User blog comment:FairyRaven/Fairy Tail Chapter 348: Return of the Demon, Review and Commentary/@comment-5598380-20130823103812/@comment-7418318-20130823155529

I think Erza also had surprise on her side. The enemy mages were caught completely off-guard and taken down before they knew what was going on.

Neither in the manga nor the anime did they seem to even try to defend or dodge.