Speed and Divine Power

As the massive body of the Fenrir Armor was enveloped by an invisible force field and slowly sank underground for its final preparations, the suffocating pressure in the Batcave finally dissipated. Yet the shock brought by that god-slaying weapon still lingered in Diana and Barry's hearts, refusing to fade for a long time.

Bruce's figure vanished deep within the passage leading to the armor preparation area, leaving behind only one sentence echoing through the empty cavern: "Familiarize yourselves with each other's abilities."

Barry Allen let out a long breath and dramatically patted his chest, as if trying to smack away all the lingering fright. "My God... Bruce... just how many of those... those monsters does he have hidden away?" He turned to Diana, his eyes filled with the relief of someone who had narrowly escaped disaster. "Good thing we're friends, right? I mean, I really don't want that thing setting its sights on me."

Diana did not answer. Her blue eyes, as though holding a sea of stars, remained fixed on the place where the Fenrir Armor had disappeared, her expression thoughtful. As Zeus's daughter and an Amazon princess, her perception of power was far sharper than Barry's. She could sense that the armor was not merely a product of technology. At its core dwelled a terrifying energy unfamiliar even to her, one capable of warping the laws of reality.

Can mortals truly wield such power? Or is that power wielding him? A trace of doubt passed through Diana's mind. She recalled the darkness and resolve in Bruce's deep eyes when he had been bound by the Lasso of Truth—darkness purer than the abyss itself.

"Hey, Diana?" Barry's voice pulled her from her thoughts. "What are you thinking about? Did it scare you too? I'm telling you, I thought my heart was about to stop just now. That's not something you hear from a speedster very often."

Diana withdrew her gaze and looked at the sunny, cheerful young man before her, who now wore an expression of lingering fear. She could not help but smile. The majesty and aloofness that belonged to a demigoddess quietly melted away a little with that smile.

"I was merely thinking that our ally is far more... unfathomable than we imagined," Diana said slowly. Her gaze shifted to Barry, curiosity and fighting spirit kindling in her eyes. "But now is not the time to think about him. Bruce is right. We should use this time to familiarize ourselves with each other's abilities."

She looked Barry up and down in his streamlined red suit and asked with great interest, "The Speed Force... I have only heard of Hermes possessing similar abilities in ancient legends. Can it truly make you... faster than thought?"

"Of course!" The moment his area of expertise was mentioned, Barry immediately perked up. The tension vanished from his face, replaced by absolute confidence. He snapped his fingers, and a golden bolt of lightning flashed across his fingertips. "The Speed Force isn't just about being fast. It's an extra-dimensional energy that lets me ignore most physical laws. I can phase through objects, reverse time... uh, though reversing time causes a lot of trouble. Bruce warned me not to use it recklessly. Anyway, if I want to, I can run around the Earth in the blink of an eye."

"That sounds interesting." A captivating curve lifted at Diana's lips, the excited smile of a warrior who had encountered a formidable opponent. She extended a slender yet powerful hand toward the vast, empty training ground on the other side of the Batcave.

"Then, would the 'fastest man alive' be interested in having a little 'spar' with this warrior from Paradise Island?" She emphasized the word "spar," and eager light glittered in her azure eyes.

"Huh?" Barry froze for a moment. Looking at Diana's imposing figure and the God Killer Sword in her hand, which clearly did not look friendly, he instinctively waved his hands. "No, no, no, Diana. We're teammates. How could I fight you? Besides... I'm only fast. I'm not exactly built to take a beating."

"Don't worry. I won't use weapons." Diana removed the God Killer Sword and the Guardian Silver Shield, casually placing them on a nearby weapon rack. She rolled her wrists, producing a crisp series of cracking bones. "And this is not a battle, merely a test. I want to see whether the limits of a mortal's speed can touch the domain of gods. And you need to learn whether your speed is truly flawless when facing an opponent with thousands of years of combat experience."

Her words brimmed with unquestionable confidence and a faint hint of provocation. Barry looked at her and suddenly understood. Diana was not merely proposing a sparring match. She was also using this method to build trust between them and... establish their places within the team.

All right, looks like there's no getting out of this one. Barry thought helplessly. He took a deep breath, and his eyes grew serious.

"All right, since Her Highness the Princess puts it that way." He took several steps back and assumed a stance, lowering his body slightly as golden arcs of electricity began to dance around him with crackling sounds. "What are the rules? Stop at the first touch?"

"The rules are simple." Diana walked into the center of the training ground empty-handed, wearing only her red-and-blue Divine Armor. The tight suit perfectly outlined her powerful, athletic curves, like a sculpture from ancient Greece. Her full chest rose and fell faintly with each breath, while beneath her flat abdomen lay firm, defined muscles. Her long, straight legs radiated explosive beauty. "If you can touch any part of my body with your hand, you win."

"That's it?" Barry asked, somewhat surprised.

"That's it." Diana nodded with a smile, but to Barry, that smile carried a dangerous edge. "Then... shall we begin?"

The moment she finished speaking, before the word "begin" had even faded from the air, Barry moved!

Crackle—!

A streak of golden lightning tore through the air, and Barry's figure instantly vanished from where he stood. To ordinary people, it would have seemed as though he had evaporated into thin air. But with Diana's divine power-enhanced dynamic vision, she could clearly catch Barry's blurred red afterimage as it swept in from her right in a wide arc at tremendous speed!

So fast!

Even though she had been mentally prepared, Diana could not help but marvel inwardly. That speed had completely surpassed the limits of any living being in her understanding. She could even feel the air being violently compressed by Barry's high-speed movement, forming invisible walls of sonic booms.

But being fast did not mean being impossible to counter.

Just as Barry's fingertips were about to touch the side of Diana's armored waist, Diana moved.

She did not try to pursue Barry's speed, because she knew that would be futile. She merely made an exceedingly simple movement—turning sideways, rotating her hips, dropping her shoulder, then delivering an incomparably precise elbow strike toward a point she had predicted along Barry's path!

The movement was as swift as lightning, yet it carried the unshakable force of a mountain. It was combat instinct, forged through thousands of years of battle and embedded deep in her bones!