. But they had broken no rules nor even approached the line of any of the rules of the match.

The interviews from the media after the match were absolute garbage. It seems that every one of them had decided even before getting to the locker room that the team clearly had cheated and had framed every single question with that in mind, on why they felt like they had to cheat to win the match and if cheating is commonplace in their country and all of that stuff. Before they really got much of any real response Mellisandre had decided that she had had enough and booted out the entire press corp. That had Anton very much annoyed to the extent that his hands were starting to tingle. But he kept his temper and played nice and restrained himself to only canned responses.

They were originally going to go out and either try and find a quiet place to eat or just order in at their hotel, but the security of the arena had told them to hold off for now. People were very angry over their win and they wanted to have things die down a bit before letting the team go. And to that end the team reluctantly agreed. Instead they went and had a runner go and get them some of the arena food if they could find anything still open. After a few moments the runner comes back with some passable food. The standard fare for places like this. Over-spiced so that people would overlook how little food they're getting for the amount of money they're spending on it and heavily salted so that people want to buy more. And as they sit in the locker room and check on the news it becomes even more and more clear that simply going back to the hotel is not going to be an option. It's quickly escalating to an all-out riot over this match and Anton doesn't really understand why that would be.

It was a fairly fought match and the rules are quite clear that they did nothing wrong with people on both teams doing exactly what they are known for doing. And it isn't like this match even means anything in the grand scheme of things. Sure it was hyped up as what might be the result for the finals and as close as anyone was going to get to a prelude to the finals, but it doesn't change the fact that the match itself had no significant value. It was one match in many and both teams are still going to easily make playoffs regardless of the outcome. Though with things quickly getting so out of hand, the arena's security team actually advises them all to vacate to their bus. There was simply no way that the company would be able to guarantee their safety as things were and it would be extremely bad publicity if they either got hurt or had to project to defend themselves. Thankfully, Korin was already able to get out okay. Since he goes by different means of travel to keep his condition a secret he actually left the stadium right after the interviews. And he had been sending them some texts about the state of the city. The riot was going to be really bad. Like the people have already attacked their hotel and likely would have trashed their rooms if they found them. Anton doesn't really mind too much as he hadn't kept anything valuable in his hotel room. Too likely for people to try and rob them that he simply leaves things either on the bus or his person.

But the bus is safe enough, but the matter is where do they go. The bus is heavily enough armored that barring military weapons or some projectors attacking the bus in its more vulnerable parts they should be fine. But they can't simply just keep driving forever. As soon as they get out the arena the people swarm the bus, pounding on it and throwing things. Apparently even the police have been called as they show up after a few minutes a couple of squad cars show up and push the people off the bus and then escort them away. And with no real choice in the matter the bus goes after. One of the trainers come in and tells them they're to spend the night at the station. And the bus itself will be held in the impound lot at no charge. It's a simple matter of public safety and this is the safest that the city can guarantee since there's no reason for the police to be unable to keep out the mob.

And that creates a situation that he would not have anticipated a year ago. That he would have to spend the night at the police station not because doing anything wrong or illegal, but that his own country would be so enraged at a tactical decision that they were forced to hide there. And unfortunately the police station really doesn't have much in regards to comfortable accommodations. They'll just have to make due as it is and hope that everything goes well enough while they are in police custody. And more importantly that the police are able to keep them all safe. Though he knows that should the need arise he doesn't care if he gets arrested after the fact, he's not going to simply allow himself to die because it would mean breaking the law. If the people break into the station, then he's going to project and drive them all off as best he can. And that is definitely not a scenario he had thought possible. That there are projectors in the military is understandable, just not something he was particularly interested in.

While he had nothing else to do with his time he also looked up how the other team had been responding to this situation. And unlike what the media is going on about their match the other team wasn't really making all that big of a deal of the match. In fact, if anything the other team was down playing the match. When asked by the media their statements were just about how the match really didn't mean much in the grand scheme of things, that it will have no impact on whether they make it into the playoffs and that should their teams fight again they'll have an improved plan of attack.