"Celeste Mirror Sample #003 sucks. What is that? Pepper Spray?"

Another said from the side, noting one of the Celeste mirrors, which obviously absorbed a fireball, but instead spat out harmless wisps, instead!

"Whoa! Sample #007 is very good! Did you see that curve?!" Another yelled, referring to one of the mirrors whose reflected attacks actually had a slight curve, causing them to be more difficult to avoid.

Another enemy elementalist sent out sharp rocks, and another caught it. The attack magically broke to pieces upon hitting the mirror, which then mirrored and shot down at the mob!

"Ahhh!!"

"Damnit!"

Another researcher, one hiding inside the sentry window, jotted down as well. "Celeste Mirror Sample #009 is also working well. Earth elements are simply divided across existing mass, but visually, the force returned is only slightly weaker."

"Rather, smaller solid projectiles with good force can be more damaging on their own."

For earth attacks, there was no mass magically created in the mirror. Rather, it would divide the existing mass and then increase the energy heading back.

Other instructions sounded, and some researchers also had voice amplifiers on, just to make sure they were heard by their partners.

"Can you angle it upwards a bit? I wonder what the effect of gravity and air resistance will be."

"Did that sharp metal reduce the durability very much?"

"Don’t forget you’re holding the convex mirror! Not the concave one!"

And so on.

The enemies didn’t know what was going on, but it was making them extremely irksome!

Some powerhouses in the crowd even realized it and cursed at them repeatedly. However, he had his hands full with Alterra’s experts, so he couldn’t really do much but curse, hoping those tools would break and then hit Alterrans instead.

Sad for him, this never happened.

For the next hour or so, with guards shielding the low-key scientists while sending their own attacks at the same time, the researchers figured out a few key points with Menzon’s mirrors. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

One, if the level of the attacker exceeded level 20, then the celestial mirror could break in fewer than 10 shots, depending on the attack’s strength. If level 30, then it was pretty much a one-use thing.

They noted what they needed to do to increase the durability, et cetera. They also had to consider the differences depending on the kind of attack as well.

Another note was that fluid-form attacks like fire, water, and air were reflected most effectively, while solid attacks like earth and metal consume durability faster. These weren’t surprising, but it was good to have hard data.

Finally, they also figured out (after reflecting several shots) that the holder of the mirror also had an effect on the tool, although not too major.

It used the concept of opposites attract and similar repel. If the element reflected was the same as the holder’s, if they were elementalists, then the rebound effect was even more exacerbated!

It was quite fascinating. It was estimated that the researchers would hold a mini-symposium just for the findings today alone.

...

The Aether Sonar Disruptor and Celeste Mirror were not the only tools debuting in this war.

Another was a tool that made use of the ’non-scalable’ arrays they extracted from the walls. There were a few researchers credited on the arrays and components, but the tool itself was ultimately credited to Virgo, one of the mathematicians, and also Kimmy’s kinda ex-husband.

Virgo was one of the researchers on the battlements right now, observing his ball with bright eyes, unblinking, as if afraid he’d miss a second of very important information.

The ball was heavy, made of black metal, but it was surrounded by this array. When a non-scaling array met another surface, it would naturally push it. With its weight, the normal force generated was also immense.

Once it was thrown in motion, it would continue to do so. Once it started bouncing, it would continue to bounce. It wasn’t like a magnet that would repel without touching either. It would touch, but immediately get pushed back, which meant the force was greater.

Mao was there next to him. Mao had just returned from the Sanctuary, having been defeated by Waran, wherever he was right now.

Mao was left literally with a hole in his stomach, but fortunately, the Sanctuary was a miraculous thing....as long as you had money.

The territory subsidized about half the cost of that place, but Mao was still broke, so now he needed to earn more credits to maintain his lifestyle!

As for his battle beast Pang, he was too weak, and things got more dangerous for him as they battled Waran’s team. Mao had no choice but to order the panda to roll away when he saw the dangers, to preserve the fat boy’s life, and that guy actually rolled away without hesitation and without looking back.

"Tsk!"

Anyway, now he was assigned to the battlement and guarding some of the adventurous researchers while taking down enemies at the same time.

Mao was chewing on something as he continued to imbalance people by creating earth platforms in front of the mob, with varying success (depending on the enemy level).

He watched in fascination as the heavy ball continuously attacked the enemy side, just going to and fro, and someone was even unlucky to be rolled on twice.

Pak!

Ah, no, thrice now.

This person was only level 19, and he was half dead with three landings. It could also seriously destabilize someone stronger than that. And because it bounced in unpredictable directions, people might not be able to avoid it.

Mao nodded. Not bad, not bad.

He even added some earth spires to redirect some balls, continuously pushing them in the right direction. It almost looked like Pinball.

They managed to distract powerhouses, even, letting their own side deal with them with more ease.

Anyway, he heard the researchers called the tool the ’Unresting Sphere’.

"Did Lady Althea name this one?" Mao asked Virgo, who flinched at the question.

"..."

Would it be rude to say that he’s offended?