Minutes blurred into hours as dozens, hundreds, and thousands of Star Spawn corpses piled up to the heavens above. The moon steadily climbed until it reached its zenith, just as it had the night before, and all of the Star Spawn grew stronger. Luckily for humanity, they had grown wiser, and one particular farmer also grew stronger. Not by the blessing of the moon, no, by the blessing of cumulative wisdom. Long serrated whips formed from enlarged spinal columns lashed across the fields of crops, smashing and dicing any Star Spawn unlucky enough to be hit.

  The whips routinely sprouted tendrils whenever they touched flesh, consuming whatever Star Spawn they had killed. Meat was wrapped in a package of Threads, pushed into the arteries at the center of the whips, and treaded along the long path back to Kenny’s main body, moved by a series of miniature hearts and the Threads pushing off the walls of the blood vessels. The packages eventually reached the still human-looking center of Kenny, entered through his arms, and sank into his stomach. Instantly burning the new biomass and converting it into Qi. Half of that new Qi was, as always, absorbed by his soul tenant.

  At least, that’s what should have happened.

  The latest packets of biomass were successfully made into Qi, but the new energy wasn’t taxed. The sensation was enough to stop Kenny from eating more Star Spawn. He shivered as he felt his Qi grow down his whips, absentmindedly reinforcing their structure, and making each serrated edge just a tiny bit sharper.

  Kenny heard a clicking sound from deep inside his soul. He felt a phantom weight being lifted from his body as a gentle warmth eased into his lungs, heart, and mind.

  He heard a rustling of feathers that echoed through his mind, accompanied by the odd sensation of being hollowed out and stretched enough to store the sensation.

  “Why did you stop?” Alexandra asked as she dropped down behind him.

  Kenny twitched his whips and pulled them back into himself. He rolled his shoulders as he tried to come up with the words needed.

  “I felt our Goddess had stopped eating the souls of those that I absorbed.” He said. “Thus, I have a new soul tenant.”

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  Alexandra smiled and hummed as she processed his words, before she hugged him. “That’s great news!”

  Kenny tapped his right foot and turned his sole into Threads that lanced down into the dirt and away from them, before spiking up into a curtain of chitinous blades, granting the two of them some brief privacy amidst this battlefield. Kenny pulled his right hand up and turned it into Threads, which solidified into the four-inch-long spike from this morning. Kenny narrowed his eyes, focusing on the sensation of the Threads moving and applying it to his soul.

  Thankfully, he was on the right track as his new soul tenant stilled as Kenny mentally pulled the new soul into the spike. The Threads that made up the spike squirmed as they accepted the soul and detached themselves from Kenny’s body.

  Alexandra gingerly picked up the spike with a Qi String as she rotated and examined it. There was an indent in the sides of the spike, which Alexandra deduced would fill up once the spike had harvested material, for it looked like a small screen often seen on thermometers to see if someone had a fever. Only, you know, made out of chitin.

  “Whelp,” Alexandra said as she propelled the spike at the nearest Hatchet Hen she could sense. “Here goes nothing!”

  Luckily for humanity, the spike impacted the Hen, and the tip of the spike burst into Threads that wiggled and writhed underneath the Hen’s skin. The Star Spawn didn’t have time to scream in pain before it was harvested and packed into the spike.

  Then Alexandra used her Qi string to pull it back and saw that the indent was half filled. She smiled as she sensed a small soul in the storage of the spike.

  She then lanced the spike into another Hen, harvested the creature, and handed it over to Kenny.

  He tapped the bottom of the spike and inserted his Threads into the newly opened hole. The biomass drained into his body in an instant, allowing the spike to be used more effectively.

  He then used the new biomass and souls to make two more Harvester Spikes. Kenny handed Alexandra all three Spikes and watched her take the souls of more Hatchet Hens.

  “Are the Spikes themselves one-shotting the Hatchet Hens, or is it just the force that you are using to propel them?” Kenny asked her.

  Alexandra shook her head. It's the force that I am using. While the Qi Strings are a basic skill, at the beginning levels, it's merely a slap on the wrist compared to the bullet-equivalent that I am creating.”

  Alexandra brought back the used Spikes to Kenny, and the number increased from three to nine, which briefly hovered around two before they darted to harvest more souls. The newer six continued the trend of killing Hatchet Hens, while the older three flew towards the more powerful but lesser in number Devil’s Curs.