User blog comment:Omega natsu2/Episode 186: The Future Accelerating Towards Despair, Review./@comment-24277053-20140614221031/@comment-7418318-20140615164710

The same but to a bigger degree could also be said about Minerva.

If Chelia and Wendy hadn't been there, Lucy would have died. And unlike Kagura, Minerva was not under extreme emotional strain during the fight. She was very clearly relaxed and enjoying herself while the deliberately tortured Lucy and was only stopping when the judge broke the match off.

Now THAT was a very unwise decision if you ask me. Or at the very least a dangerous gamble, since she couldn't possibly have known the extend of the Sky Sorceresses' healing powers precisely enough to make any sure predictions of how far she could go with Lucy.