It was never explicitly stated that Gray switching from ice-make to DeS was the reason that Hakune's freezing spirit art was halved. To extrapolate that mechanism in terms of Laxus' DS/RLM lightning is speculative at best.
However, we know for a fact that Natsu couldn't even access his flames because his MP was frozen.
And you can't switch up something that isn't even accessible. If Natsu couldn't produce his own flames, how will he be able to combine both fire and lightning or even be able to activate it?
Yeah it was. Changing his magic power was what halved Hakune's freezing.
Gray kept switching back and forth from ice-make to devil slaying. It's not the devil slaying magic that prevents him from getting frozen, because Hakune was about to freezing Gray when he was already half-demonized.
The thing that shattered Hakune's ice in the end was Gray changing his magic back to ice-make again.
Hakune can't stop someone from changing the MP within their bodies, otherwise Gray wouldn't have been able to change his MP once she started freezing him. Also, Natsu doesn't have to combine his own fire with lightning. He just needs to change the quality of his MP. It just has to be different enough from his regular fire dragon slaying magic to count as a different type of magic. Even if LFD doesn't fit the bill because it contains of some of Natsu's regular flames, Laxus doesn't run into this problem. Dragon Slaying Magic and regular lightning has the same difference between ice-make and devil slaying. Also, red lightning is different enough from lightning DS magic that Wall cannot simply absorb it. There's no reason that Laxus can't do what Gray did except that he might not figure it out fast enough.
Re-read for clarification. I’m not saying that it requires her to power up. I’m saying that since it’s not a secondary function of her powering up, or of her magical aura simply being, but instead an actual spell that needs to cast. It turns this into a speed bout and Hakune doesn’t have the necessary feats to even suggest that she would be able to best Laxus in speed. Nor survive a direct lightning strike from him.
Why would he need a named attack to beat her? What about her performance suggests she can survive any of his attacks? She hasn’t tanked any massive spells has she? In fact she made a point of freezing all the attacks before they reached her, and went down to the first spell that did. What feat suggests she’s fast enough to freeze a lightning bolt?
You mean the same way he shrugged off Tempests heat or Atlas Flames without having elemental resistance? Laxus has shown great magical resistance, able to outright ignore or shrug off everything from status effects to illusions. Also, why would Laxus stand there and get frozen? This is a battle. An that doesn’t match his regular laid back approach. This Laxus is here to win.
Sure, Hakune needs to cast a spell to actually freeze a person's MP, but we saw her do it within the timeframe of a single panel. That's as fast as it gets and she did it effortlessly.
In the same sense, any attack from Laxus would also have to be casted. A lightning bolt doesn't just fall from the sky automatically without Laxus doing anything.
The difference in speed here is that Hakune can almost instantaneously freeze "magic power that cannot be seen", which is fundamentally present in Laxus' body and is the source of his power.
As for Hakune being able to freeze a lightning bolt, she doesn't even need to see it coming to freeze it.
Hakune can react to attacks around her and freeze it simultaneously with her eyes closed, and she's proved that numerous times:
Also, keep in mind that once Hakune's freezing process begins, the speed of the lightning bolt in mid-air will travel significantly slower than before, until it is finally completely frozen (similar to the two panels above).
So the chances of a lightning bolt being able to hit Hakune is already quite low, let alone Laxus ever actually being able to bypass her near-instantaneous MP freezing technique.
If she gets the drop. Without that first attack advantage, there’s nothing to suggest that it wouldn’t. An you can’t use Natsu as an example because Grey was unable to recover from being caught off guard either. Nothing suggests that anything is necessary other than changing the type of magic. These are 2 seperate changes Laxus has available to him at all time’s. If you have definitive proof beyond some assumed NLF, please let me know. Cause it seems the rest of your rebuttal hinges on using her 1 encounter with Natsu for hype purposes to argue he couldn’t have accomplished the same thing later with his multiple modes. Now, had he thrown in a line about Grey being unique because mixing curse and magic you’d have a point, but that’s just fan speculation.
An that makes sense. If I purposefully ignore years of writing for Laxus in favor of the only scenario that proves this new character usless, then I can easily
Assume this one time Laxus won’t start the fight with an overwhelming offensive hoping to put his opponent down. To allow her time to try and freeze his magic.
It's not just being caught off guard, Natsu had plenty of time of time to react. He even had so much time that he tried to produce flames, but couldn't.
Natsu being frozen over is solid evidence that he could not negate Hakune's freezing effect, regardless of how much effort he put in.
Gray being frozen over the first time was actually different from Natsu.
Unlike Natsu, he didn'tactually try to stop the freezing attack by tapping into his magic. He just simply stood there and was observing how Hakune's temperatures were so cold that it could surpass his own ice resistance.
And before Gray did anything else, he was already frozen solid, just like Natsu.
So the closest example to Laxus is actually Natsu's case, not Gray's. And it was evident that Natsu was frozen solid by Hakune's MP freezing technique.
Yeah it was. Changing his magic power was what halved Hakune's freezing.
Gray kept switching back and forth from ice-make to devil slaying. It's not the devil slaying magic that prevents him from getting frozen, because Hakune was about to freezing Gray when he was already half-demonized.
The thing that shattered Hakune's ice in the end was Gray changing his magic back to ice-make again.
Hakune can't stop someone from changing the MP within their bodies, otherwise Gray wouldn't have been able to change his MP once she started freezing him. Also, Natsu doesn't have to combine his own fire with lightning. He just needs to change the quality of his MP. It just has to be different enough from his regular fire dragon slaying magic to count as a different type of magic. Even if LFD doesn't fit the bill because it contains of some of Natsu's regular flames, Laxus doesn't run into this problem. Dragon Slaying Magic and regular lightning has the same difference between ice-make and devil slaying. Also, red lightning is different enough from lightning DS magic that Wall cannot simply absorb it. There's no reason that Laxus can't do what Gray did except that he might not figure it out fast enough.
"Changing magic power" is quite vague and is not necessarily attributed to Gray changing modes.
Technically speaking, Gray doesn't even have an "ice-make" form... he simply uses ice-make magic as an ice wizard. And both ice-make magic and DeS magic are derived from MP.
So there's no "changing magic power" in the sense of changing "ice-make magic powers" to "DeS magic powers" because they are both fueled by the same source of power (MP).
As for his DeS form, I never said that Gray's demonization is the reason for countering Hakune's freezing abilities. That was brought up by others' fanmade speculations, not me.
In terms of the last panel that you posted, Gray broke out of Hakune's illusion by maintaining a strong mental state.
It has nothing to do with him reverting back to base because he couldn't even control his own body, as shown by his inability to prevent himself from falling asleep and closing his eyes.
And according to you, if all Natsu needed to do was change the quality of his MP, then why couldn't he do it?
It sounds so easy on paper, but feats say otherwise.
"Changing magic power" is quite vague and is not necessarily attributed to Gray changing modes.
Technically speaking, Gray doesn't even have an "ice-make" form... he simply uses ice-make magic as an ice wizard. And both ice-make magic and DeS magic are derived from MP.
So there's no "changing magic power" in the sense of changing "ice-make magic powers" to "DeS magic powers" because they are both fueled by the same source of power (MP).
As for his DeS form, I never said that Gray's demonization is the reason for countering Hakune's freezing abilities. That was brought up by others' fanmade speculations, not me.
In terms of the last panel that you posted, Gray broke out of Hakune's illusion by maintaining a strong mental state.
It has nothing to do with him reverting back to base because he couldn't even control his own body, as shown by his inability to prevent himself from falling asleep and closing his eyes.
And according to you, if all Natsu needed to do was change the quality of his MP, then why couldn't he do it?
It sounds so easy on paper, but feats say otherwise.
How is it vague? Gray has 2 types of magic power. Ice-Make and Devil Slaying. He changed between them. I don't see why Laxus can't do the same with his regular lightning, DS, red lightning, or even whatever magic goes into casting FL.
Natsu never figured it out. Just like Gray didn't either the first time they faced Hakune.
Sure, Hakune needs to cast a spell to actually freeze a person's MP, but we saw her do it within the timeframe of a single panel. That's as fast as it gets and she did it effortlessly.
In the same sense, any attack from Laxus would also have to be casted. A lightning bolt doesn't just fall from the sky automatically without Laxus doing anything.
The difference in speed here is that Hakune can almost instantaneously freeze "magic power that cannot be seen", which is fundamentally present in Laxus' body and is the source of his power.
As for Hakune being able to freeze a lightning bolt, she doesn't even need to see it coming to freeze it.
Hakune can react to attacks around her and freeze it simultaneously with her eyes closed, and she's proved that numerous times:
Also, keep in mind that once Hakune's freezing process begins, the speed of the lightning bolt in mid-air will travel significantly slower than before, until it is finally completely frozen (similar to the two panels above).
So the chances of a lightning bolt being able to hit Hakune is already quite low, let alone Laxus ever actually being able to bypass her near-instantaneous MP freezing technique.
It's not just being caught off guard, Natsu had plenty of time of time to react. He even had so much time that he tried to produce flames, but couldn't.
Natsu being frozen over is solid evidence that he could not negate Hakune's freezing effect, regardless of how much effort he put in.
Gray being frozen over the first time was actually different from Natsu.
Unlike Natsu, he didn'tactually try to stop the freezing attack by tapping into his magic. He just simply stood there and was observing how Hakune's temperatures were so cold that it could surpass his own ice resistance.
And before Gray did anything else, he was already frozen solid, just like Natsu.
So the closest example to Laxus is actually Natsu's case, not Gray's. And it was evident that Natsu was frozen solid by Hakune's MP freezing technique.
--- Double Post Merged, , Original Post Date: ---
"Changing magic power" is quite vague and is not necessarily attributed to Gray changing modes.
Technically speaking, Gray doesn't even have an "ice-make" form... he simply uses ice-make magic as an ice wizard. And both ice-make magic and DeS magic are derived from MP.
So there's no "changing magic power" in the sense of changing "ice-make magic powers" to "DeS magic powers" because they are both fueled by the same source of power (MP).
As for his DeS form, I never said that Gray's demonization is the reason for countering Hakune's freezing abilities. That was brought up by others' fanmade speculations, not me.
In terms of the last panel that you posted, Gray broke out of Hakune's illusion by maintaining a strong mental state.
It has nothing to do with him reverting back to base because he couldn't even control his own body, as shown by his inability to prevent himself from falling asleep and closing his eyes.
And according to you, if all Natsu needed to do was change the quality of his MP, then why couldn't he do it?
It sounds so easy on paper, but feats say otherwise.
Hakune's freezing abilities aren't anywhere close to instantaneous, and Gray isn't anywhere near as fast as Laxus. Gray's attacks all almost reached Hakune before they were completely frozen, that's how slow her freezing abilties are. Even an attack from Gray of all people, one of the slowest attackers in the manga, almost managed to hit her. Sub in Laxus' lightning bolt and Hakune gets hit, literally every time. Laxus could also just blitz her and punch her in the face as well.
Gray's magic is and always has been, notoriously easy to stop. Whether it's Hakune freezing his magic, Invel freezing his magic, Silver grabbing and eating his magic, Rufus forgetting his magic, Ultear reversing his magic, or Sugar Boy melting his magic, Gray's attacks are always easy to stop by all his opponents, and they should be, he literally telegraphs them each time, it's a function of his magic. Laxus doesn't have this weakness and so doesn't need to change his magic or any other counter to Hakune. He blitzes and oneshots her easily, either that or he just drops a nuke on her. We saw in her fight with Gray, freezing large scale spells isn't doable for her, and Laxus' nuke is massively larger than Gray's knights.
Sure, Hakune needs to cast a spell to actually freeze a person's MP, but we saw her do it within the timeframe of a single panel. That's as fast as it gets and she did it effortlessly.
In the same sense, any attack from Laxus would also have to be casted. A lightning bolt doesn't just fall from the sky automatically without Laxus doing anything.
The difference in speed here is that Hakune can almost instantaneously freeze "magic power that cannot be seen", which is fundamentally present in Laxus' body and is the source of his power.
As for Hakune being able to freeze a lightning bolt, she doesn't even need to see it coming to freeze it.
Hakune can react to attacks around her and freeze it simultaneously with her eyes closed, and she's proved that numerous times:
Also, keep in mind that once Hakune's freezing process begins, the speed of the lightning bolt in mid-air will travel significantly slower than before, until it is finally completely frozen (similar to the two panels above).
So the chances of a lightning bolt being able to hit Hakune is already quite low, let alone Laxus ever actually being able to bypass her near-instantaneous MP freezing technique.
It's not just being caught off guard, Natsu had plenty of time of time to react. He even had so much time that he tried to produce flames, but couldn't.
Natsu being frozen over is solid evidence that he could not negate Hakune's freezing effect, regardless of how much effort he put in.
Gray being frozen over the first time was actually different from Natsu.
Unlike Natsu, he didn'tactually try to stop the freezing attack by tapping into his magic. He just simply stood there and was observing how Hakune's temperatures were so cold that it could surpass his own ice resistance.
And before Gray did anything else, he was already frozen solid, just like Natsu.
So the closest example to Laxus is actually Natsu's case, not Gray's. And it was evident that Natsu was frozen solid by Hakune's MP freezing technique.
--- Double Post Merged, , Original Post Date: ---
"Changing magic power" is quite vague and is not necessarily attributed to Gray changing modes.
Technically speaking, Gray doesn't even have an "ice-make" form... he simply uses ice-make magic as an ice wizard. And both ice-make magic and DeS magic are derived from MP.
So there's no "changing magic power" in the sense of changing "ice-make magic powers" to "DeS magic powers" because they are both fueled by the same source of power (MP).
As for his DeS form, I never said that Gray's demonization is the reason for countering Hakune's freezing abilities. That was brought up by others' fanmade speculations, not me.
In terms of the last panel that you posted, Gray broke out of Hakune's illusion by maintaining a strong mental state.
It has nothing to do with him reverting back to base because he couldn't even control his own body, as shown by his inability to prevent himself from falling asleep and closing his eyes.
And according to you, if all Natsu needed to do was change the quality of his MP, then why couldn't he do it?
It sounds so easy on paper, but feats say otherwise.
So again, we’re back at who’s quicker to attack. That falls solidly in Laxus favor from multiple battles. The list of characters who should beat him in a quick draw situation is short. An you keep saying instant but we see that it’s a process. Leaving Laxus plenty of time to change his power to escape, or hurl one last massive Nuke. https://www.mangasee123.com/read-online/Fairy-Tail-100-Years-Quest-chapter-84-page-6.html
An since he won’t be shouting out “lightning bolt” and she’s also busy trying to blitz him back, how is she freezing this lightning bolt? Is she on the offensive, or is she freezing attacks? If she’s freezing attacks, how does she survive the follow up blow. If she isn’t because she’s trying to freeze him, how does she tank the attack? Cause it was made clear that’s another spell of intent, and not a passive effect because she’s got her MP raised. What warns her to the attack?
How? Natsu is a Dragon Slayer. It’s his base magic. Then add elements and other dragon’s attributes. Grey goes from regular ice make magic as his base, to demon slayer ice. The same way the Laxus goes from lightning magic, to DS magic. In what way is Natsu the more direct comparison? Other than vibrating with your argument better? Especially when Natsu didn’t even have a chance to try it? All he did was try and power through it with heat because that always works. As you yourself pointed out, all Grey did was Change his magic output, not the source itself. Laxus has 2 options for they to Grey’s 1.
Still to this day, i will never understand how people consider Laxus trying to tag Acno behind the back while Acno is fighting people at the front a blitz, and even then Acno saw him coming and blocked him. I remember having a fun argument with @GL_Nova about this back in the day, but im still not convinced lol
That is not how it worked. Gray used his demon powers to halve the effect of the spell which is how he negated. His demon powers is a separate power from his magic power. Laxus has shown nothing to say he has something beyond magic power nor that he has the ability to mix those two powers together. It was already stated that Curse Power, Magic Power and Spiritual powers could be directly frozen by her.
Also you guys are putting Laxus up against an unknown enemy, there is no way he could know how the fundamentals of her powers in a random encounter.
Bro the dude kept switching to from base to des magic that’s the counter. Laxus has RL to counter that. 2. Laxus just simply nuke her she couldn’t stop gray’s knights. Laxus nuke is way bigger than gray’s knights 3. Laxus will just speedblitz her
Was it changing MP that countered Hakune's hax, or was it using demon's powers?
- Hakune says "a wizard stands no chance against me since I freeze MP itself"
- ice is broken and Gray says "a demon's powers"
- Hakune says "you changed your MP to halve my freezing arts"
Things are quite vague here, since Mashima himself didn't care to explain much. Honestly looked like the typical case where he wrote himself into a corner and had to asspull his way out lmao.
I mean, if she's freezing MP (ethernano) itself, it makes no difference if someone if slightly changing the ethernano from one form to another?
Anyway, why did she say "halve"? To me it suggests it's because she froze Gray's MP, but whatever that depicts the curse marks/demon powers is what bailed him out, and that half wasn't frozen.
Hence "half as effective"
If changing the nature of MP counters the hax, what half of the MP is frozen? Things hardly make sense in this context. But it does make sense in the context, if Hakune froze Gray's MP but couldn't freeze "demon powers", hence half as effective
Bro the dude kept switching to from base to des magic that’s the counter. Laxus has RL to counter that. 2. Laxus just simply nuke her he couldn’t stop gray’s knights. Laxus is way bigger than gray’s knights 3. Laxus will just speedblitz her
He was not switching to Base. He only went Base once and that was when he was in the illusion which makes sense since he was unconscious. If all they have to do is change magic then she wouldn't have stated that a wizard stands no chance against her. Gray doesn't simply change his magic, he turned into an actual demon which Laxus doesn't turn into an actual dragon when using RL. Gray used the power of demon and not simply just magic ti save him. Similar thing he did against Mard's Memento Mori.
She didn't even try to fight Gray with freezing bcs Gray could freeze her attacks with his own. So she went into a maker battle which Gray won. Laxus lightning would simply be frozen and it can't really do anything since his lightning isn't freezing her ice.
Laxus didn't even speed blitz Kiria and are we also forgetting Gray was enhanced far past his capabilities while in Elentir? Laxus wouldn't even be able to blitz and oneshot a regular Gray let alone an enhanced Gray. Hakune on the other hand just simply has to freeze his magic power which he has zero clue how to counter. Not even Natsu's fire magic could negate the spell so I highly doubt Laxus can, especially on the first encounter with it. So I don't see how Laxus isn't getting his MP frozen.
Was it changing MP that countered Hakune's hax, or was it using demon's powers?
- Hakune says "a wizard stands no chance against me since I freeze MP itself"
- ice is broken and Gray says "a demon's powers"
- Hakune says "you changed your MP to halve my freezing arts"
Things are quite vague here, since Mashima himself didn't care to explain much. Honestly looked like the typical case where he wrote himself into a corner and had to asspull his way out lmao.
I mean, if she's freezing MP (ethernano) itself, it makes no difference if someone if slightly changing the ethernano from one form to another?
Anyway, why did she say "halve"? To me it suggests it's because she froze Gray's MP, but whatever that depicts the curse marks/demon powers is what bailed him out, and that half wasn't frozen.
Hence "half as effective"
If changing the nature of MP counters the hax, what half of the MP is frozen? Things hardly make sense in this context. But it does make sense in the context, if Hakune froze Gray's MP but couldn't freeze "demon powers", hence half as effective
It can't be just because of demon powers, because Hakune didn't have any problem freezing demonized-Gray or ice-devil zero destruction bow.
I don't see why we can't just take Hakune's words at face value: You changedyour magic power to halve the effectiveness of my freezing. Changing your magic power halves the effectiveness of Hakune's freezing....And that's enough for Gray to break it off.
It can't be just because of demon powers, because Hakune didn't have any problem freezing demonized-Gray or ice-devil zero destruction bow.
I don't see why we can't just take Hakune's words at face value: You changedyour magic power to halve the effectiveness of my freezing. Changing your magic power halves the effectiveness of Hakune's freezing....And that's enough for Gray to break it off.
Yeah, that is using her regular freezing powers. She has ice magic, and the hax. Both are serperate.
Why not take it at face value? Because the logic is vague and flawed IMO:
- Because she said she freeze magic power itself.
- Because it still managed to be half as effective. So, which half did it freeze?
Also, back when Gray fought Freed, he put a rule that you can't use "ICE MAGIC"
Note, not "ice make magic", but "ice magic". Which includes ice DeS magic
If DeS magic was purely ice magic, he wouldn't be able to use it against them, including accessing the DeS mode (which is derived from ice DeS magic, just like DF of Natsu is derived from his fire DS magic). This shows us ice DeS magic isn't purely magic, and something else is involved there as well
Yeah, that is using her regular freezing powers. She has ice magic, and the hax. Both are serperate.
Why not take it at face value? Because the logic is vague and flawed IMO:
- Because she said she freeze magic power itself.
- Because it still managed to be half as effective. So, which half did it freeze?
Also, back when Gray fought Freed, he put a rule that you can't use "ICE MAGIC"
Note, not "ice make magic", but "ice magic". Which includes ice DeS magic
If DeS magic was purely ice magic, he wouldn't be able to use it against them, including accessing the DeS mode (which is derived from ice DeS magic, just like DF of Natsu is derived from his fire DS magic). This shows us ice DeS magic isn't purely magic, and something else is involved there as well
I'm saying she can do it, if her hax fails.
Her freeze hax is still the best she has, but she has regular ice powers at her disposal even if her hax fails.
What does "halved" mean in this context? I assume it means she still froze half of Gray's powers, while the other half was available to him.
My point is that ice DeS "magic" of Gray isn't purely magic and something else is involved there as well. It's still ice "something", considering that everything he uses, whether it be in base or DeS mode is still ice spells. But that "something" is a combination of magic and some other power (demon power?).
If not, how was he able to go DeS mode against Freed? If DeS power is a simple derivative of "ice magic", then he shouldn't be able to do it, right?
My point is, whatever he did to Freed, was what he did to Hakune. He used something which cannot be considered ice magic
I'm saying she can do it, if her hax fails.
Her freeze hax is still the best she has, but she has regular ice powers at her disposal even if her hax fails.
What does "halved" mean in this context? I assume it means she still froze half of Gray's powers, while the other half was available to him.
My point is that ice DeS "magic" of Gray isn't purely magic and something else is involved there as well. It's still ice "something", considering that everything he uses, whether it be in base or DeS mode is still ice spells. But that "something" is a combination of magic and some other power (demon power?).
If not, how was he able to go DeS mode against Freed? If DeS power is a simple derivative of "ice magic", then he shouldn't be able to do it, right?
My point is, whatever he did to Freed, was what he did to Hakune. He used something which cannot be considered ice magic
Doesn't the fact that Hakune's "regular ice" can freeze ice devil zero destruction bow mean it's stronger than her "hax ice"?
I assumed her ice was half as effective. So yeah, she froze half of Gray's MP. At least, until he broke the ice.
It's magic that gives him the power of an ice demon. I guess there's the possibility that there's the possibility for him to have curse power too, but Hakune can freeze curses and spiritual powers too. I don't necessarily disagree with what you're saying here, but I'm saying it's the same thing for Laxus. If Freed made a rune that restricts lightning, Laxus would still be able to use dragon slaying magic to enhance his physicals and fight with brute strength.
Doesn't the fact that Hakune's "regular ice" can freeze ice devil zero destruction bow mean it's stronger than her "hax ice"?
I assumed her ice was half as effective. So yeah, she froze half of Gray's MP. At least, until he broke the ice.
It's magic that gives him the power of an ice demon. I guess there's the possibility that there's the possibility for him to have curse power too, but Hakune can freeze curses and spiritual powers too. I don't necessarily disagree with what you're saying here, but I'm saying it's the same thing for Laxus. If Freed made a rune that restricts lightning, Laxus would still be able to use dragon slaying magic to enhance his physicals and fight with brute strength.
Not necessarily. I don't know what's "strong" or not when it comes to hax, because hax isn't something that can be conventionally measured.
Her hax is what allows her to no diff even mages like Natsu and Gray. In this way, it's her greatest asset irrespective of how strong the spell is.
But her regular ice spells work similar to how regular ice magic works - it can freeze stuff, make stuff out of ice etc. If her hax doesn't work, this is her next option, fight like a regular ice mage.
But she said her powers were halved after Gray broke the ice? I assumed it was still effective, in that half of Gray's powers was still sealed.
Maybe you're right here
Would Laxus be able to do that though?
He has lightning DS lacrima in his body. Will he be able to access that, since access to lightning magic is forbidden? And yes, it again depends on whether lightning DS "magic" is simply magic or something else is involved there.
Hmm, maybe he can go buff with scales, that might do the trick?
*************
Anyway, changed my mind lol.
Changing vote to Laxus for now.
Maybe he can go buff with dragon scales, like how he went against Natsu/Gajeel.
I suppose this would be somewhat equivalent to Gray going curse mark mode.
Without her hax, she was mid diff material for Gray, which means low diff material for Laxus
It is debatable, but Laxus going into buff scales mode would be comparable to Gray going DeS mode?
Like Gray using "demon powers", Laxus can use "dragon powers" ?
Things are quite vague here since Mashima didn't explain jackshit, and it seemed more like an asspull to get out of a hole that Mashima himself dug.
How is it vague? Gray has 2 types of magic power. Ice-Make and Devil Slaying. He changed between them. I don't see why Laxus can't do the same with his regular lightning, DS, red lightning, or even whatever magic goes into casting FL.
Natsu never figured it out. Just like Gray didn't either the first time they faced Hakune.
You act like Ice-Make Magic and Devil Slaying Magic are two independent sources of magic power. They are not.
Here's the proof:
As you can see, Gray is using his Ice-Make magic while he's in his DeS form. In other words,heis not "switching" or "changing" anything about his magic power here.
Gray simply has access to both types of ice magic simultaneously.
Now go back to the panels that you posted.
What you're showing are instances of Gray transforming into his DeS mode and then reverting back to his base form.
Again, there is no such thing as switching between "Ice-Make" and "Devil Slaying Magic". Gray always has Ice-Make magic, regardless of what form he takes.
And his base form is not a separate type of magic power. It's simply his human form (non-demonized).
So all he is doing is basically entering his DeS mode and going back into his base form. This literally has nothing to do with "switching back and forth between 2 types of magic power" - so your theory isn't even supported by the manga itself.
And no, Natsu's and Gray's situation was not the same during their first encounter with Hakune.
Natsu actually tried to use his fire magic, but failed.
Gray never attempted to counter the freezing spirit art. He simply just stood there and stated that Hakune's temperatures were cold enough to overcome his ice resistance, before eventually getting frozen as well.
Hakune's freezing abilities aren't anywhere close to instantaneous, and Gray isn't anywhere near as fast as Laxus. Gray's attacks all almost reached Hakune before they were completely frozen, that's how slow her freezing abilties are. Even an attack from Gray of all people, one of the slowest attackers in the manga, almost managed to hit her. Sub in Laxus' lightning bolt and Hakune gets hit, literally every time. Laxus could also just blitz her and punch her in the face as well.
Gray's magic is and always has been, notoriously easy to stop. Whether it's Hakune freezing his magic, Invel freezing his magic, Silver grabbing and eating his magic, Rufus forgetting his magic, Ultear reversing his magic, or Sugar Boy melting his magic, Gray's attacks are always easy to stop by all his opponents, and they should be, he literally telegraphs them each time, it's a function of his magic. Laxus doesn't have this weakness and so doesn't need to change his magic or any other counter to Hakune. He blitzes and oneshots her easily, either that or he just drops a nuke on her. We saw in her fight with Gray, freezing large scale spells isn't doable for her, and Laxus' nuke is massively larger than Gray's knights.
Hakune's MP freezing ability is near instantaneous. I never said anything about her ability to insta-freeze someone.
The above statement is not even up for debate considering that Natsu was shown explicitly to be unable to use his fire magic.
And I disagree about Gray having one of the slowest attacks in the manga.
Gray's Zeroth Destruction Bow was fast enough to hit Mard Geer, who was flying in mid-air at a very far distance... Not to mention, Mard Geer even noticed the arrow before Gray released it, butstillcould not dodge it in time:
And keep in mind this was Tartaros Gray. The current version of this spell has obviously improved after the timeskip.
By the way, the reason why "Gray's attacks almost all reached Hakune" was because Hakune was literally just standing still in the same spot with her eyes closed.
Considering that Gray shot his arrows from only a few yards away, that's nothing short of impressive.
Mard Geer couldn't even dodge a weaker version of that arrow from across the battlefield...
And what's stopping Hakune from freezing Laxus' lightning bolt while moving aroundsimultaneously?
She's not rooted to the ground...
Laxus may be fast, but to say that Gray/Hakune are slow is just plain false.
