DEFEND

When you take up a defensive stance or jump in to protect others, roll +CON: on a 10+, hold 3 Readiness (or 4 if you bear a shield); on a 7-9, hold 1 Readiness (or 2 with a shield). You can spend Readiness 1-for-1 to:

• Suffer an attack's damage/effects instead of your ward
• Halve an attack's effect or damage
• Draw all attention from your ward to yourself
• Strike back at an attacker (deal your damage, with disadvantage)

When you go on the offense, cease to focus on defense, or the threat passes, lose any Readiness that you hold.

Think of held currency as permission to do something awesome, now or later. When you spend held currency to do something, you just do it—even if it interrupts the flow of play, and even if doing it would normally trigger a move. If you spend 1 Readiness to strike back at an attacker and deal some damage, you just do that, even though fighting in melee would normally trigger Clash.

When you spend currency, say what it looks like in the fiction. If you can't describe it, then don't spend the currency after all.