Maybe this will help:
How a character fights tactically is up for debate.
In the case of Ajeel, he can assimilate with the sand. His fighting style has never indicated he hides in the sand. So how would he approach this battle?
My opinion would be he uses the AoE of the sand to his advantage (eg impair vision, move around the battlefield undetected) rather than simply hide until everyone is weaker.
Great, thanks. I'm on the same page
It's not speculation to say he CAN if we're shown that he can assimilate with sand.
Make the battlefield involve sea, and I have no problem if you say she assimilate with sea and attacking camouflaged. Too bad the battle royal takes place on land lol.
Laxus turning to lightning is limited. He basically uses it only for travel, and never offensively. As far as we know, he isn't capable of attacking while in lighting form, while Ajeel and Juvia have demonstrated that ability.
I agree it's not speculation to say Ajeel can assimilate with sand. We have seen him done so against Erza, and he will likely do so if he is to whip out sand world again. You don't see me disagreeing with you on that point. However, your initial quote was Ajeel could hide under the Earth, or hide within sand world for prolonged duration while waiting for the rest to tire themselves out.
@Biri Biri
It isn't about who is stronger in a 1v1 . It's about who will be the last four to survive. Ajeel can hide under Earth or in sand world dealing attrition damage, while someone takes down Elfman
However, Ajeel has never hid under Earth. It is not a feat he has shown in his skillset. Hence it is pure speculation on your part.
The battle might or might not take place on land. Tbh, the location of this fight is not specified. The rules indicate:
3. Neutral location
The fights take place at a neutral venue that doesn't give any wizard an advantage/disadvantage because of location. The Timelapse also doesn't exist for Tournament purposes. Slayers cannot use external elements to power up. Ultear cannot appear in a ripple of time (such as Age Seal).
Like you said, the battle could take place on land. If we follow the rules, however, then it isn't going to occur in a place with significant amount of sand. Because that would mean it's no longer a neutral location, as Ajeel would receive an obvious advantage. Neither is it going to happen in an icy region because that would be an obvious advantage for Gray. A neutral location should mean that none of the participants can take advantage of the terrain/environment to increase their combat abilities beyond what they are normally capable of.
Ajeel can assimilate in the sandstorm but he isn't going to do so for a prolonged duration. And he isn't going to hide under the Earth. From what we have seen of Ajeel in his fight with Erza, he quickly attacked her in an attempt to prove his superiority over her. Given his track record, this is not congruent to your claims. I understand that all argument centers around hypothesis. However, we shouldn't blatantly disregard the law of probability.
Examples of good, working hypothesis would be Gildarts using Crash magic to split apart others' attacks. He has done so to Natsu, Bluenote and historia Serena. Or using Disassembly magic to separate his targets into cubes (Natsu, August). Erza using the weapons and armours in her arsenal to gain an elemental advantage over her foes (Laxus, Natsu, Juvia, Ajeel). Gray freezing his foes, using his demon slayer markings to enhance his physical attributes and attack potency, or using ice clones that can mimic him as decoys (Silver). The probability of all these happening are likely.
If I were to say Gray is going to create an ice jet plane that enables him to fly in the air while launching ice missiles at his foes from above then we can assess that the probability of that happening is unlikely. This is not to say it's impossible for him to do something like that. However, he has never shown it before. Hence it wouldn't be fair to the rest of the participants if we are making up some feats for him to increase his likelihood of being victorious.
You are incorrect that Laxus does not attack after he transformed to lightning though. He evaded Mystogan's attack then attacked him.
Laxus attacked Hades here with his lightning body too.
It is different to Brandish fans saying "organ burst gg" because Ajeel and Juvia are using their abilities on their own elements which can't resist, which they have also demonstrated in live battles. It's more in line with Rouge assimilating with a large shadow.
While saying Brandish "organ burst gg" is similar to saying Jellal ones shots everyone with bind snake or self destruction circle. Or saying Aria one shots everyone with the spell he used on Makarov. Or Mest one shots everyone with his mind control.
Completely different comparisons. One is used on their own element with they have complete control over. The other is used on mages, in which case timing, reaction, precision etc comes into play. One has been demonstrated in live battles, the other was at best demonstrated on off guard opponents.
Hoteye and Sol certainly can. Sol is too much of a fodder for it to make a difference tho, he'd get one shot within a second the fight starts. Hoteye isn't in the battle royal either
Jura can't assimilate with rocks, Ajeel can with sand
Rouge, Gajeel and FR certainly can. FR can even turn into light lol. I've no problem if you argue the same way towards these characters in their respective battle royals.
Ajeel has shown feats of assimilating with sand. This is a fact.
It is not any different to Brandish's 'organ burst' arguments because Brandish does not fight in that manner. Her fight with Lucy showed us that the way Brandish fought was by using her magic to minimize her foes' attacks then enlarging the attacks and launching them back, or shrink their bodies down so they can't do much damage to her then easily overpowering them. At least in Brandish's case, Mashima had another character (Dimaria) stating that she could potentially expand their organs inside their bodies until they explode. There is hype. On the other hand, Ajeel hiding under the Earth, or hiding within his sandstorm for a lengthy duration then waiting to feed on scraps has very little probability because it has neither been portrayed in manga (feats) nor implied (hype).
Hiding and moving beneath the ground is a unique ability that shadow DS magic users employ. Rogue explained the mechanism as the user feeling the gravity to the point where their legs feel as one with the ground, thus allowing them to sink in to the shadow world. It is a skill exclusive to shadow DS magic users. This has no relation to Ajeel's sand magic. Just because Rogue and co. could do so, this does not grant Ajeel the same ability too.
Jura uses Earth magic. 土系各種魔法 is Earth magic. The first character of his magic '土' literally means soil. The organic matter of the land surface of Earth. In theory, it would make more sense for Jura to be able to hide and merge underground. Yet he had never done so. The probability of Ajeel achieving so is even lower in all honesty.
A significant portion of battlefield is sand. He can canonically assimilate with them.
And either way, it doesn't even really matter. He uses sand world instead and assimilates with a city+ AOE sandstorm. Taking away assimilation with ground away from him is just a minor setback for him, ultimately making no change to the outcome.
Ajeel's character itself is CIS lmao, so yeah. The guy in character would straight up go and challenge Gildarts......
Again, you are giving Ajeel a huge benefit of doubt by assuming that the battlefield is sand. A neutral location mean that there shouldn't have a significant amount of sand in the battlefield. It could take place in Kardia Cathedral, Plutogrim, Celestial spirit world (this is neutral since no celestial spirits are amongst this group), Hargeon port, the FT guild building, or even the airship that Erza and Ajeel fought on. These are some examples of neutral locations.
I consider Ajeel the mage, and not Ajeel the character. I consider only Ajeel's MP and abelites, not his personality.
And yes, I'm giving him a personality that makes him use his ability with most efficiency.
No emotion = no cockiness, no jumping the gun, no challenging the strongest for adrenaline rush etc.
Yea, this is how he battles. And it works well on mages who are weaker than him in combat within sand world.
As we saw then, he failed spectacularly against Elfman likely because the dude fought him materialized. Instead of just backing away and moving onto some other opponent he can damage.
Take away the personality and the fight with Erza probably goes as it did, except Ajeel finishing her off fast instead of gloating.
While against Elfman, he could've switched targets with an ally. Jacob was fighting nearby, he could've simply taken over the fight with Mira, and Jacob with Elfman, and both would've won their fights.
Yes. Like I said, I consider Ajeel the mage, not Ajeel the personality.
I've already explained how it's nothing comparable to Brandish's "organ burst gg".
It isn't fair to the rest of participants if Ajeel gets to play by a different set of rules and dons a brand new personality that maximises his efficiency.
Ajeel lost only because he faced a sand immune opponent. And likely because he materialized to fight him for no reason other than his cockiness.
His on screen feat includes mid diffing Erza in combat. It took many blows from Erza's wind/water sword. off guard Jupiter canon and nakagami to take him down. He isn't weak. He just faced someone immune to his only source of damage.
Cana is literal fodder. She gets one shotted by anyone in the group except maybe Kagura and Nebal (who would both low-mid diff her) before she casts Fairy Glitter.
If you think Ajeel is weak and maybe powercreeped, Elfman is the next best IMO, not Cana.
Context is key to the situation. Ajeel only managed to get the better of Erza initially because her prominent weapons and armours in Requip were locked away by Marin's magic and she couldn't access them. Three of these items were the Wind god armour, sea empress sword and wind god sword. They were all very effective to combat Ajeel, who was bleeding heavily after being slashed.
And a fourth that was arguably her strongest armour in the Nakagami armour. Ajeel was left staggering from one hit by jupiter cannon. The same blast that could only scratch Makarov's forearms in his titan form. His actual durability leaves a lot to be desired. It's a matter of when, not if, he gets struck by someone more powerful than him here. The chances of Ajeel surviving a battle royale longer than a combatant as formidable as Elfman, who is highly regarded by characters like Erza for his tremendous durability and endurance, is exceptionally low in terms of probability.
. Also voting an for an underdog each round.
