User blog comment:Marco the Marine Admiral/Theory: Evilness Can Lead to Power-up for Dragon Slayers/@comment-24066070-20140628165509/@comment-24066070-20140628181149

Whether Laxus and Cobra use Dragon Force or not doesn't matter, they still used a buff which must've used some power source.

If their buff isn't considered Dragon Force, then perhaps it's their equivalent of White Drive and Shadow Drive.

Come to think of it, was it ever stated that those "Drives" are DS magic or not? Perhaps a toned-down version of DF which is easier to enter, less exhausting and of course weaker.