Just thought I'd mention that Gajeel's "Black Iron" was almost certainly Dragon Force.The panel was preceded by him saying he was always behind and in the panel where he transforms it says that he has "Black Iron" scales. Given the flashback and how he entered the mode (consuming excess Iron, much like Natsu eating the Golden Flame), I think it's fair to assume that it was DF.
And Bradman was going to take Gajeel with him, Bradman is largely hax based so it's not that surprising that his power (while good) isn't "OMG" overwhelming.
How can you flip that around? It doesn't matter that the particles were game changing as it's part of Bradman's ability, it would be like saying that Brandish would crush DiMaria if the latter didn't have Age Seal. It doesn't matter because Bradman does have that, and even then I disagree as Bradman has the Bomb curse meaning that for every time base Gajeel hits Bradman he's going to have to tank an explosion straight after.
Bradman's skill set is what kept him in the fight, it's what allowed him to massacre base Gajeel to the extent that he tried something suicidal. You could even argue that Bradman could have won a lot sooner, he could have ripped Gajeel's senses away, enhanced his sensitivity to pain, enhanced himself, (possibly) used Macro etc. Seriously, Bradman was murdering Gajeel without using his best curses and with Gajeel receiving help.
What? Are you serious? First of all Bradman has the Absorption curse, he could just steal the soul of any spell launched at him. Second of all, anyone on the power of base Gajeel with a way to bypass his intangibility could stomp Bradman? I'd agree if you'd said DF Gajeel but Bradman was fodderizing base Gajeel, to the extent that even when he had help and Bradman wasn't using his best curses he was helpless. Third (and most importantly) is that your forgetting something...
Had it been anyone but Gajeel, they'd be suffering (if not dying) from MBP's and getting spammed by his curses. Bradman has so many ways of killing human mages that it's not even funny.
Well it was called black iron, "kurogane", so that's the term I'm using until confirmation otherwise. Though I agree if Gajeel was truly dragonized, he would be in Dragon Force. There is a minor point about being similar to Natsu's golden flame DF though. The golden flame was all of Jellal's magical power. That's what Natsu ate, and so it makes sense that he would gain a huge boost in magic. In Gajeel's case, what he ate was the tiny amount of iron in the anti-magic particles. Not only was it described as a small amount of iron, but anti-magic particles actually cancel out ethernano. So it's a bit odd why Gajeel would gain a boost in MP to say the least.
Yes, Bloodman is largely haxed base. However, at the end of the day, the only hax that was really going to work against Gajeel was a double suicide. Over Skelter was tanked and escaped, and Gajeel can survive the other curses. Bloodman may have the absorption curse, but he has to actually think to use it. Gajeel was blitzing Bloodman at a rate where he couldn't even react. If we're talking about abilities they had but didn't use, I might as well argue why Gajeel didn't choose to abuse his ability to hide in shadows for the whole fight. Also, I'm of the opinion that stuff like Macro has limits. Otherwise, we would have seen Mirajane use it against the twins instead of using up all her power in Alegria. Gajeel, especially black iron Gajeel, would have been above that limit.
I'm not saying anti-magic particles are not part of Bloodman's arsenal. I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying anyone with magic with an element that can actually harm anti-magic particles (for example, Juvia with her water magic) would not have the disadvantage that Gajeel had for being solely reliant on physical attacks. If that mage was on black iron Gajeel's level in terms of power level, they would have taken Bloodman with ease. I also make a distinction between power level (amount of MP/curse power) and how hax someone's ability is. Brandish and Dimaria are on the same level. Brandish can just as easily cause Dimaria's head to explode if she decides to act first. Brandish doesn't even need to click her teeth to cast her magic. If hax is all that matters, then someone like Wall would stomp Bloodman zero difficulty.
Also, to your point about anyone else would have been suffering from the MBP's. That may be true. However, if they had the sense to hold their breath they could probably last as long as Levy. Someone like Laxus, for example, would be able to kill Bloodman within that timeframe.
