We didn't discuss here sbout Larcade or Zeref. Zeref wasn't anyway thrown outside the battle. Zeref didn't do anything with his magic to stop Larcade. Unlike Lucy who was beaten on battlefield.
P.S. Wendy isn't mere counter. Wendy is just far away stronger.
Check Mirajanne and Wendy perspectives with Irene. Current Wendy stronger then Mira. That's a case. But about Lucy.. I highly doubt she stronger then Mira.
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If you want plain and clear example.
Mary and Randy.
1. God of time is hax magic, right. But partial E.N.D. just broke it by mere brute magic force. Like nothing. It's not flame dragon slayer or flame demon ability.
2. Mass manipulation magic is also hax, but when dragon and demon seeds tries to collide, Randy magic stop working. But before it worked two times pretty nice. It's again just brute magic force.
Exactly why my first post in this "vs thread" was about how Gemini!Marin should be still in Lucy's arsenal, which is only a power she got this arc.
She didn't have it in Avatar.
And it would be best chance she had. Something that could be tactically used against Bluenote by adding things like Star shot and Aqua metria and following up with UM. Maybe if she was shown with better feats by her spirits and dresses.
Not to mention Marin took out Erza twice and didn't get one shorted by Natsu and Gray tag team thus he's more impressive than 4 out of 12 spriggans. Plus was only reason Azir had as good a showing as he did against Erza.
Was just pointing out Wendy had an easier time because her magic is specifically for that. Nullifying..... an illness. Saying Larcades name was to be sarcastic. A joke.
Because Mashima really abuses the hax vs brute powers for long time... even back with Aria vs Makarov and Evergreen vs Elfman and Gray vs Bixslow specific magics against their harness was used to defeat them after the intitially took out a top tier.
Honestly Mary wouldn't even be an issue if Lucy did what I would do. If I was her.... I would park my butt in Horologium, have him teleport around, and spam summon until could set up UM. And if was doing a really strong opponent, I would break a key.
Clearly I wouldn't make a good CS mage. She wants to fight "with" her spirits while I would be just fine with targeting opponents at a distance by pushing a button and drinking hot chocolate.
Edit: No offense. I'm always spouting shi.....stuff so never take me seriously. Was hungry when wrote this so wanted some hot chocolate (totally off topic; please don't delete me)