While Lilly fought for her life, Iain also faced off against a red thorn. He firmly grabbed his massive hammer with both hands.
As Iain stared at the red thorn's dangerous eyes, Groob explained from the side:
"With a weapon like yours you need to lean into its weight. Don't try to be fancy. Gather all your strength when swinging your hammer.
You have a range advantage, so use it. The beast won't dare to take a hit from you.
In fact, you should copy the beast's ferociousness. You are the threat in a fight and your enemy must fear you!"
Iain's tension rose as he took in Groob's advice. His muscles slowly strained. A moment later Iain took a deep breath.
Veins could be seen on his tall, athletic body as he felt his blood boiling.
The young man reminded himself of Lilly's determination. As he drew strength from his family, Iain final took a step forward.
Instantly the beast opposite him let out threatening roars.
Iain remembered Groob's teachings. The young man stuck out his chest and raised his body.
His eyes formed dangerous slits.
As Iain stared at the red thorn, the beast surprisingly took a step back.
The young man knew this was a good sign. He took a step forward.
Without much strength he let his hammer's head drop to the floor. A loud boom spread through the silent Frozen Hell.
Iain's hammer didn't have any magical abilities it only had its pure weight. Even with Iain's strength stat of 45 the hammer was slightly too heavy for him. He probably wouldn't be able to swing this 1500kg weapon often.
Keeping this in mind, Iain menacingly walked forward. He dragged his terrifying hammer behind him. Subtle trenches appeared on the Frozen Hell's hard ground.
The red thorn fletched its teeth at Iain. Its tail hit the floor, seemingly copying its enemy.
The beast took another step back as Iain advanced.
Suddenly the red thorn seemed to have had enough. In a surprisingly cunning move, it darted towards the side.
With its speed that faintly surpassed normal humans it ran around Iain. Not letting out any noise, it even sprinted the last few steps.
Iain obviously wouldn't let the beast do what it wanted. The young man didn't chase after the beast.
He calmly turned around and grabbed his hammer with both hands.
The red thorn might have expected this, as it jumped left and right.
Following these agile movements with his eyes, Iain couldn't tell from where the beast would attack.
The young man's muscles tensed. He strengthened the grip on his hammer.
Iain ignored everything else as he waited for the red thorn to approach.
In reality it only took a few seconds, but it seemed like eternity to Iain.
Finally, the red thorn made one last jump. It pushed its body forward with all its might.
When humans hunted some giant beasts, they would often try to exhaust it with many smaller wounds. The red thorn now seemed to choose a similar technique.
Its sharp claws shot through the air as the beast aimed at Iain's calf.
The young man felt the threat getting nearer. With a ferocious shout he lifted his hammer. To prevent the best from dodging he gathered all his might and swung from right to left.
The red thorn felt a storm approaching. Not daring to back away it overstrained its leg muscles and sped up again.
A tearing pain came from Iain's calf. The young man moaned in pain, but he didn't stop his movement.
Iain's upper body rotated slowly but a huge momentum built at the hammer's head.
Suddenly the sound of flesh being squeezed sounded out. Under the huge impact the red thorn rolled to the side.
It whimpered when it came to a stop. Iain avoided his eyes when he saw its deformed back.
The red thorn couldn't stand up after the hammer destroyed its hind legs.
Noticing Iain's disgust, Groob quickly took a few steps forward. His great sword stabbed out and quickly entered the beast's brain.
"No need to suffer needlessly.", muttered the big man.
Iain smiled wryly as he walked towards Groob. He didn't know what to feel right now, so he just wanted to talk about anything.
"What do you think? How was it?"
Groob took a short look at Iain's calf. Although the beast's claws did some damage, Iain fortunately wasn't seriously injured.
"Your body posture was good. You were able to intimidate the beast and unsettled its mind. Only the timing on your attack was off.
At least you don't need to hide with such results."
Groob laughed lightly to lighten the atmosphere. It seemed to work as Iain felt the tension slowly dissipating.
A moment later Voro approached them from the side. He had a small bottle in his hand, which he handed Iain.
"Here. For your injury."
To Voro's surprise Iain shook his head lightly.
"No thank you. I let Lilly treat me. She needs to train her healing magic."
"Hmm, if you say so."
As he mentioned his sister, Iain suddenly remembered that Lilly was also fighting right now. It could be seen how much his own battle had occupied his mind.
Now the young man raised his head to observe his sister.
A loud shout left his mouth all of a sudden as he watched in horror.
"Lilly!"
Iain unfortunately saw as a spiked tail threatened to smash his sister's face to a pulp.
Noticing the young man's trembling body, Groob forcefully calmed him down. The adventurer grabbed Iain's shoulder as he reminded:
"Don't worry! With Uramant and Forgoz there those weak beasts can't do anything to your sister!"
Luckily Lilly managed to dodge the approaching tail. A relieved smile formed on Iain's face as Lilly promptly used a new kind of magic and killed the red thorn.
A few moments later the team gathered around Lilly. Iain supported his sister, who held her waist in pain.
The adventurers couldn't hold back their laughter as the siblings asked about each other's injuries.
"You look as if you just went through a war.", mentioned Groob.
"This is a beautiful moment though. We should take a picture."
After he said this, Uramant's VSI lens lit up for a moment.
"Ok, I took one. I'll send it to your SMT later."
The siblings were slightly confused when they heard this. The concept of taking pictures was something foreign to them. However, they still thanked Uramant for it.
After the siblings had calmed down the team rested on a group of boulders near the hill.
Lilly ignored her injury as she inspected Iain's calf despite the latter's protest. The young woman drew a sharp breath as she looked at the deep gash that graced her brother's leg.
"Damn Iain, this was really dangerous. A bit deeper and you wouldn't be able to move your foot anymore!"
Noticing her brother's embarrassed smile, Lilly could only shake her head. She turned towards the adventurers who were talking among themselves:
"Groob, can you give me the medicine we brought?"
The bald man wordlessly nodded as he touched the ring underneath his glove. Injecting a small bit of mana, a bag with medicine suddenly appeared on his hand.
Lilly was still astounded, although she had already seen Groob use this storage device before. Even though it was one of the lowest quality ones, it could effortlessly and safely transport all the consumable they might need.
Of course, Groob wouldn't put any valuables in this storage. He might not be able to forgive himself if it was lost or stolen.
After taking out the medicine Groob didn't get up but casually handed it to Voro. The tall man smiled lightly as he stood up and took a few steps towards the siblings.
"Here is your medicine. Do you want some tips?"
Lilly was surprised as she watched Voro's crafty smile.
"Have you learned healing magic?"
"Only a little bit, but I don't focus on it. However, I'm the healer in our small team."
"Really? Great. Then I would love some advice."
Voro nodded as he sat down next to Iain.
"You want to train your healing magic, right? There is naturally nothing wrong with that, but in general you would use medicine to treat injuries after a battle."
"How come?"
"Magic has the advantage of speed, but it uses up a healer's mana. Thus, warriors normally prefer to let healers use their magic during battles. After a fight is over it doesn't matter much if the treatment takes a while. You might only treat serious injuries with magic."
Lilly could accept this logic. She thanked Voro for his advice, but like he said she was here to train. Thus, Lilly treated her brother under Voro's guidance.
Since their endurance wasn't high enough yet, she disinfected the wound before closing it with a few stitches. Only afterwards did she use her healing magic to heal the wound.
A few seconds later Lilly could already take out the thread.
Iain was amazed as his leg felt like it was never injured.
On the contrary Lilly shook her head. This treatment wasn't much more advanced than what she had done on earth. Unfortunately, her magic wasn't high enough yet to instantly heal deeper wounds.