The Retired Hero is an Extra

In the next second, Jash swung his sword in a downward arc, only giving a minor skin wound to the noble's scion.

Yet...

"AAAARRRGGGHHHHH"

A loud shriek escaped his lips, souring Jash's mood, and he used the hilt of the sword to knock him unconscious.

"Next!"

This time, Jash had a cold expression as he called the next duelist, not wanting another shrieking pig about to be butchered.

'It was just a minor scratch...' he cursed at the feebleness of his opponent, on the verge of beating some sense into him.

Thankfully, the next opponent didn't seem the least bit affected by the previous two duels.

While everyone was hesitating, she took the stage and held two daggers close to her body.

'Hm? Do I know her?' Jash wondered, unable to place the look of hostility in her eyes.

It was his first time seeing her, but he praised her courage, unlike the others who gave up just after two minor scuffles.

—Schick

She didn't hesitate in her attacks at all once the duel started, using her feet to move in a rather peculiar manner.

It was dizzying to look at, but Jash had no choice as he still had to parry her attacks.

—Clang!

Just as he stopped one dagger next to his face, another targeted his abdomen, making it impossible to dodge.

But it wasn't all that big of a deal, Jash raised his knee with such accuracy that it reached her elbow right when the dagger tip was an inch away from piercing his clothes.

The sudden knee dislodged her attack, directing it away, giving Jash the opportunity to take a step back and distance himself from her.

'Something's not quite right,' he frowned at missing such an obvious attack.

If it were any other time, he was sure he would not use the sword tip to block the dagger aiming for his face.

He'd rather use the hilt and let the tip aim towards his abdomen to protect it just in case.

And even in the scenario if the dagger aimed for the other side of the head, he could just move his head slightly and bring the sword to block it.

Yet he had foolishly almost let himself get attacked and almost injured himself.

'This is all valuable experience,' he mused, despite not gaining a complete upper hand.

Even though he did have battle instincts and memories of fights from his past life, it wasn't like they were completely useful and reliable.

There were sure to be differences in the power system itself, let alone how people wielded mana in this word seemed to differ greatly.

And the worst, he had only fought demons or humans struggling for survival, not well-trained enemies as no one had the time for it.

Rather than training others, people preferred to throw money and resources on the ones already performing regardless of their shady background or rumors.

'It really is different,' Jash thought, realizing the difference.

Systematically trained and taught students varied greatly from a bunch of ragtags only aiming for survival.

Their fights relied more on instincts and nature than the sophistication of techniques.

What Jash grasped from fighting was always the

essence

of fighting instead of trying to learn proper forms and postures of different weapon styles.

'Anyone can do that with a bit of practice,' he believed, but sparring with the twin dagger wielding girl, doubts arose in his heart.

He had seen many techniques, be they movement techniques, sword arts, or weapon arts, so he wasn't lacking in that regard either.

'I just found the postures and forms to be too stiff and not good for the body,' he recalled trying them and compared them with the girl opposite him.

"I see..." he suddenly muttered under his breath, realizing that it was not a good idea to ignore the efforts of the ancestors in this world to accumulate many techniques.

In that moment, his movements shifted as his sword danced gracefully, parrying the daggers easily as if he wasn't even exerting any effort.

But the girl didn't seem to care about any of it, unlike her two predecessors.

Her full focus remained on defeating Jash that she forgot to take note of the subtle changes in his sword style and movement pattern.

'This... this is good,' Jash mused, half-smiling before directly deflecting her twin daggers.

At that moment, Jash didn't care about anything else as he could feel Aura nourishing his body even with the restrained mana.

His mana veins with five nodes were resonating with him for the first time, although it was just a brief moment that even he missed it.

On the outside, the students watched in awe as the girl actually forced Jash back quite a bit or so it appeared.

'Too good,' Aileen complimented after watching Jash's movements and his quick judgment.

He wasn't without flaws, though.

It would be too absurd for him to suddenly become a master swordsman after a simple spar, but there was surely progress.

And Jash could feel it too, but it stagnated, prompting him to end the battle preemptively.

Although he had the heart to play more, he was sure that it wouldn't yield any results.

Plus, he needed time to sort out the plethora of techniques in his mind and adapt them for use.

In a flurry of motion, he swung his sword downward and hung it there, surprising his opponent.

She wanted to not waste the chance and immediately swung her twin daggers at him but...

—Schaaa

In the blink of an eye, the twin daggers flew from her hands, which were now bloody.

And all she saw was Jash's sword above her head, ready to end her... if it were a real battle.

Thankfully, it was more of a spar, but she lost nonetheless. It also seemed to only increase her hostility towards Jash.

'Why is she so damn hostile?' Jash pondered, but really couldn't come up with any reason.

Just as he was thinking about the improvement he made with her help and wanted to say a few words of praise, he found out that she had fainted.

'Shit! Do I look like a nightmarish monster up close that she fainted!' Jash cursed inwardly, unable to calm his agitated heart for a moment.

Barring his agitated heart, he would've already called for the next duelist, but it seemed unlikely that anyone would move anytime soon.

If his previous display wasn't enough, his current display of overpowering three opponents back to back made others hesitate.

It was impossible for them to 1v1 him, and no one tried it despite the stupid thought of

"what if"

in their minds.

However, they had made some crazy claims and would definitely not want to embarrass themselves any longer.

Without waiting for Jash to call them, the seventeen students closed in on him at the same time.

Even AIleen had a rare look of concern on her face while Ronan was trying his best to keep his lips from curling upwards.

'This is better,' Jash thought, looking at the scene, not wanting to waste anymore time.

His eyes sharply passed by everyone, trying to recognize their features and weapons in one go.

He didn't care about their strength, the only one he was wary of somewhat was Helios in this group, thanks to Amael and Ziva opting out.

"Beat 'em up!!" Ziva cheered loudly as if she was watching a gladiator arena and totally ignored the weird or hostile glances thrown her way.

Her mentality had long been tempered, so she didn't even feel the slightest tug of any emotions despite the numerous eyes locked on her.

However, her loud cheer only had the opposite effect as Grunghin gritted his teeth and yelled, "Go attack him! Don't just stand there like idiots!!"

Knowing Grunghin's temper, a dwarf took the first step, but by the time he reached Jash, three more students were about to attack,

As the four nodded to each other and tried to trap Jash on all sides, he deftly sidestepped the first three strikes, their blades whistling past him.

While Jash deflected the dwarf's attack with a swift flick of his wrist, letting his sword redirect it.

The attacks weren't much compared to the twin dagger girl as most students could only perform basic attacks that Ronan had taught them yesterday.

Weapon Arts were not something one could master in a day or so, even if it was Jash.

And compared to everyone else, he was on an entirely different level altogether.

But that didn't guarantee his victory, Jash was wary of Amael and their numbers advantage.

'Easy,' he mused playfully, finding the solution in a few breaths.

He directly swung his sword in a strange arc, attacking their ribs, flanks, abdomen, arms, legs, and even the face.

'I will only lose it if I target their vital organs,' he smiled to himself and looked at their special training clothes, which reduced the chances of getting cut, by a huge margin.

—Bam!

The sheer force of his attacks was enough to knock the students away from him, and the unfortunate one with his ribs being targeted was directly knocked out.

—Clang

But it was not like Jash had time to idle around and eliminate them one by one as another two came to attack him in the meanwhile.

After parrying their attacks and pushing back, Jash jumped to their side, dodging an attack from behind by a student who took advantage.

Though it wasn't fair, no one complained.

It was a many-on-one match, to begin with, and the side with many was actually not winning.

'Where's that guy?' Jash felt uneasy for a moment, not seeing Helios in his line of sight.

In the past two days, he had inquired around and found that guy's name, but that wasn't on his mind at the moment.

His heart raced with uncalled anxiety as he had a bad premonition about Helios.