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Anton Orelai sits in his chair, waiting anxiously for them to call them onto the arena. Whether or not his team wins is not so much that much of a concern. In the grand scheme of things it really doesn't matter. But as the last game of the year, this is his last qualifying match for scouts to try and take him onto the big leagues. And that means that for today above all other days is more about showing the scouts what he's made of. Of course for him, standing out isn't all that hard to do. He's their team's backline. As with all backlines the abilities his projected form grants him might not be the strongest in regards to killing power, but they are flashy any cover a large area. His job is not to win the fight. That's the job of the Frontlines. His job is to try and control the entire battlefield as best as he can, disrupting their Frontlines and allowing his own to move into position.

That doesn't change the fact that he's made sure his projection is covered fully. Not an inch of skin ever shows if he can help it. All anyone ever sees is that he's much shorter in his projected form than his normal one. The bell dings in the hallway, letting him know that it's his time to step out. He takes another deep breath and then steps towards the exit. But as they'd be expected a bit of a show he aims his hands down and pushes a strong wind comes out of his hands, pushing him up into the air. He comes out into the arena flying through the air cushioned by a small tornado. He flies up well above the ordinary location and waves to the crowd before lowering back down to the ground and taking his place along the back of the arena.

Once everyone has been announced he places a hand over his heart as the national anthem begins playing, dutifully listening, though they always play it a bit too loud for his own personal liking. But he makes no motion and stands steadfast while the music is playing. Mentally, though, he's already trying to think ahead. His counterpart on the other team is a wood user, which is really good for the terrain they have. Anton could feel it when he was landing. The ground did not have a lot of give, but it does feel somewhat soft. Probably a lot of good, solid soil beneath their feet. Really good for a wood user. His own wind style is not really supported for or against. Wood and Wind don't really conflict, they often just tend to ignore each other as Wood style is one of the terrain-type elements, preferring to meld the arena's surface to their benefit while Wind is one designed to care more about how things are able to move. Wood should prove an issue if he is able to get situated. Thick trees can shield quite effectively against strong winds and he'd wear himself out trying to blow the trees over. But it isn't like he hasn't had to deal with Wood users before and they aren't being scouted.

Anton closes his eyes for a moment, focusing himself and then hears the sound that the match has begun. Anton reaches up and touches the side of his head to activate the comms and tells everyone to spread. He then reaches back and grabs at the air around him, channeling it with all his might and spinning it as he throws it forward. It very quickly begins to form into a tornado. Not a particularly big one, but he doesn't really need it to be big, just showy. The Wood user would immediately start thinking this is the main attack and try and stop it. But his Frontlines are using it exclusively as a distraction, they'll never even get close to its position. Meanwhile, Anton moves his hands down onto the ground and begins pushing the ground beneath him, creating air pockets in the ground and slowly building a nest of tunnels underneath everything.

"I'm encountering a thick wall. Can I get a blade on the left flank?" Anton hears over intercom. He stands up and faces across the field. There are already trees coming up and stifling the energy of his first tornado, that won't last for too much longer.

"Blade at three feet incoming two after wave," Anton says in response.

There is no real way to tell where everyone physically is. So, to counter that cues must be provided. Anton spreads his hands wide and then pushes them forward, creating a large and wide burst of heavy wind. He then winds up with one hand on top of the other, taking more of a pose like throwing a discus and after two seconds have passed, he throws it forward. Out from his hand comes an almost invisible blade of wind. Sharper than any sword he's ever seen and his more signature attack. He could even direct it if he wanted to but in this instance it's not necessary. He doesn't know exactly where they want the wall cut so he made the blade very wide, to cover as large an area as possible, which would slow it down quite a bit, but keep it at the same speed as the blast of wind he threw forward. Anyone on comms will know that two seconds after they feel his wind the blade will come, three feet off the ground. So they'll need to either dodge or jump it. Doesn't matter to him, to be honest and he crouches back down to work on weakening the ground.

After another moment he sees that his tornado has been fully stopped. Ordinarily he probably would just ignore it and keep working at what he was doing to get things ready faster but that isn't as visible for the scouts. So, sighing he stands up again and grabs at the wind again and using as much force as he can he throws another tornado, doing his best to try and steer it away from the weakened ground. No point in exposing that too early. And once he's sure it's safe to just let go he looses his control over it and then throws another, aiming both to either side of where his first one died out. Once they hit something he'll probably start snaking them around a bit more to try and find an opening. With that he goes back down again, working on the ground. There is a large chime that echoes through the entire arena, causing Anton to look up briefly at the scoreboard. One of the lines on their team has gotten greyed out, which is good. No clue whether it was one of the frontline, their backline or their support, though, so he'll just have to keep working on this countermeasure.

After a few more minutes of this and just as his second wave of tornadoes are about to die out Anton can hear sounds coming up along his own flank. Their own support wouldn't be trying to sneak up on him. If she was coming back to assist she would have said so over the comms, not to mention she's supposed to be with the frontline protecting them at least in part for what he's about to do. Which means its one of their frontlines trying to take him down or at least disrupt everything. But at this point it is simply too late. Anton takes a deep breath and then pushes down against the ground with all the force he can muster. Causing the entire ground beneath much of the arena to collapse in on itself. Which isn't that big of a deal by itself. It does make it impossible for his counterpart to get any footing as well as anyone on their team getting anywhere close to him. But more importantly it kicks up a lot of dust and debris, all of which he is able to now send across the field, creating a sort of self-made sandstorm.

If the frontline that was trying to sneak up on him isn't killed from falling, it'll at the very least make it incredibly hard for him to approach. This will take his entire focus as he starts building and maintaining the sandstorm, but as a means of cockiness he starts walking to the frontline that was heading in his direction, all while further putting his energy into the storm. When needed he'd give himself a little vertical boost to jump over gaps or weaknesses in the ground. He's going to likely burn himself out with this attack, but if this didn't get the interest of some of the scouts, then nothing he could do ever would. Already his hands are starting to tingle and ache, as are his toes and tail. It'll only be a matter of time where he's used up too much power to be able to focus on maintaining his projected form. But he should still be able to get things built up to almost a mini-hurricane level with his sandstorm and have it center around their side of the map. And then try to see who all will survive. But with one of them already out, even just stalling out the game where every one just turtles up his team will still win. Their team is up one person. Unless multiple of his team fall they'll win.

He stands in front of where he can hear the other person that had been sneaking up on him but it takes him to be able a little while to see the other person. In fact the only way he's able to actually see them is by seeing the bits of earth that were moving around as someone struggled to extract them from a pit from collapsed earth. He finally realizes what he's looking at. A chameleon type ability, rendering them completely invisible. Would be quite devastating to anyone not paying attention to notice their approach.

"Word of advice," Anton shouts over the wind, hoping they're able to hear him as he has no reason to be petty, "you really need to work on learning to move quietly. Your ability is neat, but won't help you against anyone with good hearing until you can."

Anton waits for a moment or two to see if they heard him or are making any response but though they don't say anything they do stop trying to get out. Shrugging, Anton winds his arms back. "Well, have a nice day," he says before throwing the arms forward and sending a blade right into the area of his opponent. He can hear a quick little gasp but then nothing. He can barely hear another gong in the distance, though, letting him know that his target is likely dead. Just in case he throws a much smaller one and not feeling it connect with anything he smiles and then just finds a good stable bit of ground to sit down and wait. He's too drained to really do much of anything right now. He hopes the chameleon person takes his words to heart, it'll be interesting to see that sort of ability in the pros, but he'll need a lot of work to be able to actually sneak up on anyone. Since he's not putting any more energy into his storm it is slowly dying down, but about halfway to the end of the match he hears a third gong in the match. Unfortunately with the sandstorm obscuring the vision even with his mask there's no way for him to look at the board. And he can't fly up or he wouldn't have enough to last the remainder of the match and would have to go back to his body. Either way, it's either them still up by one or up by three. And nothing he can really do about the situation either.

Eventually there is a really long and loud siren that goes off in the distance, signaling the end of the match. Not a complete and utter victory on his group but it's still doing well enough all things considered and it was mostly by his own actions that made sure it couldn't end conclusively. Spells designed specifically to inhibit either side making any real advance inevitably stall out the match. But it is still very useful from a strategic point of view. He makes his way back to the entrance, trying his best to hide the fact that he had burned himself out. Once out of the public view and in an area where he can easily get at it he lets his projection fall, returning to his normal, human body. He gets up and jumps around for a bit, his body always still tingling a little bit and feeling a little numb right after having projected. It's apparently a rare side-effect that sometimes happens but it has no impact on his ability to perform nor on his health. It'll always fade after a few moments. But in the mean time he sees the rest of his team, looking quite content with themselves. So three to nothing then. He gets dressed out of the bodysuit they have everyone in the league wears into more team colors and then quickly hobbles to the entrance to the arena and grabs the outfit that had collapsed onto the ground with no one inhabiting it. It's not technically necessary. Eventually someone hired by the stadium would go around and collect all the discarded garments if there are any and eventually get them back to their owner assuming no one decided to be particularly brave and steal something. But it could be days before he'd get his back and that outfit is all the more his public image and the only image he wants them to see of his projected form. What it really looks like is just too embarrassing for him.

Once back in the locker room he puts the garment back in his bag and awaits the arrival of the press. One of the staff peaks in to make sure that everyone is currently dressed and decent and a moment later a beep comes up from above the door a few times before the press arrives. And they practically swarm the team, though the avoid Anton at first. But that is how he is. Anton has always made a point of refusing to answer any interview questions unless the rest of the team has been questioned first. It isn't so much a matter of ego of wanting to save the best for last as it is feeling that as a team sport, everyone in the team should have a chance at the spotlight, regardless of how they did in the match. If he didn't stand out and no one asks him anything then he's fine with that, just so long as the rest of the team is not being ignored. Eventually, the reporters start making their rounds to him, intent on asking him not so much about that game itself but on next season.

"So what are your thoughts on the main team that's showing interest in you are the Royals? Any concerns about their reputation?" one of the reporters asks, shouting above all the rest.

Anton shrugs, to him it was all just a game, a sport. He didn't really put any thought into politics or what it might mean to be picked up by a team in the next country over. The main talk about them is that they are all cheaters after someone that was hiding the fact he could manifest and used his abilities to assist their preferred team during the finals.

"The Royals have always kept to an upstanding reputation. They may not have always been the best of teams but I would feel honored if they picked me up."

"But they are from the country of renown cheaters. Are you really not concerned?"

"The cheating incident was only ever found to be from one person working on behalf of one team three years ago. They have been under as much scrutiny since then as we place on our own teams and there has not been any other incidents of cheating ever found. I think it is bad for the sport to assume only half the teams are legitimate."

"And what would you say to anyone saying you're only saying this so that they don't dismiss you?"

"This is a sport. It isn't political. A team was so concerned with the notion of winning that they were willing to cheat. But I think it sets a bad image for not only how we are perceived by the people of the world as well as for the sport itself to have one country have the stance that almost half the teams are going to be cheating. And with that I think that's all the time I have for questions."

Anton shrugs, takes his stuff and leaves the locker room. If they want him in a special event that's fine, but he's done with that line of thinking. So the Royals were considering him? That's well enough for him. Hopefully more teams also have an interest but so long as he gets up to the big leagues and is able to continue to improve it matters little to him. He pulls out his phone and texts his teammates that he's going to take the night to himself. The interview left a foul taste in his mouth and he wanted to be alone for a bit.