Sawyer

Sawyer (ソーヤー Sōyā), formerly known by the codename Racer (レーサー Rēsā), is a former member of the now-disbanded Dark Guild: the Oración Seis. He also led another Dark Guild, Harpuia, his so-called "personal Guild". In X791, Sawyer was among the remaining Oración Seis members who comprised the Reborn Oración Seis. After his escape from prison, he became an Independent Mage of Crime Sorcière, who joined per Jellal's request to help him take down Zeref.

Appearance
Sawyer is a very tall, long-faced man with blond and black hair; the blonde, central part of his hair being styled in a long, spiky mohawk and the black portion being very close-shaven. He possesses similarly blond, extremely long eyebrows jutting outwards, a long, hooked and prominent nose, and a reduced Glasgow smile; he wears a rather large, reinforced chin guard which is covered in small, rectangular holes on the edges, that extend upwards to his green-tinted sunglasses.

His outfit consists of a red and white racing suit. The jacket, which is predominantly red in color, with white parts on top of the shoulders and on the sleeves, is emblazoned with many writings and logos: in the center of its chest are the name and symbol of Sawyer's guild, with a small winged boot-like object reading "S1" drawn over it, on the left; below the "Oración Seis" writing, the left side of the jacket’s abdomen is adorned by the writing "Balam Alliance", which has a square-shaped draw containing a hand performing a V sign below it; the right side sports the writing "Grimore Heart", and below it, an oval containing the writing "Tartaros" can be seen. The back of the jacket also bears the Oración Seis' name and symbol; such symbol is also emblazoned on the right part of the jacket's high collar, held closed by a large button, with "Oración Seis" written on the side. Each white sleeve bears a large red stripe going down from the jacket's shoulders; while the right one is blank, the left one bears the writing "Now loading" on it. The suit's pants are white in color and quite loose, held up by a belt circling Sawyer's waist, which in itself closed by a large button similar to the one on his jacket's collar, with red pockets below the waist and flat knee pads covering his knees and the subsequent area below. His outfit is completed by a pair of white gloves with red fingers, each bearing the Oración Seis' symbol in a square on the back of the hand, and by dark running shoes. Under his jacket, Sawyer wears a simple, light-colored A-shirt.

In the anime, Sawyer's attire received several changes, with his chin guard being noticeably less massive and slightly different in shape, and, most notably, all of the writings and logos emblazoned upon his jacket are absent, with the exception, however, of a large, black Oración Seis symbol imprinted on the back.

Personality
Sawyer's most distinctive trait is his extreme fondness for speed, with him often mentioning said topic even during casual conversation. He takes great pride in his speed and running ability, claiming them to be unsurpassed; Sawyer often refers to his opponents as being "slow", and even dedicated his prayer to his desire to be "the fastest". Sawyer abhors being stopped by someone, as when Gray Fullbuster did so twice, Sawyer exclaimed that he was going to kill him. He was also shown brutalizing Lyon Vastia after the Lamia Scale Mage downplayed his speed and offensive power.

Despite this, he appears to be more light-hearted than other members of his guild, displaying a comedic expression of shocked dismay when Gray and Lyon started stripping, and telling Lyon that, had his opponents not been the Oración Seis, it would have been perfectly acceptable for him to remain overconfident. Sawyer nonetheless possess extreme dedication towards his guild, believing it to be invincible and taking great pride in being a member of it, so much, in fact, that he was willing to sacrifice himself without hesitation, all in order to kill his opponents and protect his guild's reputation.

After the seven-year timeskip, Sawyer has lost much of his light-hearted and speed-obsessed nature, preferring to focus on the defeat of his enemies and the achievement of their guild's new goal.

History
When he was a small child, Sawyer was a Tower of Heaven slave, until, that is, he was personally chosen by Brain to become a member of the Oración Seis.

Oración Seis arc
In the battle against the Allied Forces, Racer is ordered by Brain to dispose of the alliance, which he swiftly does, defeating them all before they have a chance to fight back; he also momentarily assists in Cobra's battle against Erza Scarlet.

After the Oración Seis kidnap Wendy Marvell and Happy, Brain orders Racer to retrieve one of the Dark Guild's belongings. Approximately one hour later, Racer returns with a large coffin, inside of which is the comatose Jellal Fernandes. The Dark Mage is then subsequently sent to deal with Natsu Dragneel, Gray Fullbuster and Carla, whom are closing in on the Oración Seis' hideout. Contrary to the result of their first encounter, the Mages manage to avoid his attacks; Gray opts to battle Racer so as to let Natsu and Carla proceed with their mission.

Later on, Racer spots Natsu and Carla exiting the cave, successful in rescuing Wendy and Happy, and swiftly knocks them out of the air. Before he can attack again, Gray blocks his path with a wall of ice; an extremely annoyed Racer is then told by a fatigued Gray that ice can stop even the fastest of beings.

Insulted by this, Racer decides to finish the battle with Gray rather than go after Natsu; he uses Dead Grand Prix, wherein he summons forth a multitude of motorcycles to attack Gray. Hopping on one of the motorcycles, Racer continues his assault, though he is quickly pursued by the Ice-Make Mage, who mounts one as well; Racer continues to overpower Gray. Later, despite Lyon Vastia and Sherry Blendy joining the battle, Racer continues to overpower them, all before he mocks Gray and Lyon. Racer then moves in for the kill, watching Lyon whisper something in Gray's ear.

Racer watches Lyon freeze Gray; he is then attacked by both Lyon and Sherry, although to no effect. Infuriated by Lyon's persistent taunting, Racer chases after the Lamia Scale Mages, who continues his goading. Finally reaching Lyon, Racer furiously beats him until the man collapses; the Oración Seis member withdraws a knife from his person and holds it to Lyon, all the while claiming that he is unbeatable.

Just then, however, the weaknesses of Racer's Magic are revealed: he merely distorts another person's sense of time within a certain range, making him appear to be fast. Realizing too late that Gray is outside the range of his Slowing Magic, Racer is shot by an arrow of ice, defeating him.

However Racer refuses to accept defeat, tearing off his shirt to reveal explosive Lacrima on his person with the intention of taking the three with him in a final suicidal attack. Lyon, however, tackles him off a cliff and apparently sacrifices himself to save his friends, exploding along with Racer. However, Lyon emerges from the explosion dragging Racer with him.

Key of the Starry Sky Arc
Note: Events in this arc occur only in the anime and do not constitute canon material.

Tartaros arc
After having been imprisoned, Racer, along with the rest of the Oración Seis, are shown to have been freed by Cobra. Commenting that freedom is a wonderful thing, Racer watches with a disturbed expression as Cobra coldly cuts Brain down in front of them. Afterwards, he gleefully asks what they should do first; as the other members voice what they wish to do, Jellal and Meredy appear, prepared to assign the group their first task.

However, the group instead prepares to battle and upon hearing Jellal say he will take on all of them at once, Racer remarks that they are being underestimated and states that they won't let anyone take their freedom. The first to engage, he finds himself unable to hit Jellal, who casually refers to him as "Sawyer" prompting Racer to speak out against the use of his real name. Cobra's intervention proves fruitless as well, as Jellal knocks the former into Racer, sending them flying. Seeing Jellal take on all of Oración Seis at once, Racer is visibly frustrated. However, he does eventually manage to hit Jellal once, continuing his assault alongside Cobra to hit Jellal a number of times as the Crime Sorcière Mage struggles to fight back. As Midnight states from behind that they are giving it their all because they are finally free, Jellal suddenly surges forward, smashing Racer in the face as he states that the freedom they think they have is a lie, true freedom being something that he will offer them. Falling to the ground as Jellal moves to take on his friends, both Racer and the others fail to notice Brain moving behind them, awakening as Zero. Racer later listens in shock as Jellal states that he'll free the Oración Seis by defeating them; Racer watches, utterly bewildered, as Jellal is viciously attacked by a revived Zero. As Racer looks on in shock at how nothing is left of Jellal, the man reappears in a shattering of light, revealing Zero's assault to be Midnight's illusion, something which irritates Racer. Suddenly, light envelops Racer and his comrades and they are struck by Jellal's Grand Chariot, greatly injuring him; he and his fellows are also struck by the mighty Sema, leaving all of the fighting Oración Seis defeated in the spell's crater.

Note: Her appearance in the following occurs only in the anime and does not constitute canon material.

A few days later, Sawyer, along with members of the Oración Seis, joins Crime Sorcière, tagging along with Jellal as they visit Magnolia. There, he and Erik mock Jellal's form of giving Erza the support she requires to escape the gruesome torture she was reminded of when captured and deceived. The group then continues their hunt for Zeref as they turn to leave.

Magic and Abilities
Slowing Magic: Sawyer's primary Magic, as well as the source of his codename. Originally believed to be capable of drastically enhancing Sawyer’s own speed, Slowing Magic, true to its name, is later revealed to be a time-affecting Magic, changing the way its targets perceive time, and thus making it appear for them that Sawyer is moving around at unholy speed, allowing him to attack freely before they get a chance to counter. This kind of Magic makes Sawyer formidable at melee and short range, allowing him to evade most attacks performed against him, even the fastest ones, and even to avoid combined assaults from different opponents. As for taking out his foes, Sawyer made claim that, despite his offensive power being considered mediocre, through the use of his overwhelming speed and a simple knife, he could easily slice any opponent’s throat before they'd have the chance to cast a single spell. However, the Magic does have a weakness, residing in its limited range, meaning that only people and objects within a certain area around Sawyer are affected by it. Anything outside his range moves at its normal pace, but looks like it is moving much faster. Likewise, anything that originated from outside of his area of effect will retain its normal speed even if it enters his range afterwards. After the timeskip, Sawyer's mastery of this form of Magic has increased to the point where he is able to easily outmaneuver Doranbolt's Teleportation Magic and make his attacks more unpredictable than ever before; the attainment of such a boost in power required the sacrifice of Sawyer's "heart". Aiding him in his speed enhancement is a suit that glows whenever he makes use of his Magic.


 * Motor (モータ Mōta): Combining his hand-to-hand combat prowess with his Slowing Magic, Sawyer rushes towards his opponents then jumps into the air upside down and begins to rotate, beating everything around him with his legs.


 * Gear Change: Red Zone: Sawyer distorts the time perceived by the targets of his Magic even further, allowing him to appear to move much faster.

Vehicle Magic: Aside from his Slowing Magic, or possibly as a consequence of it, Sawyer has been shown capable of summoning vehicles and objects related to them, which he can remotely control, keeping up with his fondness for speed.


 * Dead Grand Prix (デッドGP(グランプリ Deddo Guran Puri): Sawyer raises one arm and calls out for the Dead Grand Prix to begin, prompting a hoard of Magical motorcycles to appear. Sawyer is capable of both riding such motorcycles and controlling them remotely, and the one he was shown riding upon came equipped with a multi-barreled Magical gun capable of rapid fire. However, due to the motorbikes possessing SE-Plugs, they can be ridden by opponents as well, as seen when Gray could pilot one of them. Sawyer described this spell as a "motor show from hell".


 * High Side Rush: Sawyer moves his hand towards the target, generating a multitude of spinning tires to appear and attack his target at high speed; this spell can be performed while Sawyer is riding a motorbike from his Dead Grand Prix. Despite being unnamed in the manga, this spell was given a name in the anime.

Immense Strength: Sawyer possesses high natural jumping talent and an extreme amount of lower body strength, which renders him capable of performing great physical feats. He was shown capable of reducing one of his motorbikes to pieces with a single kick, and of leaping from the bottom of a cliff to its top to attack Natsu and Gray. On a side note, his overall strength doesn't seem to be limited to his lower body, as he was able to send Natsu flying away with a simple punch and transport a large, heavy steel coffin containing an unconscious Jellal Fernandes over a long distance.

Master Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Sawyer is extremely accomplished in hand-to-hand combat, relying on it, along with his Slowing Magic, as his main form of offense, and being powerful enough to incapacitate multiple foes with this combination alone. He was shown using a variety of punches and kicks connected with fluent motions, remaining suspended in midair for large amounts of time to perform notable acrobatic feats like spinning kicks, hitting many enemies at once. He could also strike Lyon while the latter encased himself in ice, with no harm done to himself, and kick Gray on multiple occasions whilst both were riding the motorcycles that accompany the Dead Grand Prix.

Equipment
Knife: On his person, Sawyer carries a simple knife that possesses a double-edged blade and no handguard, which according to him, when combined with his Slowing Magic, can be used to take down his opponent before they have the chance to fight back, as well as augment his more or less mediocre offensive capabilities.

Explosive Lacrima: Underneath his jacket wrapped around his torso, Saywer harbors extremely explosive Lacrima which he uses in a last-ditch effort to kill his opponents at the cost of his own life. When forced to do so, he activates the Lacrima and rushes at his opponent, effectively acting as a.

Fairy Tail Gekitotsu! Kardia Daiseidou
In the video-game Fairy Tail Gekitotsu! Kardia Daiseidou, Racer is a playable character. In this game, Racer possess the following moves:
 * Main:
 * Sub 1:
 * Sub 2:
 * Sub 3:
 * Super: Dead Grand Prix (デッドGP Deddo Guran Puri)

Fairy Tail: Zeref's Awakening
Racer appears as a mini-boss in the PSP Game, Fairy Tail: Zeref's Awakening. He can be unlocked as a playable character with a password.

Trivia

 * The original concept of Sawyer was supposed to be more muscular, older, and without sunglasses. In fact, in his first appearance in which he was silhouetted, his shadow appeared more similar to the original design.

Quotes

 * (To himself) "My prayer... to be... faster than anyone..."
 * (To Jellal Fernandes) "I won't let you mess with our freedom!"