407 Chapter 407: The Chronicles of Lute Dragoon

Lute Dragoon was…in a word, a gigantic playboy. No, I wasn't talking about his physical size.

The number of women who fell in love with him was just ridiculous. It was as if girls fell for him just because he breathed. His mother was first among those to fall prey to his charms, and ended up giving him a handjob when he was seven, when they were taking his bath together. His half-sister (becaue his dad somehow managed to legally marry two wives, which was technically against the law but the original creator didn't care about logic) kissed him on the mouth when they were both eight, and even his stepmother (his father's second wife) ended up being seduced by his natural charisma. By fourteen all four of them were sleeping together, and by sleeping I did not mean \"resting\" but a more…let's just say carnal activity.

That wasn't even the extent of his harem. His childhood friend also clamored for his affections and lost her virginity to him, as did a princess from a neighboring empire. There was also that rich merchant's daughter who was willing to throw away her family's wealth just to be with him. Suffice to say, no beautiful girl was safe from Lute's clutches, such was his very existence as a harem protagonist that girls just fell for him and threw themselves at him for no reason other than because he walked on two legs. If I wasn't jaded, I would rationalize his existence as the very manifestation of a horny teenager's wet dream and his attempt at wish fulfilment.

Having heard all of that, I swore to myself that even if I lost to any of the other members in Saint Teresa Academy's team, I would never lose to a poorly conceptualized and highly unrealistic Mary Sue character like him. I was willing to sacrifice all the other matches just to destroy this piece of s. I was going to bash his handsome face in, even if it was the last thing I did.

As if God deigned to answer my prayers, he turned out to be the first opponent that Saint Teresa Academy sent out.

\"Richard, you're up.\"

Harrison nodded at me. I smiled and cracked my knuckles.

\"My pleasure.\"

Even as I stepped onto the stage, I could hear the cheers from the other side of the ring. Lute stood at his corner, looking all innocent and friendly while he basked in the cheers and encouragement from his entirely female group of fans.

\"Go, Lute!\"

\"I know you can win!\"

\"Beat that ugly bastard's face to the ground!\"

\"Do an all-kill! You can destroy that entire team by yourself!\"

A harem of almost a hundred girls were gathered in the spectator box, screaming their voices out as they cheered him on. Among them was his mother, stepmother (or second mother), his half-sister, the princess from the neighboring empire, the merchant's daughter, the childhood friend, the class president, the young, beautiful homeroom teacher, the school idol, the student council president with a dark, dirty secret, the twin-tailed tsundere with pink hair and a voice like Kugimiya Rie's, the black-haired yandere with hollow eyes and a creepy smile, the shy librarian who was hiding her cute face behind her book, the random girl he rescued from a bunch of strangers in a street somewhere, the sexy Assassin who was ordered to kill him but failed her mission and ended up falling for him because he \"spared her life\" and from henceforth did her best to seduce him as part of her new \"mission\" or some nonsense like that…

…okay. We were getting nowhere if I continued to list them. Just know there was almost a hundred of them, and I was disturbed to see that they were all crazy enough to share Lute amongst themselves, and didn't care that he had sex with each and every one of them everyday. That was one hell of a stamina, but hey, that was how his creator designed him (he evidently cared nothing for realism and just wanted to wank off to his wet dream).

\"I hope we have a good match!\" Lute told me earnestly. I nodded, trying not to shudder from disgust. Even though Lute Dragoon had been designed to be polite, well-mannered and the perfect gentleman (the very definition of a Mary Sue), his good points just felt so artificial that I wasn't able to perceive him as a real character. I wasn't sure how to put it, but he felt like a mannequin, a puppet or blank canvas for the writer or reader to self-insert himself into so that they could jerk off to badly written erotica involving him and his harem.

\"Y…yeah. Good luck.\" I nodded and took a deep breath. Above, Lute's harem of women obnoxiously rained insults and abuse down on me.

\"What a pathetic loser!\"

\"Crush him, Lute!\"

\"Hah! I'm sure Lute will utterly destroy him in less than ten seconds!\"

\"That's our Lute for you!\"

\"Girls…\" Lute turned to give his harem a dazzling smile. \"Please don't be so rude. And I'm not insolent enough to underestimate my opponent. He and his team have done well to make it this far in the tournament. I know they are formidable.\"

\"Whoa…\" The girls all looked at him, googly eyed, even his mother, stepmother and half-sister. \"Lute is so humble and respectful…I knew I was right to fall for him!\"

\"He's perfect!\"

\"I need to make love to him tonight!\"

\"No, it's my turn!\"

\"No, mine!\"

\"Why don't we all do it with him tonight? As a reward for him winning today's match.\"

They were already taking it for granted that Lute Dragoon would definitely win. The possibility that he would lose never even crossed their minds. I resisted the urge to bury my face in my palm. This was getting ridiculous.

\"Ready…!\" the commentator yelled, trying to make himself heard above the din that Lute's harem was creating. \"Match begin!\"

Lute immediately drew his spear and charged forward. I deflected his weapon away with Bai Ri and countered with Hei Yue, but he spun away and parried my black blade with the shaft of his twirling spear. We exchanged several furious blows in the middle of the arena, sparks flying between us and metal collided against metal. Neither of us gave any ground, our arms turning into spinning blurs that dished out death.

Well, not real death. With the boundary field, neither of us was going to die no matter what sort of fatal injury we sustained within the coliseum.

One particularly massive clash saw the both of us skidding backward in a rain of sparks, black and white mana swirling around me while golden and blue mana billowed about Lute. He lowered his stance, and his feet glowed. Two pairs of feathered wings materialized on shoes, each pair on each foot, and he took off into the air.

\"One of the special abilities or spells of a dragoon is flight!\" Lute explained. \"By casting a wind spell and growing wings on our feet, we're given the speed and agility of Hermes, and superior mobility to those mages rooted to the ground! We can attack freely from any direction, and we have the advantage from up high!\"

\"…why are you explaining your magic to me?\" I asked, bemused. Lute stared at me blankly, as if it was obvious.

\"Isn't that what all main characters do? Explain their magic to their opponents? It's the polite thing to do, and it also serves to inform the readers of our abilities.\"

I wasn't even sure how I should respond to that. That had to be the most stupid reasoning I had ever heard. In any case, I was not obligated to play along with this badly written Mary Sue protagonist's game. Keeping my mouth shut for now, I charged at him, but Lute kicked off the ground and soared up high. He then thrust his spear down from above, at what he perceived to be a blind spot, but the motion detector built into my glasses warned me and I whirled around just in time to intercept the blow with my crossed swords.

Lute then slashed at me with his spear, breaking my swords apart. While I staggered, he stabbed at me with a swift, decisive movement, but I managed to bend Hei Yue to deflect the blow. Metal screeched against metal and I winced when the sparks flew right into my face, but fortunately my glasses protected my eyes from the screaming embers. I jerked my head to the side, avoiding impalement of my face by the damned spear.

\"You're good!\" Lute praised me. \"As I thought, you're quite the skilled opponent! Worthy of testing my spear against!\"

\"Uh huh,\" I grunted as I blocked another of his spear strike. As much as I hated the fella and how artificial and constructed his personality, I had to admit that he was formidable. Then again, he was designed by his creator to be the ultimate fighting machine who never lost a single match. Unlike him, I had been defeated multiple times (just look at the comments where readers whined about me losing to \"mobs\" or \"noobs\").

Let's be honest…a perfect, invincible Mary Sue main character like him against a flawed, pathetic, loser protagonist like me…the outcome of this battle was obvious.

\"Huff…\"

I found myself knocked back by another strike, but before I could counterattack, Lute was already flying off somewhere else. Making use of the wings on his feet and his amazing mobility, he was soaring in the air and fighting on a three-dimensional plane, unlike me who was bound by gravity. Of the five basic elements I had learned, wind magic was not one of them. As a reminder, the five elements I learned were water, wood, fire, metal and earth. So don't expect me to start conjuring wind spells and flying around now.

I didn't even dare to wipe the perspiration from my face. Spinning around, I hacked away at a dodging Lute, who darted out of my reach before thrusting his spear forward. I threw my head back to duck under his deadly weapon, then swung both of my swords to unleash twin waves of black and white mana at him.

However, Lute practically danced away, making use of his flight capabilities to soar out of range of my spells.

This guy was going to be a nuisance…and worst of all, I was aware that he had yet to show any of his true power.

\"Sky attack!\"

I ducked under the sweeping blow of his spear, but the follow-up gust of wind buffeted me and sent me sprawling on the ground. Rolling to my feet, I managed to evade a thumping thrust from his spear and lashed upward with my swords. Once again, Lute danced away, using his superior mobility and speed to his advantage. I dropped my swords and summoned Orion to fire off a quick volley of arrows in his direction, but Lute rushed at me before I could aim properly and slashed at my head.

\"Gah!\"

Dropping my bow, I kicked up both my swords, snatched them from midair and crossed them to parry a thrust from my opponent. Staggering back from the impact, I cast another spell, but Lute was already kicking off empty space and flying away.

\"Honestly, I was hoping to defeat you before I was forced to use this…but I guess that was overly naïve of me. You're not an enemy I can go easy on.\"

Lute sighed and propelled himself away, soaring very high up. I immediately swapped my swords for a bow, summoning Orion again and launching multiple arrows in his direction. Lute kicked off and gracefully waltzed through the shower of azure arrows, while using his twirling spear to cut and cleave through whatever few arrows that he couldn't avoid. Not that there were many – as I said before, accuracy was not my strong point. What I lacked in precision, I made up in sheer volume and firepower.

And even those failed in the face of Lute's defensive techniques and durable spear. He hacked and sliced them apart before swinging his spear in a single, powerful stroke that sent shockwaves hurtling down.

\"Whoa!\"

I had to dive to the side to avoid the gusts of razor-sharp wind that he blew in my direction. While I was busily evading, Lute seized the change to complete his spell.

\"Come forth, Wyvern!\"

A blinding flash surged through the arena and momentarily cut off my sight. Fortunately, the visual filters activated automatically, my lenses darkening to protect my eyes, and I could see the massive amount of mana coalesce into a single, solid shape.

A winged half-dragon the size of three horses materialized into being, and Lute jumped on top of its back, strapping himself to its saddle and riding it. Pointing his spear at me, he smiled.

\"Allow me to demonstrate how a dragoon truly fights,\" he proclaimed, and for the first time he actually sounded arrogant. I could hear the triumph in his voice.

Sighing heavily, I allowed my shoulders to relax as I scratched my head.

\"So it has come to this, huh?\"

\"Huh?\" Lute looked a little confused. I scowled, annoyed, wondering if he was for real.

\"I'm not sure if you've forgotten or didn't do your homework regarding your opponents, but you're not the only one who can summon, you know?\"

With that, I completed the summoing spell that I had been casting this entire time.