a couple of months passed after Marlin gained his new minions and what a relief it brought him in fulfilling his guild requests. Having a tracker turned out to be such a ludicrous boon. Having multiple stabby things pointed at the quarry made his job as tank so easy.

He fell into the role of taunter and tank easily. The great thing about tyrant speech was that it worked on anything, it gave his mocking taunts, his frightening roars a supernatural touch fueled by his domination attribute allowing everyone and everything to understand the intent of his words without speaking the actual language.

Marlin figured out quickly, that he was naturally gifted to insult and mock things, when he put his mind to it. The three gnolls and Billy provided him with much needed coverage. Jerry’s vicious stabbing Whenever he jumped on someone’s back, the way Barry took to riding billy and impaling foes with his spear and Gary launching reasonably aimed arrows, basically made Marlin the damage mitigator of the group. His shield was put through the fires of war and it flipped it the bird with how it withstood punishment. His parents had left nothing to chance. His shield was amazingly crafted and sturdy.

His experience gained, was incredible as well. Facing fully grown boars was an actual challenge and unlike his friends, Bron, Kotak and Milly, who had to split the experience gain 3 ways. He gained it all on his own. His minions gained power solely through his growth. They didn’t have a system like him. Which meant he absorbed all of it.

a little more then 2 k xp which was mindboggling to him. Milly had gained roughly 600 in that same time span. Which put her halfway to lvl 3 while he was still stuck at lvl 1. roughly a third on his way to lvl 2.

Marlin was on his way back to his parents cabin. Milly had something to do that she couldn’t get out off, something to do with selling her soul to the old bitch, Marlin didn’t mind, he needed to be alone.

Marlin felt like shit. Deep down he always knew that ominous star and blessing of strife had fucked him over in many ways.

Sure, technically domination was a zero sum investment.

Sure he was scary as fuck.

But as a warrior he was lacking. He was lacking so fucking hard. Bron had always been a bit lazy but after Marlin had scared Bron and his buddies, back when he met them for the first time, things had changed with Bron.

Bron had apparently gone into the gravity chamber and done 10k pushups or some shit. That ashole looked like the hulk now. He had been big before but it was utterly shocking how fast his growth had been.

something to do with catalyzing his potential that he already had, to the fullest, or some Bullshit like that.

Name

Bron

Strength

22

dexterity

20

constitution

20

intelligence

9

wisdom

9

charisma

12

Available points

0

Marlin sighed, Bron had showed him his attribute screen after he pestered him long enough. Marlin had to swallow hard at the glaring difference, Bron was furious how Marlin managed to fight as well as he did, Marlin was furious at how unfair he felt his own situation was.

His spar with Bron had been one of those rare times where his Rage had actually been helpful, like really helpful Rage had always encapsulated the power of momentum and the fight between him and Bron had been drawn out into a 10 minute fight, charging his rage to the fullest but it didn’t matter. Bron had thrown his focus into catalyzing fury. To prepare himself to become a berserker. Once he gained mindless frenzy he would practically be immune to many of the psychological attacks of warriors and spell casters fixing the glaring weakness he currently had.

Where rage was a state of mind, Fury was the actual fuel. Like nitrogen in an engine. Bron had frenzy now gained at level 2.

Bron’s Natural reservoir that collected Fury during combat was almost double in size compared to marlin. His bruised shield arm, the cracks in its bones all over, still not fully healed after the healing spell, attesting to the absolute insanity of a proper warrior with access to discipline’s from the Martial role.

Marlin was no martial, that was made clear to him today and it had hurt his pride.

Sure his Mockery and scary face had helped in making Bron fluster and stumble, Bron had been pushed close, fuming how shitty it felt fighting him. How he had to wrestle with himself and his fears. How it had sucked all the enjoyment out of the fight. As strong as Bron was, his low willpower was still a glaring weakness. A weakness he would fix in a month or two.

It had been Marlin, who lost about 20 HP when one of Bron’s full fury charged power attack had broken marlins shield arm. Which had put an end to the spar. The shield was fine, the concussive Force of Bron’s claymore though, had been enough.

Marlin had done the math. If Marlin used i can take it! On Bron, it would be a hilarious display of him getting chopped in half vertically. Bron’s power attacks did about as much damage as his own critical strikes did. And Bron that fucking lunatic, had the warrior discipline brutal and ruthless aka bigger crits.

Bradford’s words “The gift of strife is a tradeoff but many lose themselves to despair” ran through Marlin’s mind. “Trade off my fucking ass dad”. He Muttered darkly.

“Nooo worriessss masssterr we will kill the fooolllss in his sleepss kekekeke” the three gnolls hackled in tyrant speech.

Was Marlin tempted? A bit, was he touched? Very much so. “The fool is the brother of the mistress i don’t think she would approve, although perhaps we can discuss the matter of this insult with her, on return”.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

As far as alignments went, he put the three firmly on lawful evil. Well behaved in public. They were apparently very good pickpockets, a healing potion, a stamina potion and some extra gold coins in his purse. He hadn’t been able to find the victims of these burglaries. Also it was difficult to inquire discreetly about missing potions. Even in a culture with trust, those consumables were guarded, but a lot o people had them.

He didn’t really feel like asking around. The novelty of him, had worn of with the villagers and after he had called that incessant woman that wouldn’t stop flirting and touching him with. Milly. Right. There, and he snapped when he said she was:

“a filthy whore, that should go to the honorless and get herself a good fuck, by 3 guys at the same time, to get it over with”.

People had started to avoiding him after that. Did he care? not really. If he was perfectly honest with himself, it had felt good to let it out, the bitch had reminded him, way too much of Ivonne and he hated how after all these years that, that still happened. Milly initially shocked, had rewarded him thoroughly afterwards, so all was good with the world as far as he was concerned.

He loved hanging with the t’jut tribe a great deal more then with his fellow kin anyway. This whole honor and trust thing was practiced a hell of a lot better by the T’jut then the high kin. It felt so much more genuine once the veil was lifted. The way the tribe came together evening meal around a big fire, ate, sang, danced, Milly had danced and sung, it had been beautiful.

So while in town, he discreetly let his gnolls do their thing.

The three always insisted they ‘worked’ for it in town, but their snickering and poorly hidden ‘winks’ towards one another painted a different picture.

Billy was elated, the three had been such honorable lot ‘working with the townspeople’, fully believing his teaching of the code of a knight were working as intended. Marlin never met anyone or anything as thick and oblivious as Billy. He loved that goat.

How Marlin was going to break it to the Goat he had no idea. But he did have to think of something.

He had to admit playing the evil overlord to these three was fun, and they started to grow on him. Even Milly admitted they had their charm in an ugly mutt sort of way.

Barry the most ‘honorable’ of the lot had been her pack mule for a day and it had warmed them up to her a bit, she still insisted they took bath’s.

Their horrified looks had been rather amusing, feeling tricked by the cunning ‘witch mistress’. They had been under the assumption, that if they behaved they wouldn’t have to bathe. When they begged and pleaded, Marlin had put on a display of power and strength and frightened them into it.

As wrong as it might have felt to do this to someone else, the gnolls ‘needed’ it. They needed to feel fear of their master. They needed confirmation that their master was strong.

Afterwards Marlin had pointed out that now that their smell was gone their stealth would improve in the city. The way their eyes had sparkled at the infinite wisdom of the master had been something else.

Marlin just hoped they wouldn’t steal him something obvious like a set or armor.

When he had pointed this out to them, they scoffed. The armor’s in town hadn’t been worthy enough to be stolen, not enough spikes, horns or sharp ridges.

Marlin agreed wholeheartedly with this. His armor had to look cool. And he did promise Milly he would get a helmet, someday. He wanted a helmet with horns but all the blacksmith had looked at him with that look of ‘so you are going to murder, rape and pillage after all’.

The cabin came into view, and he heard his parents all the way from here. “Ow billy, my parents are so sad that im no longer living with them”.

“I know my lord, the Lord’s mother often laments your lack of presence whenever we visit” Billy responded, as always, oblivious to the sounds coming from the cabin.

Marlin completely unfazed deposited Billy with his Mother and walked into the kitchen, and knew his parents didn’t have Dinner yet, by the sounds of it they went straight for dessert.

So he placed his three gnolls on high chairs like children and started cooking. something he knew was aromatic, of which the smells would quickly spread through the small little cabin.

By the time Marlin was finished his parents were as well. Marlin who had to suffer through the sound of lovemaking all the time had become numb to it. He was thanking Nirvana that he had an impeccable capacity to separate it from his active part of the brain.

it had become background noise to him.

“Marlin! What a pleasant surprise!” Betty came running and hugged him, still damp from her previous activities, another thing that marlin had to get used to.

Bradford awkwardly cleared his throat “good evening son, it is good to see you” Marlin let loose his smug grin while he was turned away from his father still finishing cooking dinner. “Evening Father” he knew his father was a private man, so was Marlin so by the time he turned around he had morphed the smugness into genuine happiness to see his old man.

”I see you brought friends! They are kinda cute and i see Milly gave them all a wash, ooo is that lavender i smell”? Betty completely unperturbed by the gnolls was shaking their little paws, Gnolls were technically half animal, half monster. So animal handling and animal speak did work with them.

Bradford acknowledged their greetings and gave marlin a look ‘explain’.

So Marlin regaled the tale of how he got his hands on the yipping furballs, why he did it and his general dealings with the townsfolk. And the nearby T’jut tribe.

”so the T’jut accepted and trust you as one of theirs”? Betty asked.

Marlin thought for a moment.

“I think they accept me sure, trust im not so sure, Milly trusts me, her brother bron sort of does and Kotak, man, dad i think you would have loved to work with someone like Kotack back in the day, he’s the voice of reason in almost any situation and always keeps his head cool”

“How many times have you shared their evening meals”?

”ehm for the last month or so”?

Both his parents smiled, “They accepted you as one of their own sweety~ “, Betty said proudly, “T’jut are a private lot to be accepted like that is an honor”.

”It is” Bradford said, His father had been more quiet then usual. “Marlin, can we talk? Outside” he sounded, cold, stern.

Marlin had an inkling what was about to happen. He nodded and got up. Betty looked uncomfortable not really knowing what to do, so got to cleaning the dishes, the Gnolls desperately clutching their plates licking them clean, including the pots.

Outside bradford looked into the distance and pondered quietly as Marlin stood next to him. “Ive heard disturbing things about you Marlin. I don’t often go to town but people talk about you a lot, you are creating waves and not in a good way”.

Marlin sighed. “Tell me what you heard and i will give you my version after”.

What Bradford told him next wasn’t as bad as Marlin thought it would be, no word of the stealing so at least that would be no issue and for the most part everything he heard was true. Except for what he had said to that particular over flirty woman.

”They say you threatened her, to drag her to the honorless, that you would command her to be taken against her own will”.

well, that certainly took on a life on its own, Marlin was confused by this. Lies were, rare at the worst of times and mostly ommisions of the truth not outright lies like this.

“father what im going to say now is word for word what i said and my reasons for saying them”. Marlin repeated the words and told Bradford honestly why he had said them and what had led him to it. “To me father, she might as well have openly stated, that she wanted me to cheat on Milly, Milly who stood right next to me when it happened”.

Marlin took a long breath. “As to how on the gods good earth the gossip turned into an out right lie, im going to find that out, il promise you that”.

”fell Tongue” Bradford said.

”what”? Marlin looked at his Father.

”That is what they are calling you now” Bradford looked at his son, his face unreadable.

Marlin smirked. “Well as far as nicknames, it certainly a lot better then ‘Marlin the Terrible, or ‘Marlin the murderer’, Marlin Fell Tongue has a nice ring to it”. his Father didn’t appreciate the joke. “These things make me question your honesty Marlin”, his voice betrayed the pain of that admission.

Marlin understood enough about this culture to know the pain it caused His father.

He pulled a Knife and placed it at his throat and started pushing the tip into his own flesh drawing blood. He let out his rage freely and spoke with deadly intent “How far till i prove my honesty”? Marlin looked him dead in the eye.

Before Marlin could blink the knife was gone from his hand and his Father held him in a bone crushing hug. Marlin felt the all too familiar light of healing enter his body.

“Im sorry Marlin, the people that told me all this, i trust them but i trust you as well, im sorry that i allowed myself to doubt you” He let go off Marlin.

“You provide me with endless headaches but i should have trusted your honesty I should have remembered that and I deeply regret that failure, can you forgive me”?

Marlin smirked, “come now father mother wouldn’t forgive me if i didn’t” smiling ear to ear. “I already forgave and forgot this whole conversation”.

Bradford looked incredibly relieved and gave Marlin a look. “That’s probably because you got hit in the head, twice”.

”who told you that”? Marlin asked as they went back inside.

”Milly, she told me she needed me to punish you, she couldn’t get herself to do it”

”if you tell her you did, I won’t tell mother of what we just talked about”.

”deal”.