Shield was spectating everyone's battle when he felt he had made a mistake. every battle was interesting,but with his keen senses he knew all the participants were holding back which made them hesitant most of time.
"hmmmmm, life and death will give them more purpose, more determination while sharpening their skills. I guess the penalty for killing is on everyone's mind I can fix that ,but I'll be using a lot of power that's keeping me here and with Damon unconscious there is no telling when he is going to wake up. " shield thought.
shield calculated how much power it would take from him to reconstruct a few things and how much time he would lose.
Thousands of years ago when he created the system and city he included hundreds of things, possibilities and more when creating both. when it came to the stadium as well. The thing was, Damon needed to unlock certain features of the city himself within time and through the system. anytime shield would do something that wasn't in line with the system it would shorten the short time he already had within the system.
"so if I do this now I'll only have a month left, that's going to fly by fast. I picked these kids for the battle for a reason. all of them have great potential and Damon will need all the help he can get along the way."
Shield decided to go through with it and the second he did all of the participants bodies froze and under the stadium appeared an underground spacious white room with over 40 white and blue pods many sizes. these pods were stationed in rows of three's with a control desk at the front and multiple jumbo screens throughout.
six pods were currently closed and active. the glass covering the top of the pods were a clear glass and all of the remaining contestants could be seen inside one.
this was a feature Damon would have unlocked himself in the future by completing system missions. shield had been manipulating the system from time to time and In doing so shortening up his time to remain within the system. each time he overrides the system depending on how challenging the mission Damon would receive would determine how much time he lost and couldn't be undone.
Ding!
A new battle will be taking place. the remaining contestants will no longer be confined to any rules due to the new system update to the stadium features.
Artificial Death has been activated. Multiple people in the crowd stood to their feet as the crowd got rowdy and loud not understanding what was going on. seeing this shield felt he had no choice but to speak to everyone and so he used the voice of Damon and repeated everything while showing video footage of the pods in a room with the bodies of all the participants.
Shield explained to everyone including the participants who were literally frozen in time while all this was taking place. in their line of sight was the same things the others were seeing. they were in disbelief looking at their own bodies. none of them understood what or when it happened but could tell their artificial bodies was an exact match but not real. this helped put their minds at ease a bit.
Jolly instantly knew it was shields doing and just listened which was all he and the others could do at the moment anyway.
shield simply informed them that anything goes and to do whatever it takes to win. he also explained that their artificial selves will feel pain and have all the senses intact including the feeling of death but not true death.
spade and miss grey listened and watched carefully but also noticed that there was a counter or area full of controls in the video of the room but no one there controlling it and so this and other things raised red flags. they knew Damon wasn't here at the moment and just assumed he recorded and used his voice through city functions or something. they had already come to terms that the city itself was vastly advanced in unbelievable ways but it was one thing that bothered them.
if Damon wasn't controlling the city as a whole at the moment then who was. thinking about this they both thought of one person who may know the answer.
Shield released the participants out of his power and they were still in the same spots as before. some of them were frozen while attacking while others like jolly who was still on bronco was moving at a fast speed. the crowd settled down after a few minutes of getting a grasp on the new rules and how it all worked.
some thought it was cool and others thought the previous rules were better. no matter what, it was nothing they could do to change it. only a few people knew about Damon being out cold and his condition so many people actually believed it was him that was speaking.
Artificial Death was just like it sounded. anyone within the pods could feel everything as if it was real. all of their abilities and power could be used naturally and all of their senses could be used like smell, taste,touch,sight and hearing.
upon returning to their complete senses of what all this meant, they all had the same thoughts. they could cut loose with no consequences. they could use more force, deadly force and not worry about killing each other.
all of them had their own thoughts on how perfect the opportunity was especially vora who was now back to her human form. she knew jolly wasn't eliminated by the ring because time had passed and no notification came to her line of view like before.
copper was somewhat excited cause now he could really cut loose literally since his power mostly relied on getting close and making wounds on his opponent.
"they all seem happy to be able to go all out. their still kids and it shows. they do not know how to use their power confidently and safely. it's not hard to use enough power to knock someone out or immobilized them. they don't know what they are looking for. it's practically sad at the same time." spade thought to himself.
what he was referring to was the fact that all of them felt they would do better not holding back. but this just proved to spade none of them besides vora and calvus understood their powers and ability to a higher degree. They lacked critical thinking when it came to fighting without killing.
he noticed how Levy was fighting which was passive aggressive especially when it came to her fire.
"they all have no respect for each other it seems, thinking they could easily kill and defeat whoever they are facing." spade added to his thoughts.