User blog comment:Jrotc193/Mystogan vs Jellal/@comment-7418318-20130505144823/@comment-7418318-20130505170401

Considering the kind of attacks Laxus poured out against Natsu and Gajeel later on, it's pretty clear that he was nowhere near serious in his attacks on Mystogan.

All the best mages of Phantom Lord were in on the assault (or already incapacitated from the Fairy Tail attack), so taking the branches out wasn't that much of an accomplishment... far less of one than stopping Jupiter and afterwards taking out Aria while barely able to stand and then even managing to trade a few blows with Jose (even though he was far from being serious).