Cool concept.
As other have already said, the combat needs more feedback, and perhaps an indicator for enemies that are close to death. You could make the combat faster by removing the need to confirm every message and just let them play one after the other on a timer, and if the visual feedback is good enough this won't cause major readability issues. Don't underestimate sound either, you could get a lot of mileage out of a *much* sound effect.
Alternatively, allowing the player to hold the confirm button in order to skip messages might work as well.
Also, I think the defend command should always have priority regardless of turn order, however that is decided, otherwise it's kind of pointless.
Keep up the good work.