User blog comment:Miskos3/Fairy Tail Chapter 385: The Celestial King vs. the Underworld King, Review/@comment-5894890-20140523155017/@comment-7418318-20140525091248

There are so many examples in Fairy Tail that show that the number of hands used doesn't automatically mean how much effort someone put into a spell. Mard using just one hand proofs in no way how much effort he's putting into the casting.

His constant smirk, not bothering to dodge and barely moving at all - now those are signs that he isn't taking the fight seriously yet, but the number of hand isn't in my opinion.

Just look at Lucy. She just used Urano Metria and the water shield without using her hands for either and I think we can both agree that she's fighting very seriously right now.