God-Machine Chronicles Question Re: Merits

[Elurindel]

Hey, gang. My friends and I are interpreting Merits differently. Speficially, the Whirlwind Strike and Flurry Merits.

They read as such:

Flurry:
Your character moves quickly enough to stab
opponents with numerous pricks and swipes in the blink of an eye.
As long as your character has her Defense available to her (it’s not
been sacrificed for another maneuver or denied from surprise,
for example), any character coming into her immediate proximity
takes one point of lethal damage. This damage continues once
per turn as long as the enemy stays within range and occurs on the enemy’s turn.
This can affect multiple opponents but cannot be used in a turn where the character is Dodging.

Whirlwind Strike:

When engaged, your character
becomes a storm of threatening kicks and punches; nothing
close is safe. As long as your character has her Defense availableto her and is not Dodging, any character coming into arm’s
reach takes 1B damage. This damage continues once per turn as
long as the enemy stays within range and occurs on the enemy’s
turn. If you spend a point of Willpower, this damage becomes
2B until your next turn.

Do these Merits require you to use your action for the turn? I don't see anything about the Merits that suggests that they do.
It seems more like you can use them to hurt people that come close to you as an afterthought, but maybe I'm being too generous.

[Juhn]

They basically take damage as part of your Defense, so no, it doesn't consume an action. It does mean you can't use things like all-out attack, which can be useful considering how high Defense can get in 2e with Athetics folded into the calculation.

[Elurindel]

They basically take damage as part of your Defense, so no, it doesn't consume an action. It does mean you can't use things like all-out attack, which can be useful considering how high Defense can get in 2e with Athetics folded into the calculation.

That was my interpretation too.

[raygun goth]

It can get pretty nuts, that automatic 1 lethal, as long as they're not wearing armor and you don't want to hurt them (declare your intent to do something else instead), will pretty much always inflict the Beaten Down tilt.