User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 422: Orochi's Fin, Review./@comment-25886825-20150303001707/@comment-5668006-20150303021003

If Natsu > Bluenote I guarantee Gildarts also improved, so did Laxus and Erza and Mira... If Laxus trained as hard as Natsu after the guild disbanded then that's safe to say we can't just straight up say Natsu will be the strongest just because he is stronger than Bluenote, the dude who got one shotted by gildarts. If Natsu doesn't beat him in 1 hit then it's safe to say that gildarts is also prob still stronger than Natsu. His magic can rearrange everything into little bits afterall lol