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Anton was watching the match this time from the stands. It was agreed upon that this would not be a good match for him, especially with that support of theirs. Their Backline is an Ice user so that isn't to his benefit either. It isn't like the Backline would cancel him out, but rather could simply work on making the entire area colder, which would make it a bit harder for Anton to manage the winds in the area and not end up harming his own team in the process. A cold wind is far harder to deal with than just the cold by itself. And besides, it was Korin's turn to go up. He isn't affected by the ice user all that much. Yes, the ice user can turn his water into ice, but he wouldn't gain control over Korin's attacks and Korin's abilities don't really impact the rest of the team like Anton's does. But more importantly, Korin was a better match against that support of theirs. Their entire team has been pretty much carried by their support the entire season.

And it's not surprising considering her ability. By herself she's not too powerful, but she has the ability to absorb any attack that is sent her way and reflect it back in any way they choose. And she can absorb these attacks by just touching the attack. So if Anton had thrown a twister at her, she'd just have to walk into it and then she'd have complete control over it. Or touch his blade of wind and then she can send it back wherever she wanted. The only real ways to deal with this team is to try and take out the members without actually ever having any attack connect with her. And then either beat her down without abilities or win by points. And both scenarios are very difficult to handle. Korin is, by far, more skilled than Anton at controlling his abilities. He can send attacks and redirect them mid-air to much greater precision. He stands a good chance at being able to strike targets without having to potentially give attacks to their support. Especially if he goes by way of a death of a thousand cuts strategy.

Things don't entirely go according to plan, though. Korin was using his powers to mostly disrupt and isolate, but their Support wasn't buying any of it. Instead they clumped together with their backline staying mostly away and constantly moving around when not attacking to make it difficult for Korin to pinpoint his location for very long, but he was able to beat him down a few times while he himself was being mostly ignored. And eventually when trying to corner out one of their front lines the fight quickly escalated into basically an entire team fight from both sides. It was definitely a very exhilarating enough fight and likely would be on the highlight reels for the next week or so. But their Backline did not have the same restrictions as Korin did and was able to go all out on attacking the Royals while Korin had to be very selective and try and attack from angles that would not be easily intercepted by their support. But during his he was able to pinpoint the backline and do a number on them. The fight was a bit too fast and close for him to do much in the actual fight. Between Beleor and Rojan they were able to eventually take out the other team's backline and even managed to figure out a way around that support, mainly that they were only really susceptible to attacks while they were redirecting someone else's attack. So someone would attack and then while they were reflecting this attack from somewhere else. It was very risky and ended up causing Rojan to fall. By the time they had gotten the other frontline down Mellisandre fell. And then there simply no one to really divert attacks and Beleor fell as well before they were able to take out the support. Meaning that after an intense little skirmish the other team was up one member, even if both of those still up are rather hurt. But they chose the tactical option and ended up winning the match.

In the end Anton couldn't even fault them for their strategy, frustrating as it might be. They had the numbers advantage. Korin was not really equipped to try and fight off two people in close range, not with the abilities their support possessed. But even still the two were weak and an assault against Korin would likely end up with one if not both of them taken out. We had figured out how to counter their support and he could attack in multiple angles all at once if they attacked him as well as target their backline. But if they behaved as they did and just hid there then they were assured victory. There was nothing to really gain in going on the offensive against Korin, and nothing to lose by simply hiding. He found them a few times but his attack was just deflected without effect and then they moved.

If the situation were reversed he'd probably do the same thing. Heck, that's been his entire strategy for a few of the matches. That's the whole point of him going God Mode. That it didn't matter that he'd be completely useless after using it, if he took out his opponent then he could hide the rest of the match and so long as the rest of the team at least came out even then their team would win. So as unsatisfying as it may be to have lost such a great match by the other team spending the last ten minutes hiding out and winning by points it wasn't something he could fault them. They won fairly they'll just have to do better next time. And above all else it was a very entertaining match to follow and learn from. Like usual when they put him as the one out for the match he was given homework to try and improve himself on.

Anton fully expected that when it came time to do the interview that they'd be baited into trying to accuse the other team of using a cheap tactic to win an otherwise good match or if he thought that he would have stood a better chance against this particular team. But as understandable a route that would have been, even if it would be a bit mean for them to go that route for the losers. But it'd be understandable tactic from the media in this country. And if they admit to frustrations no doubt they'd bring up instances where their team did rather similar strategies. Instead what they ended up going for was simply so much more frustrating. Instead they chose to follow up with the narrative with the match against their top team where they were being accused of cheating for having him play out of position and run no backline but instead effectively two support and two frontline. So the entire interview process was entirely about whether or not the only reason they didn't win is because they didn't feel like cheating in this match or if they were tempted to cheat to get the victory, despite the fact the team had never been accused of lying a single time on the other side of the border. But it's not like there'd be any other answer than to simply state that they were not in any way inclined to cheat.

And to make matters worse when it came to the news the story didn't even mention the fact that they were being hounded about whether or not they were cheating, only that they were emphatically defending themselves against any thoughts of cheating. The narrative they were running was that the only reason they were making their interview about a close match about whether or not they were cheating was because they were most definitely tempted to cheat. Which of course means that it really didn't matter what they answered, the narrative the reporters were going to go along with was that they are cheaters. If they said nothing it'd be them dodging questions about cheating implying they wanted to cheat. If they gave anything that could be interpreted as them being tempted then they'd definitely be taken as having been proven cheaters.

All of this definitely irritated Anton enough that his ears felt like they were burning and his hands were tingling. But he kept his emotions in check for the most part. It would serve no benefit for it to come out about them throwing a tantrum over a little bit of poor coverage. And when he was looking at his phone for all of the responses from the major journalists on both sides and from common people by simply doing a search of his name and his team it seems like the news reports didn't really do anything to change anyone's mind the slightest bit. In Feran the news report was universally met as being proof positive that the entire country is full of rotten cheaters who can only win by cheating and more calls demanding that their close match against the top team be reversed or thrown out, which would never happen, even under a lot of pressure. In Triessa and elsewhere throughout the world it seems to be that the news organizations are considered to be nothing more than a joke when it comes to anyone not from Feran. No one buys any report they have and instead seem to go about either justifying their responses claiming to have not thought of cheating or to instead make jokes about it. Some of the memes coming out of it are almost funny all things considered. Though he knows he's not allowed to publicly admit that he likes them. Like there's one that has Korin doing an opening move in chess and another person with their face replaced with the logo of the news organizations shouting about him cheating.

In fact, most of the news in Triessa was about the procedure. That there would be no reason we would ever discuss a topic unless asked and since no other topics were shared from the news that either means that it was just a tiny portion of the interview that they took out of context or they were bad faith journalists and how Anton's team should be commended for even entertaining them with the opportunity of a fair interview. This is even exemplified by the reporter that Anton had lifted up into the air during their charity event claiming that with this evidence that as the Feran reporters will simply make things up or lie in order to fit their narrative that the team is far better suited to just refusing any more interviews for the remainder of their stay in Feran. That it doesn't matter what the people in Feran would think about them refusing interviews, no one else would hold it against them.

It was definitely something that gave Anton time to think about the matter. Thankfully this time they were allowed to go to the hotel as there was no massive riot from them losing. Korin had told him after the interview to not put much weight into what other people are saying. And he somewhat understands that. There is nothing to be gained from him throwing a fit or making any sort of comment that would blow this even more out of proportion. He's had his entire career thus far being portrayed as someone who doesn't get into petty squabbles and approaches the sport as a professional at all times. That simply being in the right is far more important than to try and force everyone else to acknowledge that you're in the right. That's how he apparently got Triessa to come to his side and why he's being called 'one of the good ones.'

Anton realizes that when there are times like this he should really try to find something to vent. The others have their own ways of dealing with things like this. But he's always found the air to be best solution to him. So instead he goes about projecting himself, putting his entire outfit on and then going outside. He then lifts himself up as high as he can reach and still be in range and then simply holds himself in that position, even going so far as to close his eyes and effect a sort of posture of sitting down. He's found it rather peaceful up here and it does have a calming effect to feel the wind buffeting against him. He's half tempted to remove his mask or drop his hood and feel it against the fur of his body, but knows that odds are the moment he does so there will be some media person who just happens to have been looking at him way up here with a strong enough zoom to reveal his appearance to the world. And he has no doubts with the way that things have been going that they would not at all respect any request of privacy in this matter.

He can definitely tell that the air here is starting to get colder. Which is definitely to be expected. As a logical course of action the Royals are doing one big giant loop. They entered near the southern edge of the border Triessa shares with Feran and are slowly swinging up north. And after one more match on this side they'll continue on and enter the United Kingdoms of Cellaa. And then start swinging back around in UKC to head back towards their own country. Of course having fur he has no problem with the cold. He can feel it, sure, but it just feels muted, like it takes a long while to get through all his fur. It's always been something that confused him, that he turns into something that looks like it belongs in a desert and then he's fine in the winter and overheating in the summer.

He half wonders what it would be like if he flew himself up a mountain, whether or not he'd be fine way up there but it isn't exactly something he can do himself. His real body is still human, after all and doesn't have all of that insulating fur. But eventually Anton has centered himself and has also started to feel the tingling in his fingers, letting him know he's starting to get worn down and should take a break for a while. Even though he could theoretically just end the projection and be instantly back into his own body, it would mean losing his outfit. So instead he lowers himself back down to the ground and then heads back in through the door. And at this point he might as well just go all the way back to his room so that he doesn't have to go anywhere to get his outfit back.