Can't Do It

[Fortitude Prayer]

Holy Light School Active Skill

Mastery Requirement: Holy Light Knowledge Lv.1

Consumption/Restrictions: 15 Mana, 10 Faith Points, Requires Language Function

Effect: Pray for the designated target, increasing their Constitution by 3%, Stamina recovery speed by 5%, and significantly alleviating bleeding effects for five minutes. Cooldown time: 120 seconds.

[Note: Perhaps you will eventually die in battle, but please try to survive a few more minutes and make a pre-death confession to help me boost my performance.]

Mo Tan's reaction was the fastest, aside from Ned. Almost before the latter had finished speaking, he had already taken action, casting Edict: Shield on Shuangye, whose Constitution was the weakest, and then releasing Fortitude Prayer on Ned, who was charging at the front. The interval between this currently powerful buffing divine spell and a Holy Word spell was less than a second.

In Innocent World, there is no such thing as a global cooldown. In theory, as long as the player's movements are fast enough, they can use a large number of skills that are not on cooldown in a row. However, this theory is not valid because even the most basic and brainless skills require corresponding actions, gestures, or chanting while being activated. Even some low-level skills in the warrior class require an action like raising a weapon.

Shooting requires drawing a bow and arrow or pulling the trigger, and casting a spell requires chanting or making gestures. If you're using Whirlwind Slash, you can't just stand there, right?

Mo Tan's two skill activations might not be anything special in the eyes of some NPCs or battle-hardened high-level players (there aren't any yet), but for a new recruit, it was enough to be considered textbook-level skill usage.

While whispering the Edict to Shuangye, Mo Tan's other hand was already steadily aimed at Ned. Then, the instant Edict: Shield took effect, he immediately turned back and made two gestures with 'blessing' connotations in the church toward him.

(ps: The skill description is: lightly touch the little finger and thumb, slightly bend the index finger, extend the ring finger and middle finger straight, and then make a gesture with the palm facing diagonally downwards at forty-five degrees.)

This wasn't because he was gifted or born to be a good gamer, but because Mo Tan had a very obvious advantage compared to Shuangye and other players.

Experience!

Although the Hei Fan character had only used one skill since its creation, and it was just a simple lighting skill, this didn't mean that Mo Tan didn't have any relevant experience.

As Tan Mo, he had once faced two Crimson Ridge Beasts at the same time and subdued them in the first instance.

As Mo, he had also accumulated a lot of combat experience under the attacks of a large number of cannon fodder enemies.

Although the skills mastered by each character were relatively limited, if they were added together...

"Nice!" Ned, who was drawing his sword with a backhand, praised Mo Tan without turning his head, and then waved his hand behind him: "Follow me!"

Yinna, who had been a bit listless just now, was the fastest. Relying on the agility and flexibility inherent in elves, she closely followed Ned after only a few jumps. At the same time, two arrows were already nocked on her longbow, which was pointed diagonally at the ground. Her pointed ears twitched, and she shouted: "There's a battle going on about four hundred meters ahead, behind the slope. I can't tell how many!"

"Too unreliable!" Salazar, the Lizardfolk monk, stomped heavily on the ground with feet that were two sizes larger than those of ordinary humans. The next second, he had already appeared eight meters away. A few wisps of energy flowed faintly on his gauntlets. While quickly following the two people in front, he turned his head and shouted: "Crab, you take Hei Fan and the other one!"

Crab, a dark-skinned beastman who looked like he came from an African tribe, had already gotten up at this moment, pouting and muttering: "No need to tell me."

He strode towards Mo Tan and Shuangye...

"Hey! Wait a minute! What are you going to do, big guy?" Combining Salazar's words just now, Shuangye suddenly had a bad feeling.

Crab grinned, hooked his axe into the leather sheath on his back, and tucked the two of them under his armpits, one in each arm. He began to stride forward: "You two casters are too slow. Someone has to take care of you."

Shuangye immediately dispelled the fireball in her hand, lightly covering her nose with her sleeve, and kept rolling her eyes.

Even if Crab was a fairly clean beastman and didn't have any strange smells on his body, not doing this still felt a bit psychologically unacceptable...

Mo Tan, who was tucked under the other arm, was much calmer. He was staring at the character panel, calculating his mana and faith point recovery speed, and trying to increase his understanding of this character.

As the only support in the team, and with one of his only few skills being a flashlight, Mo Tan felt a bit of pressure...

The distance of four hundred meters passed in an instant. Even ordinary people could run this distance in less than two minutes, let alone Ned and the others.

In less than half a minute, the group had crossed the nearby low slope. The terrain here was relatively desolate and not far from the border of the Marshall Territory. There were hardly any people here in normal times.

But now...

Mo Tan had just been put down by a stunned Crab when he saw a tall figure flying through the air and crashing down in front of the group with a bang.

It was a young man whose entire abdomen had been almost torn apart. He was wearing a simple leather armor, and there was a flame emblem on his chest. Strands of his chestnut hair were stuck to his forehead with sweat and blood. His lips, which were pale from blood loss, trembled constantly, and blood foam kept bubbling from his mouth.

"Ah!" Shuangye almost subconsciously hid behind Crab, covering her eyes.

"Lots of well-trained orc soldiers!" Yinna, the only other woman in the team, was much more resilient than Shuangye. She looked at the small patch of dark figures not far away and reported loudly: "They have the Fireclaw Territory's emblem on their bodies!"

"I know! Let's check on him first." Ned's expression suddenly turned ugly. He knelt on the ground and pressed hard on the young soldier's abdomen, but found that this still couldn't stop the blood from seeping out of the numerous wounds on the person's body. He immediately looked up and shouted: "Hei Fan, he needs to stop the bleeding!"

Mo Tan shook his head helplessly. The Fortitude Prayer, which could alleviate the effects of blood loss, was currently on cooldown. His purpose in casting the prayer on Ned in advance was actually to speed up the cooldown so that he could cover a few more people in the battles that might appear later. But he didn't expect things to turn out like this...

If I were Tan Mo, I wouldn't have made this mistake...

He sighed self-deprecatingly, stretched out his hands, and a faint golden light appeared out of thin air around the seriously injured and dying soldier, and then slowly merged into the numerous hideous wounds on the other person's body.

That's right, this was the 'Holy Touch' he had learned from the beginning, the low-profile version...

A healing skill that restores a small amount of health to the target, with a cooldown time of only one minute~

Of course, Mo Tan didn't forget to take out the church book worth 20 copper coins at this time. Although it didn't have any combat ability (please don't think about installing ramming horns or bolting chains to cosplay a meteor hammer), this off-hand equipment at least added 1 point of Intelligence, which should be able to play a role, right?

As a result, it did play a role, although only 'a little'...

The young human soldier swallowed a mouthful of blood with difficulty and grabbed Ned's hands, as if he wanted to say something...

Ned quickly leaned over, while Mo Tan was staring at the healing prayer that was about to finish cooling down. His other hand, which wasn't holding the church book, was already pointing at the Fireclaw Squad soldier.

10 seconds until the skill cooldown is complete!

If he could stop the bleeding, there was still hope to save him, even though those menacing orc warriors had already begun to slowly approach here, but...

4 seconds until the skill cooldown is complete!

Damn it!

As Mo Tan began preparing his first gesture, Ned straightened up and sighed deeply.

"He's dead..."

[Skill usage failed. Target status: Deceased]

The voice and the system notification arrived simultaneously. That Kindle Squad soldier ultimately didn't make it until Mo Tan's skill cooldown finished. The previous Holy Touch was merely a drop in the bucket, only enough to delay Death's advance and allow him to leave a final word...

"They're coming!" Salazar moved to the front of the group, his eyes fixed on the roughly twenty orcs in uniform half-armor down the slope, and said in a deep voice, "Looks like they don't intend to let us go back in one piece..."

Ned stood up with a gloomy expression, his brow furrowed. "Garbage game, terrible experience."

!?!?!

The somewhat dejected Mo Tan and Shuangye, who had been hiding behind Crab, were both stunned, looking at Ned with horror.

What did he just say...?

Garbage what? Terrible what?

"I've witnessed death many times," Ned said, raising his sword and muttering to himself, "But that young man's last words were definitely the strangest... Alright, everyone, prepare for battle! Or we'll all die here!"

Mo Tan and Shuangye exchanged glances and realized that the dead fellow wasn't an NPC, but a player like them. After all, that 'last word' didn't sound like something a native of Innocent World would say.

For some reason, knowing that 'death' wasn't just a bunch of data, but a living player, Mo Tan felt relieved, and his slightly heavy mood eased a lot.

Well, no matter how harsh the death penalty is, players won't really die...

"What about the rest of the Kindle Squad?" Crab pulled out his battle axe, walked to Yinna's side, and asked her, "Are they all... finished?"

Yinna gave a wry smile. "There are a few bodies in the distance. Counting the numbers, the soldier who just died should have been the last one in their squad..."

Crack!!

Salazar suddenly lunged forward in front of Yinna, raised his hand, and chopped a battle spear that was whistling through the air in half with a sideways strike, and said in a low voice, "Stop talking about that, they're here!"

Before he finished speaking, the orc squad not far away drew their weapons in unison and roared as they charged over, closing the distance between them at an extremely fast speed.

Because they had wasted some time trying to save that soldier, it was now unlikely that they could escape the enemy's attack range. Turning around and running would undoubtedly result in being skewered by a barrage of thrown spears!

And facing them head-on...

The difference in numbers seems a bit too big!

"We can't escape now!" Ned stood at the front of the group and shouted loudly, "Double right-angle battle formation! I'll be the arrowhead! Drag them towards Rockpile City!"

After saying that, he turned around and slashed his sword fiercely at an orc who had just rushed up the slope, forcing the opponent to parry while using the force to fly backward. But when he looked, he realized...

His little leap had directly placed him at the end of the group, and the members of the Fenrir Squad hadn't even moved.

"What are you guys spacing out for?!" Ned was so angry that his eyes were spitting fire. "Do as I say!"

"But Captain..." Crab was swinging his axe around, slamming it at an enemy who had just crossed the slope, sending his fellow tribesman, who had tried to fight him with strength, vomiting blood, and then blinked his eyes and shouted, "What's a right-angle formation, and what does arrowhead even mean?"

Salazar grabbed the shoulder of an orc warrior with his backhand, stepped sideways, and spun around to deliver a devastating elbow strike to the opponent's back. He then swept out with a tail kick to knock him off balance, and finally finished the combo with a knee strike, then shrugged at Crab, "The Captain is talking about a double right-angle battle formation."

"Can you understand it?" Yinna seemed to merge into Crab's tall shadow for a second, and then appeared with three arrows flying out, a dagger in her mouth, and tilted her head at Salazar vaguely.

"Can't understand it." The latter shook his head naturally, then pulled the somewhat dazed Shuangye back, helping her avoid a heavy jumping chop from an orc, but he almost got scratched himself. "Focus! They're well-trained!"

At this time, Ned had rushed back, shielding the two casters, Mo Tan and Shuangye, behind him, and said with a dry laugh, "Sorry, I forgot that we're a bunch of rabble."

At this time, the small slope had been completely rushed by the twenty-odd enemies, and the two orc warriors who had been knocked down earlier had also gotten up, looking like they weren't seriously injured...

"Dogs of the Marshall Family!!" A gray-haired old orc wielding a war hammer roared as he charged straight at them, his eyes bloodshot as he shouted angrily, "You'll all die!!"

Two trajectories, one gold and one red, whistled out from behind Ned, forcibly stopping the opponent's charge!

Fireball, Gleaming Bolt.

Mo Tan and Shuangye attacked almost simultaneously, but after stopping the old orc, they realized that it was just a drop in the bucket...

"Kill!!"

Roars tore through the curtain of battle. These orc warriors, who were by no means rabble, pressed in from all directions in an orderly manner, using weapons, bodies, roars, and teeth to attack the outnumbered Fenrir Squad, fierce and crazy!

The group was plunged into a bitter battle almost from the moment it began. Ned, Crab, and Salazar were each dealing with three or four enemies at the same time. Yinna's lithe and agile movements were also useless on this small slope, and she could only flee in a sorry state, taking the opportunity to raise her hand and fire a few arrows.

As for Shuangye and Mo Tan, who were being protected in the center...

The former's face was pale. Although the short staff in her hand kept waving, the scattered low-level fireballs and arcane missiles could only barely break the enemy's defense!

They had been strictly calculated by their master, and were fired out at the best angles and rhythms, but these spell offensives, which would have amazed even a Grand Archmage, still struggled to achieve anything.

As for the latter...

With all the support and healing skills on cooldown at the same time, Mo Tan helplessly lowered his hands.

[I can't do it...]

[I... can't do anything...]

Chapter 29: End

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