"What are Devourers?" I asked.

"Swarms of mouths with wings," the wisp said. "They don't deal well with buildings or defensive magics, but they can kill and strip lone creatures very quickly. They are attracted to strong sources... And I have a lot of fresh mana from the neutral realm. But maybe they're hunting something else?"

The buzzing was coming from ahead of us and to the west, so we detoured to the east. After five more minutes of running the buzzing was getting stronger, but had shifted behind us.

"If they are after us, would we be able to outrun them?" I asked.

"Maybe," the wisp said. "If they've eaten recently and aren't too enthusiastic about the chase. If they're hungry then no. And if they follow us then we can't lead them to the hive where the archwisp is."

We were still in the mountains, and were going past a large open cave when a roar came from within and a white bear charged out. There was a flat area of stone where two peaks merged together and it was completely clear of snow. I put on a burst of speed, running around the bear and toward the drop into the next valley one hundred meters away.

The bear matched my speed in a burst and moved to intercept me. The wisp went up into the air and fell back, not being able to keep up.

"My lord, should we come out and fight?" Ursula asked.

"No, I can take on a simple bear," I said. "And the Devourers sound as though they are getting closer. It would be best to deal with this quickly and move on."

The bear raised a paw as we came close to one another, meaning to swipe through me. I dove forward at the perfect time to duck under it and hit its other front leg with my crossed arms just before it put its weight on it. The impact pushed me away and I rolled neatly to my feet to continue running.

The bear also went into a roll, but far less gracefully, ending up sliding on its face for a dozen meters before tumbling over onto its back. I was already to the edge of the stone platform by the time the bear had gotten back to its feet, and I was slowing down to drop into the valley when the buzzing got louder. The Devourers had caught up to us.

The wisp put on a burst of speed to catch up to me, and the bear let out another roar. This time it was running back to its cave. It made it halfway there before the first Devourer reached it, and I got a look at the Devourer from a hundred meters away. The best description I could think of for it was a piranha with dragonfly wings.

My first thought wasn't piranha, as the body looked like a fuzzy brown ball with the front taken up by a mouth full of teeth. But as the rest of the swarm caught up to the bear and began to swirl around it in a frenzy of blood and white fur going everywhere 'Flying Piranha' was what went through my head.

The bear barely got out a yelp of pain before it was stripped to its bones. I ran down into the next valley, once again leaving the wisp behind. The direction we needed to go would have us heading back up to the next peak, but I wanted to put some distance between us and the swarm of flying nightmares behind us. Following the valley as it sloped down out of the mountains would be the best way of doing that.

Running at my maximum speed would leave the wisp behind, but I was wearing my armour. I began freezing the glove on my right hand, pushing more heat into my hand to compensate. I wouldn't be able to move my hand very well, but I should be able to carry the wisp without burning it with my body heat. The wisp caught up a few moments later, and the buzzing of the Devourers was again getting closer.

"Come here," I said. "I'm going to carry you."

"Rather be eaten than burn," the wisp said. "At least eaten is quick."

I raised my frozen hand. "Look, its cold," I said. "We don't have time to debate this, I need you to lead me to the archwisp or the snow man progenitor."

The first of the Devourers crested the ridge as the wisp dipped towards me. I grabbed it and pushed it in front of me as I set off at a sprint. I had to deal with the snow that was piled high, but I had my power pushed out ahead of me and was able to navigate the boulders and slopes that made the valley at my fastest pace yet, topping out at fifty five kilometers per hour.

The buzzing got a bit fainter as we outpaced the top speed of our pursuers and after five minutes I decided to head up the peak to our left to try to lose them.

"You won't lose them," the wisp said. "They can track us by the scent of my mana. If they weren't happy with the bear then they aren't likely to stop until they get us."

"Are you reading my mind?" I asked.

"I can hear your speaking thoughts," the wisp said. "You don't have to speak them through the air for me to hear them."

I don't like having my mind read. But if it's only my surface thoughts, and more importantly I can't do anything about it, I will just accept it and move on.

"We're looking for a good place to fight the Devourers following us," I said. "Our guide won't lead us to the archwisp with them following, and they seem to be following us by our guide's mana scent. Thoughts?"

"We can form a roof over the valley," one of the Mountain Keepers said.

"And a wall behind," the other Mountain Keeper said. "It will force you to fight, but you won't be able to be swarmed."

"You could set the portal up so that we could fire out of it," Conor said.

"That doesn't work," I said. "You hadn't noticed that you slow down as you move through a portal? The faster something is going the more it is slowed down, your arrows wouldn't make it more than a meter away from the portal and wouldn't do any damage."

"It was wondered why you don't use your portals more as a weapon," Jenny said. "Is there something similar that stops you dropping a large weight of stone out of them?"

"There isn't," I said. "But I am limited by the size of the portal. Four square meters isn't big enough to kill anything more efficiently than I can with my bare hands or other weapons. I do have a bigger portal, but it is working getting the Keeper floors cleared out."

I pulled out my pocket portal and formed it into a doorway for my army to exit. I cleared out the snow in the immediate area and the Mountain Keepers got to work building the fortifications. As my people came out into the winter realm I sank my power into them, pushing heat into their bodies to keep them warm in the below freezing temperatures.

Clay, our healer, stayed in the army room and the Mountain Keepers joined him there after they finished the walls and roof. I moved the portal to the back wall and our diviner moved to stand in front of it, the wisp next to her.

"The Devourers are winter creatures, they don't like fire?" I asked the wisp.

"Nothing likes fire," the wisp said. "But they aren't burned by heat. You saw them eat the bear, its blood was hot."

I nodded. "This should be pretty simple," I said. "Jeff and Jacqueline prepare your area fire spell and roast the swarm all at once when it arrives."

The wisp made a squeak sound. "Area fire spell?" It asked.

I had already considered how it would affect the wisp, the residual heat could very well kill it if it wasn't protected. But as I'd been running and carrying it I had tested my ability to draw heat from it the same way that I did for myself and my people and it worked perfectly well.

"I'll be able to protect you," I said.

"That would be good," the wisp said. "But I was more concerned about a lot of mana and heat being released. It will draw the most dangerous creatures from all around looking for a meal."

"We won't be here when they arrive," I said. "An area spell is the only way that I am comfortable fighting them. They stripped the bear to bones in seconds, that isn't something I want to fight in melee range. We will do it if we must, and the fortification will give us the best chance, but I will be happier if killing it with fire works."

The buzzing was steadily getting louder again and I spent a tense minute watching Jeff and Jacqueline prepare their spell. It was much more complicated than the last one that they used, having six symbols each. Our melee fighters, myself, the beast people, and the Forest Keeper spear user, were at the entrance of our small cave leaving a gap for the two human mages to work. Our archers had platforms ready and had a clear line of fire to shoot over our heads, the roof of our cave sloping downwards to the entrance to give their bows clearance. The cave also narrowed towards the back where the portal was, which would allow us to retreat into my Pocket Dimension as safely as possible. We were as prepared as we could be, and thirty seconds after Jeff and Jacqueline finished preparing their spells the swarm of Devourers arrived.

Conor and Jenny loosed a dozen arrows before the swarm reached us, clearing out the front runners and packing the swarm closer together. When the swarm was only two meters away from us Jeff triggered his spell quickly followed by Jacqueline. There was a roar of fire that exploded out in a wave which then turned into a vortex of wind and fire that was pulling everything into it.

There was a counter wind that was pushing back against us, but everything outside of our cave was sucked into the spinning wall of blue flame and burned to a crisp. Twenty seconds later the fire died down. There was nothing left of the Devourers.

"Good work," I said.

A deep bellowing roar came from the north. Then a higher pitched one from further to the east. Howling from nearly due east. Screeching calls from multiple locations to the south and west. More and more creatures were announcing their interest in us, from all directions.

"Everyone back into the army room," I said. "It's definitely time to leave."