Millisecond-induced defect chemistry realizes high-rate fiber-shaped zinc-ion battery as a magnetically soft robot

•A sample and facial quenching method was developed to simultaneously realize metal ions doping and oxygen vacancy generation in reconfiguring the desired defect of electrode materials.•The millisecond-induced defect-engineering modifies the local electronic structures and V coordination environmental of the quenched Ni-V2O5 NWs.•The assembled quasi-solid-state fiber-shaped Zn-ion battery (QFZIB) exhibits a high-rate capability (71.2% retention after a 500-times increase in current density).•The flexible QFZIB was integrated into a magnetically fibrous soft robot to demonstrate its promising potential for providing both energy storage and load-bearing capacities.