For the next few weeks, the 100 did all kinds of battle scenarios in the VR world and this is when they learned how strong the grounders really were.
The way the grounders could blend in with anything and they could be right above you and you wouldn't even notice.
The way they could run through the forest and not make a single noise.
How they set up traps in ways you would never expect.
But most importantly the skill and aggression they carry in combat. Every move they make could kill you easily as they moved with extreme speed and power yet their control and skill was honed to extreme levels.
They finally understood what it meant for these grounders to have been trained for their entire lives purely in the art of war.
These were true warriors. The 100 found themselves lacking in combat.
They lacked aggression and savageness in their fights not using their bodies to their complete abilities like the grounders did.
The grounders used their entire body like a weapon. If for one second you found yourself to focused on the sword coming at you then the next second you would find their hand punching you in the face.
They forced you to constantly retreat as they pushed forward relentlessly not even afraid that your blade might strike them.
Even finding a second to assess the situation seemed impossible as if everything they did, every move they made was pure instinct.
But through constant repetition of battle, the 100 had managed to evolve as they slowly started adapting to a more savage way of fighting as well.
No longer did they hold back their strikes, nor did they think about every move they made as it become instinct more and more after hundreds of battles and spars.
Soon they found themselves able to fight against a single grounder in combat and before long some of them were able to fight through a group of grounders single-handed.
Test after test Damon pushed them all to the max as they trained harder and harder.
Forced into fighting in a shield wall they understood what it felt like to face the attack of a thousand-man army.
Or being on the other side of the shield wall and attacking it. The way it took absolute skill and precision to make a shield wall collapse but all it took was one right move.
How to assassinate someone quietly without leaving a trace.
They were also trained with guns, but Damon told them to never only rely on a gun because if you ran out of bullets you were a dead man and it's not like your gun had infinite ammo.
What happened when the bullets ran out? Ask the grounder nicely to let you reload.
They learned to survive in every climate from the Arctic to the desert to the middle of the fucking ocean.
Eventually, over time the 100 walked in such a way that you wouldn't even be able to compare it to their past selves.
The way they walked with such confidence and arrogance in their step was as if daring someone to approach.
The way their eyes scanned their surroundings at all times with laser focus. They themselves didn't even realize they were doing this as it was all natural instinct, something they did without even thinking about it.
Even Jaha and Abby noticed the change in the 100 let alone Marcus who had spotted the change long ago.
They had no clue what happened inside the Elysium space station, but they knew whatever it was it had changed the 100 from a bunch of innocent children to something else.
Something they weren't sure of yet, something that hadn't had the chance to see.
Six months passed on the ark in the blink of an eye. In this time people were already seeing the effects of oxygen deprivation as more and more people came into the infirmary sick.
But for the people of the 100 they had spent almost a total of two years within the VR world alone making them feel as if years had gone by within these six months.
It almost felt foreign to them when they left the VR world and walked back into their cold metal cells on the ark.
But finally, the day for going to Earth was finally arriving, everything they had trained for would soon be put to use as they tried to fight for a spot on Earth.
A place to call home rather than the grey cold walls of the ark that hardly anyone called home, it was more of a prison.