Why couldn't Philip beat the hell of the Infected?

[Thaliur]

Just because the infected looks like you could just slap em down doesn't mean you really can. Maybe a human is really no match for an infected in hand to hand combat.

Probably, yes.
I live in an area where coal mining was very... OK, I forgot the word for this sentence. Much coal was mine, that's for sure, and one evening I was in a pub close to one of those mines, and I saw a mineworker who looked much like a stickfigure easily beat a Schwarzenegger-type guy at armwrestling.

And the Tuurngait are not even human, so it might not be possible to judge them based on looks.