Chapter 79 - Press Conference (1)

BACK IN RIO...

A press conference was being held by the White Wolves guild. It was to address what had happened inside the dungeon. It had been a long time since someone had gotten killed inside a portal and thus every news channel wanted the TRP associated with this situation and thus were busy asking questions to the 'Sole Survivor' of what they were referring as the 'Disaster of the Year'. Even Nicholas had been invited to this press conference as one of his disciple had 'supposedly' died inside the dungeon.

Rion was sitting in the middle of a long rectangular shaped table, his right and left seats were occupied by the guild master and the guild manager respectively. Nicholas was sitting next to the guild master, along with his other disciple, Gabriel. He had sent Christina home before things escalated, according to him, she was already troubled and he didn't want to trouble her anymore, besides he already had his hands full because of the guild master of the White Wolves who was also the son of the President.

Nicholas had a bad feeling that after what he did to incite the population of Brazil, the father - son duo would definitely cause some trouble for him. He was prepared to defend his honour and use his abilities on them if he felt the necessity to do so. Soon the questionnaire between the two parties began.

"Guild master Mali, how long have you been hiding the 'Sole Survivor' of this incident in your ranks? I mean as far as everyone knew you're guild didn't have any S ranked warrior before?"

The man who asked this question was the same reporter who had been berating Arnold and branding him as the one who sabotaged the dungeon trip. Nicholas knew in an instant that each and every single one of the reporters had been already bought by the government. There was no way Nicholas' was getting out of here with his reputation unscathed. He let out a small sigh and turned towards Mali.

"Why would we hide a presence of an S ranked member? This trip was officially Rion's first dungeon trip after becoming a member of our guild and we had planned to hold a press conference to officially welcome him to our guild after he had completed the trip." Mali recited what he had practiced, word to word, this was definitely a staged conference. "Any other questions?"

"I'm sorry to ask such a question, but you just lost six of your elite warriors in that dungeon. How do you feel right now?"

"Terrible... I still can't process the fact that such elite warriors couldn't make it back to us, I can't help but wonder, if it was all fault of a certain man..." Mali covered his eyes as tears rolled down his cheeks, after a minute or so he finally stopped and continued, "but at least we have Rion with us who can tell us what happened inside the dungeon."

'Cut your theatrics as well as your crocodile tears, you were the ones who did this.' Nicholas thought and looked towards Mali who slyly smiled at him. The cameras were focused on Rion and hence no one saw this Nicolas have Mali a sharp look and Rion spoke up for the first time since the conference begun.

"It is really unfortunate that I couldn't save my teammates but I'll definitely try to honour their memories by telling you the truth about what happened inside the dungeon." He stopped for a brief moment, took a deep breath and continued, "Master Fernandez's disciple killed them all."

The conference hall immediately burst into chaos. Cameras were flashing everywhere, the reporters got up from their chairs and started spewing toxic things and questioning whether Nicholas' made a deal with Arnold, and knew about his plans etc.

Mali turned towards Nicholas, smiled like a sly dog and whispered so that only Nicholas could hear what he was about to say, "Tit for tat, my friend. You tried to hamper father's reputation, so I'll destroy yours.'

Nicholas didn't reply to him, instead he raised his hand signaling the reporters to calm down, before continuing, "So Mr Rion, what were you doing when my disciple 'supposedly' killed your team members?"

Rion, turned towards Nicholas and said, "I was scouting out the area when I heard someone's cry for help and then immediately ran towards them only to see my teammates getting killed by your disciple's summons. And before you ask how do I know whether they were his summons or not, I saw most of them when he had called them out before entering the dungeon."

"Okay, then what did you do next? I'm sure you'd have liked to take revenge for your fallen comrades?" Nicholas asked another question, smiling in his mind as he knew Rion would slowly but surely fall into his trap.

"I won't lie, that thought did cross my mind but I didn't knew the actual strength of him or his summons so I decided it was better to wait it out." He took a sip from his drink after waited for another question from Nicholas. He was confident enough that he'd be able to handle his questions.

"So you're telling me that his summons fought right before your eyes and you couldn't figure out their strength? I mean, you're an S ranked warrior, I'm pretty sure you would have had a fair share of experience in combat? Moreover you're saying that summons of B ranked warrior managed to kill one of the most elite forces of your guild?"

Nicholas barraged Rion with questions but it was just a beginning, he was yet to reveal his ace, and after that he could you guys incite skill once again to shift the momentum in his favour.

He had to wait it out because of the limitation of his incite skill. It would only work if his targets had some kind if mental connection with him, which required time to be formed. Nicholas has to bid his time out before destroying his opponents. Once and for all.

"You have an answer for that? After all it's common knowledge that a summoner can't summon beings that are stronger than him or her." Nicholas has forced Rion into a corner.

"But... but, the government official confirmed that the summons were of A rank at least, before allowing him to enter the dungeon." Rion replied beads of sweat rolled down from his head.

"Oh, but why would the official do that?" Nicholas smiled once again. The hunter was about to get hunted by his prey, even after trying all the underhanded tricks, the President and his son were about to get slapped in their faces as Nicholas started unfolding his plans.