Sawyer

Racer (レーサー Rēsā) is the codename of one of the six powerful Dark Mages who composed the Oración Seis Dark Guild, whose goal was to find Nirvana, a highly destructive power that was sealed away long ago.

Appearance
Racer is a very tall, massive man with a long face and blonde and black hair, with the blonde, central part of his hair being styled in a long, spiky mohawk, and the black part composing the rest of his hair being very short, almost shaven. He possesses similarly blonde, extremely long eyebrows jutting outwards, a long, hooked and prominent nose, and a pair of stitches on each side of his mouth, making it seem like he has a reduced Glasgow smile. He wears a massive reinforced chinguard, which is covered in small, rectangular holes on the edges, covering his cheeks as well, which extends up to his green-tinted sunglasses, obscuring his eyes during most of his appearances.

His outfit consists of a red and white racing suit. The jacket, which is predominantly red in colour, with white parts on top of the shoulders and on the sleeves, is emblazoned with many writings and logos: in the centre of its chest are the name and symbol of Racer's guild, with a small winged boot-like object readying “S1” drawn over it, on the left; below the “Oración Seis” writing, the left side of the jacket’s abdomen is adorned by the writing “Balam Alliance”, which has a square-shaped draw containing a hand performing a V sign below it; the right sports instead the writing “Grimoire Heart”, and below it, an oval containing the writing “Tartaros”. The back of the jacket also bears Oración Seis’ name and symbol; such symbol is also emblazoned on the right part of the jacket’s high collar, held closed by a large button. Each white sleeve bears a large red stripe going down from the jacket’s shoulders; while the right one is blank, the left one bears the writing “Now loading” on it. The suit’s pants are white in colour and quite loose, held up by a belt-like thing circling Racer’s waist, closed by a large button similar to the one on his jacket’s collar, with red pockets below the waist and flat pad-like things covering the knees and the parts above and below them. The outfit is completed by a pair of white gloves with red fingers, each bearing Oración Seis’ symbol in a square on the back of the hand, and by dark running shoes. Under his jacket, Racer wears a simple, light-coloured A-shirt.

In the anime, Racer's attire received some changes, with his chinguard being less massive and slighlty different in shape, and, most notably, all of the writings and logos emblazoned on his jacket being removed, with the exception of a large, black Oración Seis' symbol imprinted on the back.

Personality
Racer’s most distinctive trait is his extreme fondness for speed, with him often mentioning such topic even when talking casually. He takes great pride in his own speed and running, claiming them to be unsurpassed, calling opponents “slow”, and even dedicating his prayer to his desire to be “the fastest”. Getting stopped in his tracks while running seems to make him extremely annoyed, as seen when Gray Fullbuster did so twice, something which prompted Racer to say he would have killed him. He was also shown brutalizing Lyon Bastia after the latter downplayed his speed and offensive power.

Despite this, he appears to be more light-hearted than other members of his guild, displaying a comedic expression of shocked dismay when Gray and Lyon started stripping, and telling Lyon that, had his opponents not been an Oración Seis, it would have been okay for him to get hot-blooded and overconfident at his age. He nonetheless possess extreme dedication towards his guild, believing it to be invincible and taking great pride in being a member of it, so much, in fact, that he was willing to sacrifice himself in order to kill his opponents and protect his guild’s reputation.

History
Not much is known about Racer's past, except that he was once a slave child of the Tower of Heaven, and was subsequently chosen personally by Brain to become a member of Oración Seis. It is also known that he had an encounter with Jet at one point, and beat him in terms of speed.

Oración Seis arc
In the battle against the alliance consisting of Fairy Tail, Blue Pegasus, Lamia Scale and Cait Shelter, he dealt most of the damage to the group, resulting in the alliance's utter defeat.

After the group kidnap Wendy Marvell and Happy, Brain ordered him to get something. He returns and brought back a coffin containing Jellal. Later, he was sent to go deal with Natsu Dragneel, Gray Fullbuster and Charle who were closing in on the Oración Seis' hideout. Unlike last time though the two managed to avoid his attacks, Natsu and Charle managed to get by him and head further into the hideout while Gray stayed behind to do battle with Racer. As the battle continued Natsu and Charle eventually exited the cave, mission accomplished on rescuing Wendy and Happy. However Racer spotted them and knocked them out of the air. Before he could attack again Gray blocked his path with an ice wall before telling Natsu to hurry and heal Erza Scarlet. Despite the fact that he fatigued from using so much power, Gray insisted on continuing the battle telling a much annoyed Racer that ice stops even the fastest beings. Insulted by this, Racer decided to finish the battle with Gray rather then go after Natsu using a new Magic called Dead Grand Prix, where he summoned motorcycles from out of nowhere to attack Gray. Racer then hopped on one himself and continued the attack, though Gray figured out that the motorcycles can be ridden by anyone and hopped on. A high speed battle commenced but Gray still found he was no match for Racer. The two then came across Lyon and Sherry, with the former joining in on the battle at the behest of Gray. But even together they could't hit him and were attacked from behind as a result. Racer mocked them then decides to finish them, but Lyon told Gray he found Racer's weakness.

Lyon whispered it into his ear then suddenly froze Gray, appearing as if he was trying to take credit for stopping Racer. Both Sherry and he proceed to attack together but Racer plowed through their attacks before going after Lyon who ran, goading the Oración Seis member. Infuriated with the taunting Racer proceed to catch up to Lyon and attack him continuously till he knocked him down and prepared to finish him off with a common knife, all the while gloating how unbeatable he was. However Lyon reveals Racer's weakeness; he wasn't moving fast, his Magic allowed him to slow down his opponents perception to make it appear as if he was moving at a rapid speed. What's more the Magic is in a limited range so anything outside of it would give his secret away (up till this point all of Racer's fights were close range). Lyon purposely lured Racer away to allow Gray to see the trick and set Racer up for a attack with his ice arrows to which Gray shot from afar and hit him which defeated him.

However Racer refused to accept defeat, tearing off his shirt to reveal explosive Lacrima on his person with the intention of taking the three with him in a final suicidal attack. Lyon, however, tackled him off a cliff and apparently sacrificed himself to save his friends, exploding along with Racer. It is later stated by Brain that Racer was dead, yet he thought so of Angel as well, who wasn't.

Equipment
Knife: Racer carries around somewhere on his body a small, simple knife, possessing a double-edged blade and no handguard, which according to him, when combined with his Slowing Magic, can be used to take down his opponents in an instant, without them having a chance to fight back, and with no need for him to pummel them. In other words, he uses it to augment his more or less mediocre offensive capabilities by rapidly finishing off enemies before they can react.

In the anime, however, the knife wasn't portrayed, having been replaced by a simple icicle from Lyon's own Ice-Make Magic, which Racer got hold of.

Explosive Lacrima: Racer wears highly potent explosive lacrima tied to his torso, which he employs as a last resort to defeat his opponents, by sacrificing his life. When forced to do so by the circumstances, he would activate the lacrima and launch himself as a suicide bomb, ready to take down the enemy along with himself. In the manga, the device looks like many sticks of dynamite, but in the anime it was changed to a technologic-looking device with many lights on it.

Magic and Abilities
Slowing Magic (lit. Slowing Time Magic)(時間鈍化の魔法 Jikan Donka no Mahō): Racer's primary Magic, as well as the source of his codename. Originally believed to be capable of drastically enhancing Racer’s own speed, Slowing Magic, true to its name, is later revealed to be a time-affecting Magic, changing the way its targets perceive time, and thus making it appear for them that Racer is moving around at unholy speed, allowing him to attack freely before they get a chance to counter. This kind of Magic makes Racer formidable at melee and short range, allowing him to evade most attacks performed against him, even the fastest ones, and even to avoid combined assaults from different opponents. As for taking out his foes, Racer made claim that, despite his offensive power being considered mediocre, through the use of his overwhelming speed and a simple knife, he could easily slice any opponent’s throat before they’d have the chance to cast a single spell However, the Magic does have a weakness, residing in its limited range, meaning that only people and objects within a certain area around Racer are affected by it. Anything outside his range moves at its normal pace, but looks like it is moving much faster. Likewise, anything that originated from outside of his area of effect will retain its normal speed even if it enters his range afterwards.


 * Motor (モータ Mōta): Combining his hand-to-hand combat prowess with his Slowing Magic, Racer rushes towards his opponents, then jumps into the air upside down and starts to rotate on himself, beating everything around him with his legs. This attack was first used during Oración Seis' initial confrontation with Light Team, against both Natsu and Gray.


 * Gear Change: Red Zone: In this state, he achieves the fullest extent of his powers, becoming capable of "moving around at his maximum speed". In other words, he delays the rate of how others perceive time even further, allowing him to "move even faster". (Anime Only)

Vehicle Summoning Magic: Aside from his Slowing Magic, or possibly as a consequence of it, Racer has been shown capable of summoning vehicle-related things, keeping up to his fondness for speed.


 * Dead Grand Prix (デッドGP(グランプリ Deddo Guran Puri): Racer raises one arm and calls out for the Dead Grand Prix to begin. This prompts a horde of Magical motorcycles to appear out of nowhere. Racer is capable of both riding such motorcycles and controlling them remotely, and the one he was shown riding upon came equipped with a multi-barreled Magical gun capable of rapid firing on its side. However, due to the motorbikes possessing SE-Plugs, they can be ridden by opponents as well, as seen when Gray could pilot one of them. Racer described this spell as a "motor show from hell".


 * High Side Rush (Hai Saido Rasshu): Racer moves his hand towards the target, with a halo of light being generated before it. This prompts several high spinning tires to appear out of nowhere and move towards the target at high speed. The attack can be performed while Racer is riding a motorbike from his Dead Grand Prix.

Immense Strength: Racer possesses high natural jumping talent and an extreme amount of lower body strength, which allowed him to perform great feats. He was shown capable of reducing one of his motorbikes that Gray and Lyon were standing on to pieces with a single kick, and of leaping from the bottom of a cliff to its top to attack Natsu and Gray. On a side note, his overall strength doesn't seem to be limited to his lower body, as he was shown transporting a heavy, large steel coffin containing an unconscious Jellal for a long distance.

Master Hand to Hand Combatant: Racer was extremely accomplished in hand-to-hand combat, relying on it, along with his Slowing Magic, as his main form of offense, and being powerful enough to incapacitate multiple foes with this combination alone. He was shown using a variety of punches and kicks connected with fluent motions, remaining suspended in midair for large amounts of time to perform notable acrobatic feats like spinning kicks, hitting many enemies at once. He could also strike Lyon while the latter was covered in his Ice-Make: Hedgehog with no harm to himself, and kick Gray different times while the both of them were riding motorbikes from Racer's Dead Grand Prix.

Major Battles

 * Light Team vs. Oración Seis
 * Gray Fullbuster, Lyon Bastia & Sherry Blendi vs. Racer

Trivia

 * The original concept of Racer was supposed to be more muscular, older, and without sunglasses. In fact, in his first appearance in which he was silhouetted, his shadow appeared more similar to the original design.
 * In the anime, it was shown that Lyon used his ice to cut away the straps holding the explosive Lacrima to Racer's body and then shielded them both from the blast with a wall of ice, thereby saving Racer.