The heat was suffocating now, pressing against her like a living thing. Matta's vision blurred as she struggled to draw breath, her enhanced lungs working overtime just to keep her conscious. For the first time in her life, speed - her greatest gift, her defining trait - was useless against an opponent.
SLZ: Come now, rabbit. This is getting pathetic.
His voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, distorted by the waves of heat radiating from his form. The bronze scales covering his arms had spread to his neck and face, and his eyes held the predatory gleam of a dragon savoring its victory.
But as the heat pressed in around her, as her body began to fail her, Matta's mind drifted backward through time. Back to when she was six years old, small even for her age, with oversized ears and a fluffy tail that the other children loved to tease.
"Look at the little bunny! Hop, hop, hop!"
The memory hit her like a physical blow. The playground behind the orphanage, the circle of children pointing and laughing, the way her face had burned with shame. She'd been so small then, so helpless, with nothing but her speed to protect her.
"Leave me alone!"
"Make us, bunny girl!"
She remembered running. Not with purpose, not with direction, just pure panic-driven flight. Her little legs had carried her faster than anyone expected, faster than seemed possible. The other children had given up chasing her after the first hundred yards, but she'd kept running, tears streaming down her face.
That had been the beginning. The moment she'd discovered that when everything else failed, she could always run.
SLZ: You're reminiscing. How touching. But nostalgia won't save you.
The heat spiked again, and Matta felt her knees buckle. She was going to lose. After years of being untouchable, of being the fastest thing on two legs, she was going to be defeated by someone who could simply make the air too hot to breathe.
Her speed meant nothing. Her greatest strength, her only reliable defense, was worthless against an opponent who could turn the very atmosphere into a weapon.
Fear spread through her soul like ice water, cold and paralyzing. She was that little girl again, helpless and alone, with nowhere to run and no one to help her.
"Matta."
The voice wasn't Salazar's. It was softer, warmer, filled with a kindness that cut through the heat haze like a blade. She remembered that voice, remembered the first time she'd heard it.
"My name's Icarus and I've been watching you run."
The memory came flooding back with startling clarity. She'd been seventeen, new to the resistance, still figuring out how to use her abilities in combat. Icarus had been waiting for her after a training session, his eyes bright with something that might have been wonder.
"You're fast. Faster than anyone I've ever seen."
"It's just genetics. Enhanced physiology."
"No. It's more than that. When you run, really run, it's like watching pure freedom in motion. I want to see you run as fast as you can one day. Not for training, not for missions.
Just... because you can."
The memory hit her like lightning, and suddenly the heat didn't seem so oppressive. The fear in her soul began to transform, crystallizing into something harder, more focused.
Speed wasn't just her ability. It was her essence, her truth, the thing that made her who she was. And she had never, not once in her entire life, truly pushed herself to see how fast she could go.
MTA: I want to see you run as fast as you can one day.
She whispered the words under her breath, barely audible over the crackling heat. Salazar paused, his enhanced hearing catching the sound.
SLZ: What was that?
But Matta wasn't listening anymore. Something deep inside her chest was awakening, something that had been sleeping since the first time she'd discovered her speed. It was more than enhanced physiology, more than genetic modification. It was the pure, distilled essence of motion itself.
She closed her eyes and reached out with her soul, searching for something she'd never consciously sought before. The source of her speed, the divine spark that had made her faster than physics should allow.
MTA: Mercury of the silver paths... Hermes of the golden sandals... Swift-footed messenger of the gods...
The words came from somewhere deep in her genetic memory, passed down through generations of her kind. The old prayers, the ancient invocations that her people had once whispered to the god of speed and travel.
SLZ: What are you mumbling about?
MTA: I have run your roads since I could walk, carried your messages in my breath, honored your gift with every step. I have never asked for more than you gave freely. But now... now I need to see how fast I can truly go.
The air around her began to change, not cooling but becoming somehow thinner, more responsive. The heat was still there, but it seemed less solid, less able to hold her down.
SLZ: What's happening?
For the first time since the fight began, uncertainty crept into his voice. The temperature around him spiked again, but Matta was no longer struggling to breathe. She was finding spaces between the heat waves, gaps in the oppressive air where speed could exist.
MTA: Grant me this one moment of perfect velocity. Let me touch the speed that exists beyond speed, the motion that transcends motion itself.
Her eyes snapped open, and they were no longer the soft brown they'd always been. They blazed with silver light, the color of mercury, the color of divine swiftness.
MTA: Soul Extraction, Flicker That Escapes The Light.
The words hit the air like a thunderclap, and reality around her... shifted. Not darkened like Jade's power, not voided like Kael's, but accelerated. Time itself seemed to slow as she stepped into a realm where speed was not just movement but existence itself.
Salazar's eyes widened as he saw her change, saw the silver light emanating from her form. He opened his mouth to speak, but the words came out distorted, stretched by the temporal distortion around her.
SLZ: Impossi-
But she was already moving. Not running, not even really moving in any conventional sense. She was translating herself through space, becoming pure velocity, pure motion without the burden of a physical form constrained by the laws of physics.
She existed in the space between seconds, in the gap between heartbeats, in the silver paths that connected all points in space instantaneously. The heat couldn't touch her here, couldn't slow her down, couldn't even perceive her presence.
Salazar tried to turn, tried to track her movement, but she was everywhere and nowhere, flickering in and out of existence faster than perception could follow. His dragon reflexes, his enhanced senses, his supernatural awareness - none of it was enough to follow something that moved at the speed of light itself.
She materialized directly in front of him, her fist extended, moving at a velocity that turned her arm into a projectile that could pierce steel. The impact wasn't just physical - it was the collision of absolute speed with absolute stillness, and the laws of physics bent and broke around the point of contact.
The blow punched through his chest like it was made of paper, leaving a perfect circular hole where his heart had been. Bronze scales, supernatural durability, dragon-born resilience - none of it mattered when faced with speed that transcended the material world.
Salazar looked down at the hole in his chest, his expression one of complete bewilderment. Blood began to pour from the wound, but it seemed to fall in slow motion, as if time itself was still catching up to what had happened.
SLZ: How... how did you...?
Matta stepped back, the silver light fading from her eyes, her breathing steady and controlled. The heat around them was dissipating as Salazar's power failed, but she barely noticed. She was looking at her hands, at the faint silver traces that still danced along her fingertips.
MTA: You studied my techniques. You learned my patterns. You prepared for every advantage I might have.
She looked up at him, and her expression was no longer the desperate fear of moments before. It was cold, arrogant, the look of someone who had just discovered they possessed power beyond imagination.
MTA: But you made one mistake. You assumed you knew what I was capable of.
Salazar stumbled backward, his hands pressed against the wound in his chest. The bronze scales were fading, his draconic features reverting to merely human as his life force ebbed away.
SLZ: This... this isn't possible. I'm half-dragon. I'm supposed to be... supposed to be...
MTA: Superior? Untouchable?
She scoffed, the sound carrying a disdain that was entirely new to her voice. The old Matta, the one who pulled her punches and worried about minimizing damage, seemed like a distant memory.
MTA: You're supposed to be a lot of things. But faster than the speed of light isn't one of them.
He fell to his knees, his breathing growing labored. The hole in his chest was perfectly circular, cauterized by the sheer speed of her strike. No blood, no ragged edges, just an absence where his heart and a good portion of his lung had been.
SLZ: Who... who are you?
MTA: I'm someone who just remembered what it feels like to run as fast as I can.
She turned away from him, her tail flicking dismissively. The silver light was gone now, but she could still feel it humming in her veins, waiting to be called upon again. The power was hers now, truly hers, and she would never again be that helpless little girl on the playground.
Behind her, Salazar collapsed completely, his body finally succumbing to the wound that had destroyed his vital organs. But Matta didn't look back. She had places to be, people to rescue, and a reputation to rebuild. After all, she had a squad waiting for her on the hilltop. And she had a feeling they were going to be very surprised by what she had become.