The Retired Hero is an Extra

"Poor him," Rui commented with a sigh, but his grin conveyed his excitement for the audience.

The crowd was just as eager, if not more, to see the final clash. The pity they felt for the protagonist was overshadowed by excitement.

At the final area, everyone besides Amael and Jash had actually believed the narrative, feeling angered by the protagonist.

Though neither Amael nor Jash felt any sympathy for the guy, both liked the situation and how it occurred.

After all, the protagonist deserved it, or so Jash believed, smiling inwardly.

'What's strange is Amael's movement,' he mused, stealing a glance at Amael before everyone moved and the battle began.

'He also insinuated the narrative; so was it fate, or some hand of the Goddess herself?' Jash doubted the convenience of the situation for a second.

It seemed far too smooth to him to not doubt.

After all, there was a good ol' saying: "Just when things are smooth, life loves to throw a wrench in the work."

Before Jash could spend another second to mull over it, a boy dashed towards the golden boy immediately and raised his sword as he swung it.

—Woosh!

"...And another idiot bites the dust," Jash mumbled to himself with a shake of his head.

The overexcited boy forgot why everyone had been cautious in the first place. His lack of awareness was evident by his reckless charge.

"Oh well, he played his part," Jash uttered after noticing everyone raise their weapons and get ready to attack the protagonist as well as the boss monster.

What better than stealing the boss monster right under everyone's noses?

However, the boss monster wasn't something to be taken lightly as it raised its head and shrieked, "GUAAAA!"

The loud shriek rocked the eardrums of the examinees at the front as they covered them in an attempt to block the noise.

Immediately following the shriek, a wave of water surged from the boss monster, washing six examinees away in one go.

Not expecting the boss monster to be so strong in the least, a few halted in their tracks before gritting their teeth and moving.

"There's no way I am gonna lose this one!" A boy shouted as he slashed his spear vertically downward after a jump.

His target, the monster, didn't even react as the spear just scraped against its tough scales, leaving behind only a scratch.

Seeing this, the rest of the examinees were stunned but the mages, archers, hunters and all long ranged warriors took the chance.

In that gap, several arrow heads bounced off the monster and so did the daggers, only causing minor scratch marks.

However, the magic spells gave them hope—hope that was snatched away soon.

Although it caused more damage than the physical attacks, it wasn't anything fatal.

Only a few ice spikes, fire balls, wind blades, rocks, water missiles landed on it, not even causing a drop of blood to leak.

"Idiots, move out of the way!"

A loud sneering voice made the examinees glare at the source, a dwarf.

Of course, only the scarce dwarves recognized him alongside Zaos and Avon but only the former cheered for him.

"Yes! Idiots like them shouldn't be here in the first place!" a dwarf declared loudly before a human jabbed at him.

"Your attack also failed, so you're also the idiot he was referring to," the human commented with a mocking smirk.

"You..." the dwarf's face turned white with anger as he launched an attack at the human who easily countered it by jumping away.

In no time he was at the edge of the boss monster's range, nearby Grunghin who was readying himself for a strike.

"What an idiot," the human sneered before stepping away, causing the dwarf to step in the monster's range as well as Grunghin's.

Unfortunately, Grunghin's attack had already begun and he couldn't change it, and even if he could, the dwarf would be eliminated by the boss.

Meanwhile, Jash observed everything with a particular smile. His eyes remained fixed on the boss monster, even as he fought an opponent.

It was blatant disrespect and his opponent was fuming as he still couldn't defeat Jash.

Yet Jash couldn't care less and directly aimed for a gap, plunging the sword into the boy's abdomen.

If not for the barrier stopping it and teleporting him out, his fear, evident in his horrified expression, would have come true.

"The professors are still as dutiful as ever," Jash commented with a shrug, no longer paying attention to the one he defeated.

Thankfully, the examinees nearby didn't have any interest in him, looking at Grunghin's attack.

—Boom!

Finally, it landed with a blast, making the water in the stream rise up and pushing the monster back by half a meter.

"Didn't seem to damage it in the least," a human commented truthfully, not realizing the sensitivity of dwarves with their power.

Within one second, he became the dwarves' common enemy, realizing it only after receiving their collective death glare.

"W-what?" he panicked, not knowing anything about it. Alas, no one seemed interested to help him.

Simply, some were in the same boat as him and the ones in the know... obviously didn't want to get involved.

'So weak,' Jash noted, comparing the attack to something he could do at the precipice of breaking through to E-Rank.

Though it sure was impressive for the other examinees who were mentally comparing themselves or already giving up.

After all, the unimpressed expression on the faces of at least five faces told them they weren't even cannon fodder here.

Sadly, that was true.

Their only use here was their number and to serve as a distraction for the boss monster, if necessary.

Of course, if one stepped out of their bound, they'd be eliminated.

However, the ones who believed themselves equal or superior to Grunghin immediately waltzed forward.

Just like him, they held their weapon and took their stances, wanting to take down the boss monster.

Naturally, they were wary of each other and the likes of Avon, Zaos, Yirox, and the protagonist didn't like that.

Although the protagonist was the common enemy, he stood apart from the idiots trying to take down the boss.

Besides them, Amael and Jash had a wait-and-see attitude, both standing in their positions and Jash raised his brows when his eyes scanned the field.

'Makes sense Zaos stood back, but what about Caeron? Isn't he a mage? Why's he taking another step back?'

Jash found Caeron's distancing strategy funny after calculating the rough distance between him and Amael.

'Anyways, it still went according to how it was in the novel, with just a bit of animosity for the protagonist,' Jash mused with interest.

It seemed that fate itself shaped the scenario for the protagonist to shine, alas, it failed to account for anomalies.

With the True Anomaly, Amael Blake, and Jash Ramille in presence, how could it go according to fate's plan?

The two didn't even look at each other and were readying themselves for an attack.

Their aim: to slice off the horn of the imoogi-like monster.

Meanwhile, the many other examinees had the same goal while the mages and everyone cast their spells.

Blades of Wind and Water, Fire Balls, Fire Arrows, Ice Spikes, Ice Arrows, Earth Arrow, ThunderBall, physical arrows, daggers, spears, swords...

Everything came flying for the monster, impeding the examinee's path to its head as they could only change their aim.

'Perfect,' Jash noted and moved.