Her sword fell onto the ground with a clang.
The man got up quickly and charged at her again. This time, he managed to hit her and knocked her to the ground.
He raised his sword above his head and prepared to strike her down.
"You bastard! Stop!" I screamed at him while running towards him as fast as possible.
I lunged at him and tackled him away from Irina. He stumbled backward and fell to the ground.
I then turned around and faced Irina, "Are you alright?" I asked worriedly.
She nodded and smiled at me, "Thank you, Edvin," she replied while standing up and brushing off her clothes.
I then turned back towards the man on the ground.
"Let's finish this quickly," I told him, taking my sword from its sheath.
He stood up slowly and glared at me angrily, "You'll regret this!" he yelled at me.
We both charged at each other simultaneously. His sword collided with mine and our weapons locked together in a fierce battle of strength.
He was strong and pushed me back slightly but not enough to make me lose my balance or anything like that.
Our swords continued to clash against each other until suddenly he broke off the contact between our blades and swung his weapon horizontally at me.
I blocked his attack with my sword but it still sent me flying backwards.
I quickly regained my balance and looked up to see him charging again with his sword raised above his head ready to strike down at me.
"Shit! I'm screwed!" I thought frantically while preparing myself for the worst. But then when I realized that Irina was already next to him, I relaxed and watched as she kicked him in the stomach and sent him flying through the air.
As soon as he landed on the ground, Irina ran up to him and struck him hard in the face with her fist.
The impact of her punch caused his helmet to fly off and reveal his face which was covered in blood.
She then grabbed him by his throat and lifted him up into the air before slamming him against the ground with a loud thud.
After doing that, she released her grip on him and took a step back to observe the damage done to his body. He lay there motionless as blood dripped out of his mouth.
Then she knelt beside him and picked up his sword which was lying next to him.
When I think about it, it does seem unfair but he should at least be aware of Irina. I mean that man does fight the two of us at the same time and yet he let his anger control him. Thus focusing his attention on me alone.
It was brutal indeed but I do offer my thanks to Irina as she saved my life there.
As for the man himself, he died after being brutally beaten by Irina. I wonder if he is someone important in their group since he is stronger than the others as we could at least extract some information from him if he was alive.
"That was intense," I mumbled under my breath while trying to catch my breath.
Irina chuckled at my comment, "You are right, it was. Anyway, let's go and search the place now," she suggested.
We entered the cabin and began searching for any evidence of their activities. We found many things like food supplies, water containers, sleeping bags, and other camping equipment.
Also, we found several pieces of paper containing maps and charts, which I guess must be related to their smuggling operations. Yet we aren't able to find the place where they stash the stolen soldier equipment here.
"There are no documents or anything like that here, maybe they hide them somewhere else," Irina commented after rummaging through the place.
"Yeah, looks like it but didn't the other letter saying that they will put it here?" I asked curiously.
"Perhaps they changed the location recently? Or perhaps they were too smart to leave such an obvious trail for us to follow," Irina replied while shrugging her shoulders.
"Well, whatever it is, I guess we'll never find out then," I sighed in disappointment.
To be honest, I do not really care about the soldier equipment much. Because what's really important here was getting back our stolen equipment and getting back on our initial quest.
"At least we can confirm that these are the people who stole our things, so that's good enough for me," Irina said cheerfully as she walked over to the door and opened it.
She's trying to be positive despite knowing that our stolen equipment probably ain't here. It seems like she doesn't want me to feel bad about it either. I did cause our equipment to be stolen in the first place, as my carelessness allowed it to happen.
When Irina opened one of the doors, I heard a small squeaking sound coming from somewhere in the cabin.
I turned my head around and saw a mouse running out of a hole in the wall behind me. It was carrying something in its mouth and heading straight towards the fireplace.
I immediately jumped forward and grabbed hold of its tail before it could escape through the chimney. I lifted it up and held it in front of me for closer inspection. It wasn't just an ordinary mouse, it was a familiar one.
"What in the world is this?" Irina exclaimed in surprise when she saw what I was holding.
"This mouse was someone familiar and it seems like it has something in its mouth," I replied while carefully opening its mouth and pulling out what looked like a letter from its mouth.
I unfolded the letter and read its content out loud for Irina to hear, "The place has been discovered, I would personally take care of the equipment afterward as it's too dangerous to bring it here now. The two adventurers had found our hideout already. But don't worry, I'll make sure that they don't survive long enough to get out of here alive."
And knowing the content of the letter, it seems like the two adventurers were supposed to be us. Well, this means that the thieves have been expecting our arrival here. It could be because they already knew that we were following them or perhaps because they'd planned something nasty for us.
"They knew we were coming after them?" Irina wondered in confusion.
"I don't know but I guess so," I answered honestly as there's no point in hiding anything anymore.
Irina raised her brow at me curiously, "You seemed to know something, Edvin. Care to explain?"
"Well..." I hesitated slightly before continuing... because I felt like I had been fooled by that person from the beginning.