Gajeel Redfox

**Gajeel Redfox** is an Iron Dragon Slayer, a member of the Fairy Tail Guild and a former S-Class Mage of the disbanded Phantom Lord. He is also the secret love interest of Levy McGarden.

## Physical Appearance

Gajeel is a tall and muscular young man with long, spiky black hair, which is usually kept slicked back, revealing his forehead. He has red eyes (initially portrayed as green) with slitted dark pupils, and has no visible eyebrows. Most of his exposed body is covered in sets of simple, round studs. The most visible studs are on his face, with three of them above each of his eyes (acting as "eyebrows" of sorts), three on each side of his nose, and two on his chin, just below his mouth. His ears are adorned by two sets of five earrings each.

He also sports four studs on each of his forearms, with his right one being covered in scars. His black Fairy Tail mark is located on his left arm, just below his shoulder. Being a Dragon Slayer, Gajeel's canine teeth are distinctively sharper than normal.

Gajeel's usual outfit consists of a shabby, black, sleeveless tunic with studded edges, a studded belt around his waist, loose, beige pants tucked inside studded black boots, and a pair of studded brown gloves paired with similarly studded wristbands. He also sports a distinctive wing-like ornament, seemingly made of feathers, jutting upwards, over his right shoulder, attached to his tunic by a large stud.

## Personality

When Gajeel first appeared in the *Fairy Tail* magna/anime series, Gajeel is quite cold, brooding, aloof and apathetic, not hesitating to injure his own allies if irritated. He iron-clubbed a fellow Phantom Lord Mage who was praising his abilities simply because the latter was disturbing him while he was eating. However, Gajeel is completely and genuinely dedicated to whatever guild he is affiliated with. In fact, he instigated the Fairy Tail-Phantom Lord Guild War simply because, as long time-rivals, he believed that the Fairy Tail Mages were enemies. Upon his recruitment to Fairy Tail, his sense of comradeship seemed to increase. He even went as far as reprimanding Laxus Dreyar, whom he admits to be a more powerful Mage than he is, for attempting to kill Natsu with his Lightning Magic when they were supposed to be allies.

Despite saying that he doesn't wish to make friends, he ironically forms them through his tenacious personality. He believes himself to be a great musician, regardless of what others think of him, and enjoys showing off his metal grinding, glass cracking, and ear destroying voice, like when he chains Mirajane Strauss to a wall to steal her spot as the performing artist for the night. He's also displayed a sense of honor, despite his actions while a part of Phantom Lord; when Shadow Gear confronts Gajeel for the heinous act he committed upon them, he makes himself an open target, acknowledging the terrible act he had done to them, and gave them the opportunity for vengeance. He even protected Levy McGarden after Laxus shot a blast of lightning at her, showing both his compassion for his guildmates, as well as some initial hidden hatred for Laxus.

Gajeel is short-tempered and blunt, as seen when he and Natsu bicker over callow things. Like Natsu, Gajeel lives for the thrill of combat, and is visibly frustrated when faced with circumstances where he is denied the opportunity of fighting a skilled adversary, as seen during the S-Class Trials. Despite his cold and brooding personality, he has shown a humorous side of himself, as seen when he was shocked to see Mirajane transform her face into his.

Despite his tough exterior, Gajeel is as emotionally vulnerable as any other person. He was noticeably upset upon realizing that he was the only Dragon Slayer that didn't have a cat as a partner. He then desperately tries to find a cat in the alleys, but ends up becoming heavily exhausted. Later on in Edolas, Gajeel finds the partner he is looking for in Pantherlily. Upon arriving back in Earth Land, he cries tears of joy when he discovers Pantherlily also made it, despite his reduced size.

Gajeel has a unique way of laughing: "Gi Hi Hi Hi". And, like quite a few other Dragon Slayers, Gajeel suffers from severe motion sickness, although his case does not develop until the Second Day of the Grand Magic Games in X791 during the Chariot event.

## Abilities

**Iron Dragon Slayer Magic**: Gajeel was taught how to use **Iron Dragon Slayer Magic** by Metalicana, **The Iron Dragon**. As its name implies, Gajeel's particular **Dragon Slayer Magic** deals with the manipulation of iron. Gajeel eats iron to regain his own strength, and his teeth and jaw muscles are powerful enough to gnaw through solid metal with ease, even allowing him to eat the Magic-canceling metal of the Dorma Anim. Gajeel's Magic deals with producing multi-sized iron rods, as well as changing parts of his body into steel. Most of his attacks involve transforming his arms into blunt, metallic weapons, which he can do at will. Additionally, Gajeel may turn his iron into steel if he somehow becomes able to absorb trace amounts of carbon; said process is still toxic and harmful to his body as it would be to others, but the addition of the natural element changes the composition of his spells, allowing him to deal enhanced damage and/or break through defenses that his iron could not.

* **Iron Dragon's Roar**: Gajeel's exclusive, metal-based *Dragon's Roar*. After gathering Magic Power in his mouth, Gajeel shapes it into a powerful tornado which he subsequently emits and sends towards his foes. Such tornado possesses immense force, being capable of generating powerful explosions and inflicting heavy blunt damage, but also releases sharp shards of metal in the process, shredding the opponents' body.
* **Iron Dragon's Club**: Gajeel transforms his arm or leg into a large steel club, increasing his punching and kicking power. He can also create multiple, smaller clubs from the end of the original, hitting many enemies at once. The clubs can be elongated at Gajeel's will, making them powerful ranged weapons. He is also apparently capable of increasing their size dramatically and to detach them from his body: several of these clubs, enlarged to gargantuan size, were the main cause of the original Fairy Tail Building's destruction. Also, for added maneuverability and to take opponents off-guard, the club can be rapidly turned into the similar **Iron Dragon's Sword**.
* **Iron Dragon's Scales**: Gajeel covers part of his body (or the entirety of it) in steel scales, dramatically increasing his offensive and defensive abilities. When punching and kicking while covered in these scales, Gajeel is capable of creating powerful gusts of wind through mere kinetic force. When confronted with Natsu Dragneel's flames, the resulting clash generated a powerful shock wave which heavily damaged the area surrounding the two of them. These scales are strong enough to shatter bone and rock alike, are resilient against regular flames, and much harder than normal iron, as shown when Pantherlily's Bustermarm Sword wasn't able to cut through them.
* **Iron Dragon's Lance: Demon Logs**: Gajeel turns his arm into a large spearhead, from which a large number of steel spears are fired towards his target in rapid succession. In the *Fairy Tail* anime, the attack is sometimes portrayed with Gajeel instead extending one arm towards his target's direction, with his fingers outstretched, and then summoning his Magic Seal in front of him, from which the spears are fired.
* **Iron Dragon's Sword**: Gajeel transforms his arm or leg into a large, jagged steel blade, similarly to Iron Dragon's Club, but, rather than blunt power, this spell has cutting power, thereby making it deadlier. The spikes along the blade's edge make its slashes more painful and dangerous, and the weapon's length can be increased to reach enemies who are far away from Gajeel. The blade is also sturdy enough to function as a shield of sorts. In the *Fairy Tail* anime, the sword also functions as a chainsaw, effectively increasing its damage.
* **Iron Dragon's Foot Blade**: Gajeel sprouts a sharp, harpoon-like blade from the sole of each of his feet. By planting these blades in the ceiling, he's capable of remaining suspended and to move around as if he were walking normally.
* **Dragon Slayer's Secret Art**:
	+ **Karma Demon: Iron God Sword**: Seemingly one of his most, if not the most powerful spell in Gajeel's possession, being acknowledged as one of the **Secret Arts** attainable by the **Iron Dragon Slayer**. Gajeel claps his hands together above his head, creating a gigantic iron sword. He then proceeds to swipe the sword down, destroying a substantially large area in front of him.
	+ **Karma Demon: Iron Spiral**: Seemingly his second ultimate move, Gajeel transforms his legs into a giant drill, which rotates at high speed, heavily damaging and piercing through whatever it strikes. He used this spell to destroy the Dragonoid's core and to free Natsu from his imprisonment. Although it did what it was intended to do, Gajeel stated that he still had a long way to go, since he "planned" to destroy the whole Dragonoid, along with Natsu.

**Iron Shadow Dragon Mode**: After eating Rogue Cheney's shadows, Gajeel gained the ability to use his **Iron Dragon Slayer Magic** enhanced with shadows. Gajeel can, also, turn his body into a shadow, granting him intangibility. Furthermore, as a shadow, Gajeel is unimpeded by things that would otherwise slow his physical body down, such as being in a large body of water.

**Master Hand-to-Hand Combatant**: In battle, aside from his Iron Dragon Slayer Magic, Gajeel is known for extensively employing unarmed combat, and to possess great proficiency in doing so. His style is a brutal one; consisting of powerful, direct moves such as devastating punches and headbutts, complemented by his high physical ability, with his strength making his blows highly damaging, and his speed allowing him to land them in extremely fast succession. When employed alongside his Iron Dragon's Scales, his unarmed blows become far deadlier. During his battle with Pantherlily, he was shown able to engage in midair confrontations, reaching the flying Exceed with a leap and then bombarding him with a barrage of punches, and his clash with Rogue Cheney during the Grand Magic Games proved him able to block and even counter-attack assaults from behind without the need to turn his back.

**Enhanced Durability**: Even without his Dragon Slayer abilities, Gajeel has consistently proven himself to be a very resilient man: when he was confronted by Shadow Gear after joining Fairy Tail, he was able to shrug off the combined attacks from Jet and Droy without retaliation and only resorted to covering his body in his metal scales to protect Levy from Laxus. Also, during his battle with Laxus, he took an attack which would have, otherwise, killed Natsu and remained conscious. During his time in Edolas, Gajeel used his metal scales to fight Faust's mechanical Dragon, where he took extremely powerful hits and continued to fight.

**Enhanced Strength**: Gajeel has shown, on different occasions to be quite strong: during his time under Jose Porla, while he was tormenting the captured Lucy Heartfilia, Gajeel casually headbutted a fellow Phantom Lord member with enough force to crack the stone floor the man crashed upon. His physical might is enough for him to clash with Natsu on even terms, to block and shatter Pantherlily's gargantuan Bustermarm Sword, and to pin down and hold still the gigantic Dorma Anim all by himself, allowing Natsu to finish it off. He's also capable of performing very high leaps, as shown from him reaching Pantherlily, who was floating in midair because of his Aera, from the ground, which was located several meters below him. Furthermore, he was capable of delivering several powerful blows to Rogue Cheney while blocking his Shadow Dragon Slayer Magic bare-handed.

**Enhanced Smell**: Gajeel has an incredible sense of smell, which he shares with other **Dragon Slayers**. He uses this for tracking purposes as apparently, nothing can escape his nose, best seen when he tracked down Lucy, who had escaped from Jose's imprisonment. It is also heavily implied that Gajeel used this skill to track down Levy, who ran away from him during the S-Class Trials out of frustration.

**Enhanced Speed**: Gajeel's overall speed and reflexes are impressive, enough for him to intercept attacks like Laxus' Lightning Bolts and reach Levy in time to save her from an ambush consisting of two Grimoire Heart Mages.