User blog comment:Miskos3/Fairy Tail Chapter 379: Tartarus Arc, Part 3: Underworld King, Review/@comment-4449950-20140404073720/@comment-7418318-20140404100756

I wouldn't be so sure that Erza really fought Kyouka to a stalemate at all.

In every shot we've got from the fight Kyouka used only her extending claws. She didn't even use her curse to make Erza feel the pain of the hits more. With Erza being covered in plenty of bruises that weren't there when Kyouka burst her shackles, that's a lot of missed opportunity to hurt Erza badly.

To me that makes it look as if, rather than going seriously at Erza, she was just playing around a bit to have some fun and maybe some training, since she knew (or thought so anyway) that soon Face would clear the matter anyway. Maybe she was even trying to get as much out of this "last fight" as she could, before all their enemies turned into helpless victims unable to fight back.

Regarding Minerva: If the power-gap wouldn't be so big, I'd be all for Lucy joining the Erza vs Minerva fight. Erza might have suffered a bit from Minerva, but she already got her payback during the GMG and what Minerva did to her fades into insignificance compared to what Lucy had to endure at Minerva's hands.

But with Minerva being so powerful to begin with and powering up even more now, I don't think Lucy could be of much use even if she was fresh, but the battle against Franmalth left her pretty beaten up and exhausted.