He's anything but straightforward. His movesets, even the ones that look basic, reek of curses waiting to devour any poor soul that's hit with them.
No Laxus can't! Zeref, Natsu & Acno operate at the highest class of powers in the FT Universe, so this comparison doesn't work...at all.
Correct! Unfortunately, Zeref has never shown it so he can't use it. Same with using random curses from demons he created. This is why Zeref is such a disappointing character. He could have had so many interesting attacks, and all he did was slug it out with Natsu. There are all sorts of feats he could've shown to swing this matchup, but he DIDN'T. He didn't do those things, and because he didn't, he can't win this fight.
Those moves I said have a wider AoE than Laxus can outrun. No that was just to show off the power of the time lapse. He still would've been able to comeback from that attack due to his immortality. Natsu couldn't kill Zeref with or without FH. Even his strongest form only put Zeref out of comminsion for a few minutes. Zeref durability is too high for Laxus, and he has the means to kill him in an instant. Zeref is just too strong for Laxus.
Based on what? He punches Natsu and usually Natsu just takes it. Natsu dispels his attacks with normal, if extremely strong, attacks. You're applying qualities to Zeref's attacks that are neither described nor demonstrated.
Oh, I wasn't saying he can use the Curses from Tartaros
That's Bradman's territory, it was the Fairy Law point that stood out to me. I just don't see how Zeref would be damaged by a spell that he invented himself and practically handed over to Fairy Tail.
Why can't a healthy Laxus outrun or tank them? Provide evidence
He would have come back due to regeneration which is restricted in this tournament
Zeref himself believed that Natsu was about to kill him in FDKM mode. That mode has no feats that a healthy Laxus can't replicate.
He couldn't even kill an injured Gray in an instant. He was just sitting there shitting his pants as he was about to get frozen.
The fact that it didn't kill him is pretty explicitly factoring in Zeref's immortality which is restricted in this discussion. The fact is, this fight limits all of Zeref's strongest qualities, his immorality, his time-stopping hax, and Fairy Heart. Any one of which would've turned this fight in his favor. But he's simply hasn't shown the feats that people just assume he has.
The key point is that it took down a mid tier spriggan who is immune to lightning. Red lighting is far stronger than his normal attacks. We don't now if it can knock Zeref unconscious but we also don't know that it can't. It just needs to be on the level of FDKM Natsu's finishing move
I'd also argue that the attack that nearly murdered Ajeel is capable of significantly damaging Zeref on top of Red lightning. It wouldn't one-shot Zeref, but there's no need to finish with a named attack when you can just spam good, if nameless, nukes. Many of Laxus's mid tier attacks would eventually overwhelm the offensively unimpressive Zeref.
But thats the idea. Red Lightning took out a Spriggan who was immune to Laxus's normal lightning. That was a whole new different magic, and Wahl ultimately lost because he couldn't analyze it and come up with a weakness for it like he did all of Laxus's moves before. If Wahl had ample time to analyze the technique I'm pretty sure he would have come up with a counter to it.
So an attack being able to take down a mid-tier spriggan automatically means that it wouldn't be able to take down a stronger opponent? I don't understand that logic. Tell me one move that Zeref has shown that is both fast and powerful enough to beat Laxus.
Huh, I'm not quite sure what to do with the Kain/Rustyrose paralysis. That's neither been described nor explained, it might just be a general pressure feat. As for trapping Makarov, Makarov has constantly degraded as other characters improved, I don't find that spell to be a combat ability, though that's certainly just my personal interpretation. As for his Death Aura, it was only destructive and active while he cared about life. Current Zeref doesn't have the ability to simply radiate death anymore since he hasn't shown it except when it was against his will. His only relevant combat abilities were Death Pillar, his projectile, his final exchange with Natsu, and the spell he used to temporarily restrain Natsu. Personally, I find that last restraining ability to be the most potent of the lot because it would take Laxus' mobility from him, but I think lightning body would allow him to escape it relatively unscathed.
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Speculation at best. What doesn't change is that Zeref is capable of that, one of the few, if only characters to show that sort of insane power. Not something you could take away from him, not to mention it being an actual usable power here.
Feel free to tie in speculation on Makarov's degradation to Laxus's supposed capability to counter this spell, if you want. I can see the former, but how it ties into the latter to declare that this spell would be rendered ineffective on Laxus? Haven't seen any feats from Laxus that would suggest that.
Only relevant because you say so?
That panel you showed has Natsu employing PoF via the guild's power. Not his own.
I really appreciate your reasoned approach, I just feel like some of the potential of things you're referencing is also speculation, so I don't know how to address it one way or the other. I'm willing to concede points, I guess my biggest issue is that those spells aren't convincing enough to me when Laxus can blow up Spriggans like Ajeel with casual indifference, a disregard for strong opponents shown only by August and God Serena. (While acknowledging other characters with similar feats that didn't show such obscene willingness to go nuclear)
you can include that shit if you want as the others said.
The paralysis technique he used on Natsu, which forced him to enter Dragon Force, a mode that's superior to FDKM, and which should be superior to anything Laxus has shown to date.
Laxus uses Lightning form to escape that easily. Unlike Natsu, Laxus could go intangible.
