'We have 25 minutes at most to take down one military leader before that goddamned ranger returns…' Naib inwardly thought as he analyzed the situation while trying hard to suppress the grief and sadness in his heart.
Unfortunately for him, Helena wouldn't give him too much time to think.
As a military leader herself, she knew that the guy was already thinking of a solution and now was the perfect time to strike since her opponent wasn't a hundred percent focused on their duel.
Helena ferociously swung her greatsword downwards aiming to slash Naib in half.
However, how could Naib be so easy to beat?
He gracefully parried Helena's attack by slightly stepping back and positioning his Voidreaver diagonally, making Helena's Salamandr smoothly slide off the edges of the blade as small streams of crimson flame remained in the air for a few milliseconds.
Due to the perfect parry, Naib got a huge chance to strike back.
'Ah, crap…'
Helena noticed that she got overconfident and that she was probably in for a world of hurt if she didn't do anything.
Fortunately, she was still young and her reflexes were at their peak.
Naib, immediately after parrying Helena's downward slash, smoothly transitioned his blade into a horizontal slash, aiming to chop off Helena's head from behind.
Sensing the incoming slash, the hairs on Helena's body stood on end, prompting her to decisively roll forward to dodge Naib's horizontal slash
'Tch…this little shit…' Naib couldn't help but curse.
He thought that he had Helena but who would've thought that she would decisively do such an evasive maneuver without even looking back?
Still, he wasn't discouraged. Helena was now in a bad position after rolling so all he had to do was stick closely to her and not give her any room to recover.
*CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG*
Faced with Naib's relentless attacks, Helena backpedaled desperately as she tried to recover her footing while defending against all of Naib's attacks.
Naib and Helena were both strong and skilled, thus, it was hard for them to get a decisive advantage over the other.
Even now, although Naib was currently at an advantage, Helena hasn't really suffered from any wounds.
'Shit! Shit! I have to take this woman down fast or we'll have to retreat!' Naib inwardly thought as he desperately tried to end his fight while holding tightly to his current advantage.
The twenty five minutes are almost up and in just another five minutes, the enemy ranger, Eden, could join the battle again, making them outnumbered.
*CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG*
Helena and Naib continued clashing swords for a few more minutes until Naib decided to temporarily retreat in fear of Eden entering the fray once again.
However, when he was about to call off the retreat, something advantageous for the Timberwolf mercenary group suddenly happened.
"Leif!" Alexander exclaimed, shocked and shaken after taking a quick glance at Leif's battle.
Naturally, after hearing Alexander's worried voice, Helena and Naib also took a quick glance in Leif's direction, and what Naib saw made him hesitate if he should retreat or not.
Then, after a short period of pondering, he decided to go big.
"Rashid! Finish him off!" Naib said in a loud voice, deciding to stay even at the risk of being heavily outnumbered.
He saw that the enemy general named Leif was bleeding heavily around the lower abdomen right below the belly button, thus, he decided that it would be worth it to finish this general off before retreating.
Rashid knew that they were playing with fire here but hearing that Naib chose to trust him to finish off Leif made him feel honored and determined to finish off his opponent as he confidently rushed towards his wounded opponent.
Unbeknownst to them, a shadow of a smile temporarily appeared on the corners of Leif's mouth.
Leif knew that the opponents were about to retreat so using the knowledge he learned from fighting almost every day in the arena, he willingly took a hit in a not-so-vital spot, successfully urging Naib to stay and continue fighting.
Rashid relentlessly attacked Leif, who he deemed was a bit weaker than him.
However, he was slowly losing patience as his opponent, Leif, whom he had beaten easily a few minutes prior suddenly seemed to have no openings to exploit.
'Why?! Why can't I finish off this heavily wounded bastard when he was no match for me at full health?!' Rashid thought to himself, an irked expression slowly becoming visible on his face.
Not only was he not winning, he was even getting pushed back.
*FWOOOSH* *FWOOOOSH*
Two lethal arrows suddenly flew at him, both hitting their mark.
One arrow struck his right leg while the other one pierced his left foot, making it extremely difficult for Rashid to even move.