User blog comment:Kittenpuppy/Laxus Dreyer/@comment-3285005-20131217031842/@comment-5894890-20131217064024

Well, I don't think he could/did get demoted. Laxus was one of the people who passed the S-class trial in Fairytail, thus giving him the rank and allowing him to participate in s-class jobs. Also the ranks seem to differ amongst guilds, for example Bacchus is a S Class mage of Quadro Puppy (or that other guild name, which I don't care because I think this name suits their strength anyways), and Erza is a S Class mage of Fairytail, Bacchus is much weaker than Erza and in fact he seemed to have been portrayed weaker than even Elfman who I personally wouldn't consider S-class material (although he is selected as a participant in the S-class trial at Tenrou island). So, the levels differ required to be S-class material differ amongst guilds.