As all three of them launched their swords at him, he managed to dodge two and used his blow to deflect the other, breaking his bow in the process.
Left with no choice, he quickly pulled out his sword and all three were engaged in a sword battle.
The leader turned towards Astrid and saw that they were losing this battle with specially with the white tiger-pheonix beast on his enemy's side.
He saw his comrade roll on dirt to quench the fire. He had to take care of the beast now or else it might burn all of them.
"Take over" he said to his men who gave Jareth no rest and dashed away.
Astrid was busy controlling the vines, so she didn't notice when the leader dashed towards the white tiger-pheonix beast.
The leader threw a smoke bomb at the beasts, instantly a purplish smoke arose. The big white tiger-pheonix beast moved back, trying to avoid the smoke as the man in front of her was charging at it.
It was becoming weak as it had inhaled little amount of the smoke.
Her small one, had inhaled it and passed out in the next second.
Astrid felt the uneasiness and struggle from the beast. She quickly turned her gaze to see what was happening.
Realizing what was happening and seeing the big white tiger-pheonix beast in danger, she stretched out her right hand and controlled a heavy gush of wind to push the smoke bomb and smoke away.
With his plans being destroyed, he glared daggers at Astrid and smiled after some time.
He knew it was hard for her to concentrate on controlling the vines and use her powers to also help the beast.
The beast on the other hand had inhaled a little of the smoke. It was staggering and was weak.
"This is my opportunity, she is a newbie sorceress. Not even she can control so much power at once and Elf boy there is perfectly occupied" he thought to himself with a wild grin on his face.
He held the hilt of his sword and approached the weakened beast.
The beast staggered backwards trying to avoid its attacker. It flapped its wings and a strong wind pushed the man back. But due to its weakened state, it couldn't continue for long and finally stopped.
The white tiger-pheonix beast spat a ball of fire from its mouth and missed again.
When Astrid noticed what was going on, she used part of her magic to stop him in his tracks.
Her concentration was weakening, she had to focus on the vines and hold him down. And her mind was in a mess.
Normally, she would have been able to hold him in place, but now he was struggling against her magic. It felt like he was struggling against a heavy wind instead.
When White-Fire flapped her wings, the wind she caused then had accidentally helped quench the flames on the other man's body.
While Astrid was busy, he finally got up and attacked her with the sword in his right hand.
She quickly moved her stretched hand towards his direction and held him in place.
As soon as she did that, she ended up freeing the leader. With her mind in a state of mess, her hold on the vines were weakening.
One of the men successful cut down a lot of vines and turned in her direction.
She turned to see the leader advancing at White-Fire. She quickly controlled the wind and pushed the new attacker a large distance from herself.
Then she resumed her hold on the man with a burnt hand. She quickly tried using the force of the wind to push the leader back a bit.
As she let go of her hold on the burnt hand man, he advanced forward to meet her. She let go of the wind she used in attacking the leader and held the burnt hand man in place.
"Oh no, this cannot be happening. White-Fire is in danger. My head is in too much of a mess. If only I was stronger" she thought to herself.
She could feel the pain and fear White-Fire was feeling. Frustrated with how everything was, she began to panick.
"Jareth, White-Fire is in danger" she shouted so he could hear and feel the urgency in her voice.
He still had two skilled assassins on him, he got distracted a bit. They attacked at once again, taking advantage of his distraction.
Without wasting much time, he used the hilt of his sword to hit the first man on his nose using his left hand.
At the same time, he used his right leg kicked hard at the other man's crotch and the said man fell on his knees on the ground.
While the other one held his bleeding nose in pain, he didn't stop there and attacked.