User blog comment:FairyRaven/Fairy Tail Chapter 357: The Nine Demon Gates, Review and Commentary/@comment-112.208.2.201-20131025102910/@comment-7418318-20131025142924

I can see several way that Laxus can be defeated without dying.

That demon only attacked the Raijnshuu when they began to interfere with his mission, so there is the possibility that he'll leave the others alone once he's taken care of Yajima.

Or the Raijinshuu will retreat once Yajima is dead and they are sure that they can't win.

Or, considering that they are in a city, some other mages might interfere, making Tempesta retreat (not out of feat, but because of not wanting to waste the time to defeat them all, of course).