Natsu had normal teeth in beginning, towards the end, he had demonic (pointed) teeth.
Well, Kyouka has a demon (etherious) form as well.
If you honestly believe that the gap between END and Gray was higher than between Mard and Gray, idk what to say lol. Mard wasn't just too fast for him, he was that much stronger as well. He no diff'd LFD Natsu (who should be DeS Gray tier) along with twin dragons, in his BASE.
Mard's offence wasn't lame either. He uses thorns and plants, which are fragile, but very lethal if connects. Mard's thorns, in his base, was able to pierce through CSK like hot knife through butter. It's just that, whenever Mard was about to connect his attacks (which would basically end the fight), someone would come in and interrupt the attack (when he was about to connect to Natsu, twin dragons broke the thorns; when Mard was about to connect to Natsu & twin dragons, Gray showed up and froze the thorns). Also, Mard didn't use thorns the same way he used it against CSK (omnidirectional AOE thorn from below ground), which is CIS/plot armour.
DF Natsu, who's >>>> DeS Gray managed to do nothing to etherious Mard. Now, do you think Gray would be exchanging blows with DF Natsu? Not a chance, if DF Natsu manages to connect blows, that would be the end of Gray. But Gray did manage to exchange countless number of blows with END.
Yes, if Gray had combat speed comparable to Mard, he would've stomped. So what? Mard's vastly superior combat speed again shows that he was tiers above Gray.
If END is even more superior to Gray than Mard was, then how come Gray and Natsu basically stalemated in combat? They were about equal in attack power, physical strength and combat speed.
I belive you're saying END is >>>> DeS Gray in magic power, but is around Gray tier in every other stat. Why should I believe that? END is a combat mage/demon, why should his stats have such high disproportionality? Also, MP doesn't translate to durability either, durability is a physical stat, which you admit he is in Gray's tier.
END resist timestop, so what? It just means he's much stronger than Dimaria. I have no doubt that other top tier "good guys" can do the same.
Natsu could already grow pointed teeth in DF long before that, yet he wasn't slowly turning into a "fully draconic form", plus pointed teeth can also be a detail just to show how angry the character is, even if they're fully human. It'll take more than that to convince me.
That's my point, even Kyoka's Etherious Form looks mostly human, so how can we be sure END's doesn't?
The difference with CSK is that he was a huge a slow target, so Mard could allow himself to make "spikes" with his Thorns instead of the "whip-like" Thorns he used on others (which are more accurate since they can twist in any direction).
He DID use some AOE Thorns against Natsu, Sting and Rogue, yet they tanked it, he used explosive flowers and a big unnamed explosion, yet they tanked it, and I'm pretty sure even if his giant flower had swallowed Natsu, Natsu could've burned it from the inside and freed himself. If we forget Memento Mori, Mard never showed any offensive power to truly overwhelm foes of Natsu's level, they handled his attacks pretty well even once he was in Etherious form. Mard was just handling theirs even better, so they would've eventually crumbled first, after like several hours.
Mard's fighting abilities seem to reflect his personality: He only sees huge immortal beings as potential threats, so his attacks are more effective against big targets. He thinks humans are weak insects, so against small and fast targets, his attacks can only slowly beat them down, and he thinks that's all he needs since he's extremely fast and durable. He wishes to kill Zeref, so he created Memento Mori for that purpose (which explains its small range and area of effect compared to spells such as Fairy Law, it was meant for ONE human-sized target, not for giants or armies). Etc.
In fact, the only reason Mard was "defeating" DF Natsu wasn't even because he was overwhelming him with powerful attacks, but because he was so durable Natsu had time to exhaust himself. It literally takes more time for Mard to defeat his foes with attacks than it takes them to run out of energy!
Yes, DF Natsu could've stomped DeS Gray BECAUSE Gray wouldn't have had any Slayer advantage like he had with Mard or END. If he did, HE would stomp DF Natsu.
And there's a difference between PHYSICAL durability and MAGICAL resistance, I mean even if for instance your flesh is as hard as dragon scales, you won't necessarily be immuned to things like mind-control or timestop or etc. Same for the opposite, Midnight may have a high resistance to magic thanks to his Reflector, but his physical body is far from durable. I do think END's physical durability rivals Gray's, but his magical resistance must be (almost) as good as Acnologia's in order to break free of time magic and tank Slayer magic of his own type like Acno did.
I don't know why END's skills would be disproportionate, but there's a lot of things I found WAY more illogical in Alvalez so I'm willing to accept it. Maybe Zeref only focused on END's magic powers because physical strength can't kill an immortal like him... I don't know, but for me, it still makes more sense than Gray struggling against Invel BUT being close to END regardless of the Slayer advantage, while END hardstomped Dimaria (who's probably close to Invel). Plus it'd mean Gray is also powerful enough to bypass Zeref's immortality and kill him just like END can, something apparently even August and Irene aren't powerful enough to do.
jellal tears gray to shreds
Gray never surpassed Jellal and it will probably never happen.