User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 470: The Hybrid Theory, Review./@comment-27674224-20160126181825/@comment-4829046-20160131104529

I'm sure Mashima would have made it far more obvious if that were the case. Plus this is the DS raised by the one that took Acno's arm, so I would bet that he wanted to be completely certain that Natsu poses no more threat. Not to mention that Acno would have done some weird traversing to get from one direction of the battle to the other in such a manner. He seemed to be enjoying his own pace when he appeared before the Saints considering that he didn't even bother flying or running to the location.