You're a hell of a guy.

Let's say a PC named Moshpit has rolled well and crept up overlooking a water tower just outside of town with a scoped sniper rifle (3 harm far loud). There's several guards working for a local family, so Moshpit radios to his gang to set up a distraction pull some of the guards elsewhere. One guard is left standing watch in plain clothes wielding a pistol and Moshpit wants to shoot him. He rolls a 10+ and spends all 4 of his Holds on +1 harm (Not sure if this is legal, but even if he only takes it once, 4 harm is lethal). The guard, who has no idea a battle has even started, could use his 2 Holds to:

?Fight for blood: Moshpit is out of pistol range. Even if the guard were armed with the same sniper rifle, this is a surprise attack.
? Fight defensively: If I just said the guard was standing out in the open, it would feel cheaty to say he ducks into cover just because a battle roll was made.
? Fight opportunistically: Same as Fight for Blood
? Guard someone: Nobody to guard.
? Seize initiative: This is the only one that makes sense to spend Hold on, but he's just going to die with 7 harm coming his way.

I wrote all this out thinking it wouldn't make sense narratively, but I suppose it works. It's just the 2 Holds that seem pointless now since it's not much of a choice.

Thanks for reading all this.

Thanks for the quick reply! Would you give the NPC zero hold in such a scenario if they were surprised by the shot and instantly killed?