” So how many kills did you get in the Warpoint? ”
I hate this question. Look, I understand why you’re asking it, I’ve got an anthropologist on standby who’s literally working on a documentary about it, the bonding and bragging and no really, I get it.
But I hate this question.
Because I’m going to admit, the answer for me is almost always going to be lower than the answer for other people ‘at my level’. I’m a good fighter, but I’m not the type of hotstick who can go out there and just decimate everything I run into. I’m in shape, but I’m not the kid who can run the length of the field back and forth like a deranged bunny rabbit for the full hour ( you know who I’m talking about… ). And in static line battles like the Ravine at Gulf Wars, there’s a reason why the swords keep getting longer and longer, and I’m not going to pretend that I’m tall or that I’m going to go buy/use a five foot monstrosity for a single battle a year. ( Yes, there are other ways to be deadly, and I’m well aware of many not-that-tall fighters who are absolutely fabulous melee fighters. Shh. I’m posting here. 🙂 )
So no, my number isn’t going to be high as I might wish it was, and I’ve got enough pride that I don’t like that.
The question I wish you’d ask is ‘ How many kills did you help get in the warpoint? ” , because that’s what I’m doing in something like the Ravine battle: tangling blades, distracting enemies, being the ‘parry’ to someone else’s ‘riposte’. Similarly, you could ask ‘ How many of your guys did you keep alive so they could kill someone? ‘ — for me, a lot of the time it’s the same thing. I have memories of Fort Battles spent standing behind the shoulder of a legged man with tremendous reach. He would have been a mini slaughter by himself, but likely killed off within a few minutes ; with two of us, we reached massacre level, because tanks are fun and I could keep him alive.
I’m not likely to ever be the guy who comes off the field with 50 dead to my name. I am likely to come off the field as the guy who kept my three gunners alive long enough for them to get 50 kills ( WoW boat battle, the story is actually hilarious ). I’m likely to be the person who notices that somehow there’s no one in command of the line in the ravine, and there really, really needs to be because instead of filling gaps those four guys are staring at the ceiling and wondering what to do ( or better, trying to fill in the six inches between two people who need those six inches for their elbows, thank you very much ), and honestly, I’m okay with that.
If you’d just stop asking the question.
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