The Retired Hero is an Extra

Looking at the bunch of weapons within arm's reach, Jash smiled, praising his decision to prepare this area in case things went awry.

He would seem too out of place if he appeared near the boss area with all sorts of weapons, so he had to dump them.

Of course, it was also due to their weight slowing him down.

Turning his head, his eyes caught sight of the familiar cave in the gorge and the small stream near it.

"Perfect," he murmured, barely audible to even himself, let alone anyone near him.

Yet they too had caught on that something was wrong the moment they saw a smile appear on Jash's face.

'It was the correct decision,' Jash mused, picking up a sword.

"Finally," he muttered with a smile tugging at the corner of his lips, feeling the sword hilt fit right into his hand.

"SHIT!" Amael cursed, taking a step back and becoming serious in the next second.

It was instinctive as he recognized that Jash was near his level in sword mastery, just like the protagonist.

'How...? Didn't he awaken one whole year after the protagonist and the other? Not to mention me!' Amael thought in disbelief, his jaw tightening as he struggled to process the unexpected development.

{...}

The system was just as speechless as Amael, unable to figure out a plausible explanation.

After all, it was with Amael when Jash's news of awakening arrived and how the awakening time wasn't shared.

It was something dubious, but not unheard of if the time was too less or too high.

'Definitely higher in his case,' Amael guessed in his heart, feeling annoyed that he still hadn't accounted for this variable.

Even if the Imperial Banquet had been held a few days back, he had enough time to think of something.

But all he did was train and discuss plans with his system, and thinking whether to choose that armor or not.

Currently, it was in his system inventory, which was locked due to the lack of Villain Points.

Though it was just the requirement to unlock it and he didn't really have to spend those hard-earned points.

Unlike Jash who thought of weird possibilities, Amael's lack of novel-reading prevented him from thinking of such a possibility.

Just like Amael could adjust quickly and improve his fighting style by leaps-and-bounds without the system's help, Jash was no different.

In fact, he already had memories of fights at the pinnacle of his power, something that could contest against an ancient demon king.

Who knew how old that monster was?

Yet Jash had not only fought against him, but even defeated him.

Though calling it that way was wrong as it wasn't really him who did that even if he had those memories.

'More like nightmares,' Jash shuddered as he used his sword to deflect an arrow and Icicle at the same time.

The memories from his past life were guiding his movements, mana flow—everything!

While his eyes were seeing and not seeing at the same time, unable to focus on the present, he was living the moment.

He was blissful.

The others, not so much.

After all, Amael had just cursed and with the way Jash easily stopped the attacks from damaging him was enough reason.

No one was stupid enough to think that nothing was up.

Yet there just had to be that one idiot, the neutral elf, still lingering, trying to stop everything.

Getting annoyed, Grunghin couldn't care less and started attacking Avon opposite him with wild abandon.

If not for Avon stopping him, Jash would've already been eliminated and the battle would have been long over.

Gaining some distance from Avon, Grunghin saw that the elf was nearby and directly attacked the guy.

Not expecting to get attacked in the least, he was instantly eliminated.

However, Grunghin's one action had far-reaching consequences as the partial trust broke apart.

Now, everyone was an opponent with no allies.

At their wary and angry expressions, Jash smirked inwardly, 'Hehe, took them long enough.'

He looked at both Amael and the protagonist eyeing each other warily, and noticed the unknown emotions in the eyes of the protagonist.

'Hm? He's not supposed to know anyone but Caeron here,' Jash doubted his eyes before finding Caeron preparing a spell.

Nearby, Yirox was doing the same while Zaos had distanced himself from everyone, with an arrow nocked on his bow.

Taking in the sight, Jash stepped forward when he noticed some mud shackles among the thick earth.

He dashed past them as he saw the shackles clenching and gripping the space where he was about to step.

He knew who used this kind of trick and turned to see a boy with short chocolate-brown hair with almond eyes, Yirox.

A look of surprise appeared on his face before turning into one of grim determination..

However, he was attacked right at that moment by a spear from Avon, injuring his arm due to the suddenness of the attack.

Jash noted with a smile, 'Perfect.' He picked up his pace, increasing the damage to everyone by diverting their focus onto himself.

Jash looked at the guy with blue hair and pale-green eyes, who stood against Grunghin, with lightning crackling all over his arms and limbs.

He appeared to be an adept martial artist who could easily contest with anyone here besides Amael, the protagonist or Jash himself.

It wasn't overconfidence from Jash's side, though.

He lowered his sword and dashed toward the guy, who was a second too late to react to Jash's advance, yet he dodged the side slash.

He even countered it with a palm, trying to unarm Jash and make him weaker.

Alas, that was a pipe dream.

Even if Jash was not as good as the martial artist, he wouldn't lose just because he lost a weapon.

He had already proved it by wielding a horn from a monster and survived until now.

Besides, the horn got chipped, something Jash didn't like and he didn't want its quality to decrease further.

That's why there was no way he would let go of the sword.

Heck, he even turned around and swung widely at Grunghin, using the slight opening caused due to Grunghin wielding a large weapon.

"Argh," Grunghin almost lost his grip on his sledgehammer due to putting up next to no defense.

Meanwhile, Amael and the protagonist chose not to intervene anywhere else, focusing on each other only.

They knew that the end result would be between them and as if agreeing silently, both darted in opposite directions to get rid of others.

Now... the battle was only to dispatch everyone before the final duel began between the Villain and the Protagonist.

Of course, it was different from Jash's perspective, who only thought they were helping him.

After all, both of them were in the Late E-Rank, the highest among everyone here.

Excluding Jash and the neutral elf guy who got done in, everyone else was in Mid E-Rank.

So, the difference between them was clear once Amael and the golden-haired boy got serious.

'They definitely gauged each other and wanted to exclude others from their fight,' Jash mused while blocking Grunghin's sledgehammer.

Neither of the two interfered with him, considering him an anomaly and strange exception to their battle.

No matter how they thought of it, it made no sense for someone two sub ranks lower than being able to perform equal to them.

Was it their pride or was it their confidence to consider Jash merely an equal despite him fighting against them too?

Who knew what was on their mind as they quickly eliminated the others despite the complaints and third-rate threats.

Meanwhile, Jash was busy playing around with Grunghin and the martial artist whose name eluded him at the moment.

'Time to end this,' he decided, taking note of the battlefield.