You or a creature you can see are surrounded by a visible arcane barrier. Whenever the protected creature is to take damage, up to 20 hit points of damage are absorbed by the barrier, and the spell immediately ends regardless of how much of the barrier remains.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell at 2nd level or higher, the range of the spell increases by 20 feet for each level above 1st. The number of creatures you can ward also increases by one for each level above 1st.