The air in the royal palace crackled with tension as Matta and Korren faced each other across the marble floor. The ornate pillars cast long shadows in the dim light, and the silence stretched between them like a taut wire ready to snap.
KOR: You speak of gods and purpose, little rabbit. But let me show you what true power looks like.
Korren raised his hand, and suddenly he was gone. Not moved - gone. The space where he had stood rippled like water, and before Matta could even process what happened, she felt a sharp pain in her side. She spun around to find Korren materializing behind her, his fist already withdrawing from where it had connected with her ribs.
MTA: Teleportation... of course.
KOR: Not just teleportation, rabbit. Spatial manipulation. I can move anything, anywhere, anytime.
He vanished again, and this time Matta was ready. She pushed her speed to its limits, her perception slowing the world around her until she could see the subtle distortions in space that marked his arrival points. There - a shimmer near the eastern pillar. She darted toward it, but Korren was already gone, appearing instead at the opposite end of the chamber.
KOR: Fast, but predictable. You move in straight lines, rabbit. Space is not so linear.
The battle erupted in earnest. Matta became a blur of motion, her form streaking across the palace floor in zigzag patterns, trying to catch Korren off guard. But every time she closed the distance, he would simply vanish and reappear elsewhere, often behind her with another strike ready.
MTA: Stand still and fight!
KOR: Why would I limit myself to your preferred battlefield?
As they fought, Matta began to notice something strange. Each time Korren teleported, she felt a brief moment of... disconnect. As if something inside her was being pulled away, stretched thin. It was subtle at first, barely noticeable in the heat of battle, but it was growing stronger.
Korren appeared directly in front of her, his hand reaching out not to strike, but to touch her forehead. The moment his fingers made contact, Matta felt it - a violent wrenching sensation, as if something fundamental was being torn from her very being.
KOR: Did you think I only moved physical matter? I can relocate anything, rabbit. Including the essence that grants your abilities.
Matta staggered backward, and to her horror, she felt her speed beginning to fade. Not diminish - fade entirely. Her movements became sluggish, her perception returned to normal human levels. She looked down at her hands, watching in disbelief as the crackling energy that usually surrounded her body began to dissipate.
MTA: What... what did you do?
KOR: I moved your soul essence - the magical core that grants your supernatural speed - to a pocket dimension roughly three thousand miles from here. You are now operating on purely physical capabilities.
Korren began to circle her slowly, confidently. Without her supernatural speed, Matta appeared to be just another rabbit - faster than a human, perhaps, but nothing compared to what she had been moments before.
KOR: This is how I defeat, rabbit. Strip away their essence, and they become remarkably... weak.
He lunged forward with inhuman speed, his own abilities unimpaired. Matta barely managed to dodge, rolling to the side as his fist shattered the marble where she had been standing. She came up running, but her movement felt painfully slow compared to what she was used to.
MTA: Even without my essence, I'm still faster than you!
KOR: Are you?
Korren teleported directly into her path, and Matta had to throw herself sideways to avoid collision. She hit the ground hard, her shoulder scraping against the stone floor. This was bad. Without her supernatural speed, she was operating at maybe one percent of her usual capability.
KOR: You see, rabbit, this is what separates pretenders from true power. Your abilities were granted to you by forces beyond your control. Mine are inherent to my very nature.
He appeared beside her again, this time managing to land a solo kick to her midsection. Matta doubled over, gasping for breath. The pain was sharper now, more real. Her enhanced durability had apparently been tied to her speed essence as well.
MTA: I don't... need... supernatural power... to beat you.
KOR: Don't you?
But even as Korren spoke, something strange was happening. Matta was still moving, still fighting, but there was something different about her movements now. Without the crackling energy of her supernatural speed, her natural rabbit physiology was more apparent. Her powerful hind legs, built for explosive acceleration. Her light frame, designed for agility. Her enhanced reflexes, honed by years of survival.
She wasn't moving with the reality-breaking speed she was known for, but she was moving with something else. Something primal. Something that had been there long before she ever claimed the title of speed goddess.
Korren appeared behind her again, but this time Matta was ready. Not because she could perceive his teleportation, but because she could hear it - the faint whisper of displaced air, the subtle shift in the chamber's acoustics. Her rabbit ears twitched, and she spun around just in time to catch his wrist as he threw another punch.
KOR: Impossible. You should be helpless without your essence.
MTA: You made a mistake, Korren.
She twisted his arm and used his own momentum to throw him across the chamber. He disappeared mid-flight, reappearing in a crouch near the far wall, his expression no longer quite so confident.
MTA: You assumed my speed came from magic. But I was fast before I ever claimed godhood. I was fast before I ever understood what I was. I was fast because I'm a rabbit, and rabbits are born to run.
She began to move again, and while she wasn't breaking the sound barrier or stepping outside of time, she was moving with a fluid grace that seemed almost supernatural in its own right. Her movements were efficient, economical, each step perfectly placed.
KOR: Natural speed has limits. I am beyond such constraints.
MTA: You're right. Natural speed does have limits.
She disappeared from where she was standing - not through teleportation, but through sheer explosive acceleration. Korren's eyes widened as he realized she had moved faster than his enhanced perception could track. Not supernaturally fast, but fast enough.
MTA: But you've never seen a rabbit at her natural limits before.
She appeared beside him, her fist already in motion. Korren tried to teleport away, but Matta had anticipated this. As he began to fade, she grabbed him by the shirt and held on, her grip tight enough that his spatial manipulation couldn't separate them.
KOR: Let go!
MTA: I don't think so.
They tumbled through his teleportation together, appearing in the center of the chamber. Korren tried to push her away, but Matta had wrapped her legs around his torso, her powerful hind limbs keeping him locked in place.
KOR: This is impossible! You can't maintain this level of exertion without supernatural enhancement!
MTA: Watch me.
She began to strike him rapidly, her fists moving in a blur of natural motion. Each punch was precisely placed, targeting pressure points and vulnerable areas she had learned about through years of combat. Korren tried to teleport them both again, but Matta's grip was unbreakable.
KOR: I can... still defeat you... I just need to...
He managed to grab her face, his fingers glowing with spatial energy. Matta felt him trying to teleport her head away from her body, but something was resisting his power. She headbutted him hard, and his concentration shattered. The spatial distortion around them collapsed, and they crashed to the ground together. Korren rolled away, blood streaming from his nose, his breathing labored.
KOR: This isn't over, rabbit.
MTA: Yes, it is.
Matta stood slowly, her own breathing heavy but controlled. She was exhausted, more tired than she had been in years, but she was still standing. Still fighting. Still fast.
KOR: I will retrieve your essence. I will make you helpless again.
MTA: Go ahead. Try to take what was never magical to begin with.
She began to approach him, and Korren scrambled backward. For the first time since the fight began, he looked genuinely afraid.
KOR: You... you're not supposed to be this strong without your powers.
MTA: That's because you never understood what my real power was. You thought it was magic, some divine gift that could be taken away. But my speed isn't a superpower, Korren. It's not an ability I was granted by gods or fate or cosmic forces.
She stopped just a few feet away from him, her breathing finally beginning to return to normal.
MTA: My speed is who I am. It's in my bones, my muscles, my instincts. It's in the way I think, the way I move, the way I exist in this world. You can separate me from my soul, but you can't separate me from body.
Korren tried to teleport away, but something was wrong. His power was flickering, unstable. The sustained spatial manipulations had drained him more than he had anticipated.
KOR: This... this changes nothing. I have other ways to...
MTA: No. You don't.
She moved one final time, crossing the distance between them faster than thought, faster than reaction. Her fist connected with his solar plexus, and Korren collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.
MTA: I told you I was the god of speed now. I didn't need magic to earn that title. I just needed to remember what it meant to be fast.
Korren lay on the marble floor, defeated but alive. His breathing was shallow, but he would recover. Matta stood over him, no longer the rabbit who had been trapped by her guilt, no longer the hero who relied on supernatural powers to save the day.
She was simply Matta. And that was enough.
MTA: Now then. I believe I've earned myself some rest.
The palace around them began to shift and change as reality reasserted itself. The battle was over, and Matta took a nap on the floor.