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Fortitude Prayer

Holy Light School active skill

Requirements: Holy Light Knowledge Level 1

Cost/Restrictions: 15 Mana, 10 Faith, language function required

Effect: Pray for a designated target, increasing their Constitution by 3%, raising their stamina recovery speed by 5%, and greatly reducing bleeding. Duration: five minutes. Cooldown: 120 seconds.

Note: You may eventually die in battle, but please hang on for a few more minutes and confess your sins before death to help me boost my performance.

Mo Tan's reaction was arguably the fastest aside from Ned's. He had already acted before Ned's voice had even faded, casting Command? Shield on Shuangye, who had the worst Constitution, then immediately using Fortitude Prayer on Ned, who had charged to the very front. The interval between this fairly potent buff spell and a holy-word spell was not even a second.

There was no such thing as a global cooldown for casting in Innocent World. In theory, as long as a player moved quickly enough, they could use a large number of skills in succession, provided those skills were not on cooldown. In practice, however, that theory did not hold up, because even the simplest low-level skills required the corresponding movements, gestures, or incantations upon activation. Even some low-tier warrior skills required an action such as raising one's weapon.

Shooting required nocking an arrow or pulling a trigger. Casting required chanting or gestures. If you used Whirlwind Slash, it would be rather hard to explain if you didn't spin around, right?

Mo Tan's two skill activations might not have seemed like much to some NPCs or battle-hardened elite players—not that there were any of the latter yet—but for a new player and recruit, they were textbook-level skill usage.

While quietly chanting Command toward Shuangye, Mo Tan had already aimed his other hand steadily at Ned. The instant Command? Shield took effect, he turned and made two gestures toward Ned that carried the meaning of "blessing" within the faith.

(PS: The skill description says to lightly touch the pinky and thumb, slightly curl the index finger, extend the ring and middle fingers, then tilt the palm forty-five degrees downward.)

This wasn't because he had been born exceptionally talented or was naturally suited to gaming. It was simply because, compared to Shuangye and the other players, Mo Tan possessed one obvious advantage.

Experience!

Although the Hei Fan character had only used one skill since being created, and that had merely been a lighting skill, that did not mean Mo Tan lacked relevant experience.

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

As Mo, he had accumulated considerable combat experience while under attack by countless cannon fodder enemies.

Although each character had mastered only a limited number of techniques, if they were added together...

"Beautiful!" Ned praised Mo Tan without looking back as he drew his sword, then waved backward. "Follow me!"

Yinna, who had seemed listless just moments ago, was the fastest. Relying on the innate lightness and flexibility of an elf, she needed only a few leaps to catch up tightly behind Ned. At the same time, she had already nocked two feathered arrows on her bow, which pointed diagonally toward the ground. Her pointed ears twitched as she called out, "There's fighting about four hundred meters ahead, behind the slope. I can't tell how many!"

"Totally unreliable!" The Lizardfolk monk Salazar stomped the ground hard with feet twice the size of an ordinary human's. The next second, he had appeared seven or eight meters away. Several streams of force faintly flowed across his two gauntlets as he raced after the two people ahead and shouted over his shoulder, "Crab, take Hei Fan and the other one!"

Crab, the dark-skinned Orc who seemed to have come from an African tribe, had already gotten up. He pursed his lips and muttered, "You don't have to tell me."

Then he strode toward Mo Tan and Shuangye...

"Hey! Wait! Big guy, what are you doing?" Combining that with what Salazar had just said, Shuangye suddenly got a bad feeling.

Crab gave a chuckle, hooked his axe into the sheath on his back, then tucked one of them under each arm and began running forward in long strides. "You two spellcasters are too slow. Someone has to look after you."

Shuangye immediately dispelled the fireball in her hand, covered her nose with her sleeve, and rolled her eyes repeatedly.

Crab was actually a fairly clean Orc and had no unpleasant odor, but not doing this still felt psychologically unacceptable somehow...

Mo Tan, tucked beneath Crab's other arm, was much calmer. He was currently staring at his character panel and calculating the recovery rates of his Mana and Faith, working hard to understand this character better.

As the only support in the squad, with one of his few skills being nothing more than a flashlight, Mo Tan felt that he was under considerable pressure...

The four-hundred-meter distance vanished in an instant. Even an ordinary person would not need two minutes to run that far, much less Ned and the others.

In less than half a minute, everyone had crossed the nearby low slope. The terrain here was desolate, and it was not far from the border of the Marshall Territory. Under ordinary circumstances, hardly anyone would be found here.

But now...

Mo Tan had just been put down by a dazed Crab when he saw a tall figure fly through the air and crash down in front of them with a bang.

It was a young man whose entire abdomen had nearly been torn open. He wore a simple suit of leather armor, with a flame emblem on his chest. His chestnut hair clung strand by strand to his temples with sweat and blood. His lips had gone pale from excessive blood loss and trembled continuously, while blood foam kept bubbling from his mouth.

"Ah!" Shuangye instinctively hid behind Crab and covered her eyes.

"There are a lot of well-trained Orc soldiers!" As the only other woman in the squad, Yinna's tolerance was far greater than Shuangye's. Looking toward the small mass of dark figures in the distance, she called out, "They're wearing the insignia of the Fireclaw Territory!"

"I know! Check him first." Ned's expression suddenly darkened. He knelt and pressed hard on the young soldier's abdomen, only to find that it still could not stop blood from seeping out of his many wounds. He immediately looked up and shouted, "Hei Fan, he needs to stop bleeding!"

Mo Tan could only shake his head. Fortitude Prayer, which could alleviate the effects of blood loss, was still on cooldown. His purpose in casting it on Ned early had actually been to get the cooldown running as soon as possible, so that he could cover more people in the battle that might follow. He had not expected things to turn out like this...

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

With a self-mocking sigh, Mo Tan spread both hands. A pale golden light appeared out of thin air around the critically wounded soldier, then slowly seeped into his many hideous wounds.

That was right. This was the Holy Touch he had learned at the very beginning, the low-end version...

A healing skill that restored a small amount of health to the target and had a cooldown of only one minute~

Of course, Mo Tan did not forget to take out the scripture worth twenty copper coins. Although it had no combat ability whatsoever (please don't start thinking about using it to ram people, attach chains to it, and cosplay a meteor hammer), this off-hand equipment at least added one point of Intelligence. It ought to be able to help a little, right?

As it turned out, it did help a little—though only a "little"...

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

Ned hurriedly bent down. Mo Tan was watching the healing prayer that was about to come off cooldown. His hand not holding the scripture was already pointed toward the Kindling Squad soldier.

Ten seconds until the skill cooldown finished!

If they could stop the bleeding, there was still hope of saving him. Although the Orc warriors watching them like tigers had already begun slowly closing in, still...

Four seconds until the skill cooldown finished!

It was ready!

Just as Mo Tan began preparing the first gesture, Ned had already straightened up and let out a long sigh.

"He's dead..."

Skill activation failed. Target status: Deceased

The voice and system notification sounded at the same time. The Kindling Squad soldier had ultimately failed to wait for Mo Tan's skill cooldown to finish. The earlier Holy Touch had been a drop in the bucket, only enough to delay the Grim Reaper for a moment and allow him to leave behind a final sentence...

"They're coming!" Salazar walked to the very front of the group and stared fixedly at the roughly twenty Orcs in uniform half-armor below the slope. He said grimly, "Looks like they don't intend to let us return in one piece..."

Ned rose with a gloomy expression and deeply furrowed brows. "This garbage game has an awful experience."

!?!?

Mo Tan, who had been somewhat dejected, and Shuangye, who had been hiding behind Crab the entire time, both froze. They stared at Ned in horror.

What did he just say...?

Garbage what? Awful what?

"I've witnessed death many times." Ned raised his sword and muttered, "But that young man's final words were definitely the strangest. All right, prepare for battle! Otherwise, we'll die here too!"

Mo Tan and Shuangye exchanged a glance and both came to their senses. It seemed that the man who had just died had not been an NPC, but a player like them. After all, no matter how they listened to that "final sentence," it did not sound like something a native of Innocent World could say.

For some reason, after learning that the dead man had not been a pile of data but a living player, Mo Tan felt relieved instead. The heaviness in his heart eased considerably.

Well, no matter how severe the death penalty is, players won't actually die...

"What happened to the rest of the Kindling Squad?" Crab drew his battleaxe, walked over to Yinna, and asked, "Are they... all dead?"

Yinna gave a bitter smile. "There are several corpses in the distance. Comparing the numbers, the soldier who just died should have been the last one from their squad..."

Crack!!

Salazar suddenly leaped in front of Yinna and struck sideways with one hand, smacking an incoming spear in half. He shouted, "Stop talking about that. They're here!"

Before his voice had even faded, the Orc formation in the distance drew their weapons in unison and charged with roars, rapidly closing the distance between the two sides.

Because they had wasted some time trying to save the soldier, it was now impossible for them to escape the enemy's attack range. Turning to run would undoubtedly result in them being skewered by a storm of thrown spears!

But if they met them head-on...

The difference in numbers seemed a little too great!

"We can't escape!" Ned stood at the very front of the group and shouted, "Fall back in a double right-angle formation! I'll be the point! Draw them toward Rockpile City!"

With that, he turned and viciously slashed at the chest of an Orc who had just charged over the low slope. He forced the opponent to block, then borrowed the force to leap backward. When he looked again...

His small leap had taken him all the way to the rear of the group, while the members of the Fenrir Squad had not moved at all.

"What are you standing around for?!" Ned was so angry that his vision swam. "Do it!"

"But Captain..." Crab was currently swinging his axe in a wide arc at an enemy who had just crossed the low slope, making the Orc who tried to match strength with him cough up three mouthfuls of blood. He blinked and shouted, "What's a right-angle formation? And what does 'point' mean?"

Salazar caught an Orc warrior by the shoulder, stepped around, and slammed a spinning elbow into his back. He then swept him off balance with his tail before finishing the dazzling monk combo with a knee strike. He shrugged at Crab. "The captain said a double right-angle formation."

"You understand him?" Yinna seemed to merge into Crab's towering shadow for a second, then appeared alongside three feathered arrows flying through the air. With a dagger clenched between her teeth, she tilted her head at Salazar and spoke indistinctly.

"I don't." Salazar shook his head with complete naturalness, then yanked the somewhat dazed Shuangye backward and helped her evade a powerful leaping slash from an Orc. He nearly got cut himself. "Stay focused! They're well trained!"

Ned had already hurried back. As he shielded the two spellcasters, Mo Tan and Shuangye, behind him, he gave an awkward laugh. "Sorry, I forgot we're a bunch of rabble."

By now, the low slope had been completely overrun by the enemy's twenty-odd soldiers. The two Orc warriors who had been knocked down earlier had also gotten back up, and their injuries did not seem serious...

"Lackeys of the Marshall Family!" A gray-haired old Orc wielding a warhammer charged toward them, his eyes bulging with rage. "You all have to die!"

One golden and one red streak howled out from behind Ned, forcefully halting the old Orc's charge!

Fireball, Gleaming Bolt.

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

"Kill!"

Roars tore open the curtain of battle. These Orc warriors were anything but rabble. They pressed in from all directions in perfect formation, attacking the hopelessly outnumbered Fenrir Squad with weapons, bodies, roars, and teeth—fierce and frenzied!

The entire group was plunged into a bitter struggle almost as soon as the battle began. Ned, Crab, and Salazar were each dealing with three or four enemies at once. Yinna's agile movements also lost all advantage on this tiny low slope, leaving her only able to flee awkwardly while looking for opportunities to fire a few arrows.

As for Shuangye and Mo Tan, protected at the center...

Shuangye's face was pale. Although the short staff in her hand kept waving, the low-tier fireballs and Arcane Missiles shooting in all directions could barely penetrate the enemies' defenses!

Every one of them had been calculated meticulously, fired in the best angles and rhythm. Yet even these spell attacks, which would have dazzled even a Great Magister, still achieved little.

And Mo Tan...

At the instant all his support and healing skills were on cooldown, Mo Tan lowered his hands helplessly.

I can't do it...

I... can't do anything...