Jura Neekis

Jura Neekis (ジュラ・ネェキスJura Nēkisu) is a Mage of the Lamia Scale Guild, where he is widely considered the Ace member, and is one of the Ten Wizard Saints. Jura is known for his accomplished use of Earth Magic, which made him known as Iron Rock Jura (岩鉄のジュラ Gan Tetsu no Jura).

Appearance
Jura is a tall and massive man with a heavily muscular figure, distinguished by his bald head, a pair of oval-shaped black marks just above his black eyes, and by his seeming lack of eyebrows. Seven years after the momentary disappearance of Tenrou Island, Jura's physical appearance has appeared to remain the same, with the only notable difference being a long, thin dark beard growing from his chin, which reaches down below his upper chest in a wavy motif. Such beard is paired by a little, similarly colored mustache split in two parts, each placed diagonally below Jura's nose.

His clothes initially mirrored those that were commonly seen worn by ancient civilizations such as Mayans or Egyptians, although his thick boots resembled Inuit garb; his chest was bare, being only covered by a series of dark belts crossing it diagonally, and around his neck he donned a short mantle, covered in horizontal blue and white stripes and sporting edges decorated by numerous short, yellow strings hanging from it. On his arms were tight-fitting green armbands almost reaching up to his shoulders, seemingly made from the skin of a reptile. Around his waist there was a long loincloth, held up by a simple belt and sporting a motif composed of several arcs, with a single spot in each of their concave part and simple decorations reminiscent of Fleur-de-lis above them. The loincloth was fur-lined, something which matched the design of his boots, almost completely composed of fur.

In his first appearance in the manga, he also sported a dark green headgear shaped like a reptilian, crocodile-like head, complete with sharp teeth pointing downwards, beady yellowish eyes and elongated, jagged ear-like protrusions, which matched his armbands, with what appeared to be a black Egyptian-like wig reaching down to his shoulder under it, giving the impression that he actually had hair; an object which, paired with the the staff Jura initially wielded, granted him an Egyptian priest-like appearance. In the anime, however, this headgear wasn’t portrayed.

After the 7-year time skip, Jura's outfit received major changes, with the Wizard Saint now donning traditional Japanese clothes; he wears a dark kimono, with the collar and the sleeves adorned by a dark motif consisting of many squares placed in succession, linked together by a dark line and similarly flanked by two more lines, striped, traditional hakama and geta sandals paired with light tabi. He also sports a dark mantle draped over his shoulders. There have been some inconsistencies with Jura's current outfit, with him being initially shown wearing a plain one, then sporting the geometrical motifs on the sleeves which he didn't initially have; in addition, his mantle lost the strips which adorned its edges during its first appearances. Jura is sometimes shown resting his arms in the loose sleeves of his kimono.

Personality
Down-to-earth and with great humility, Jura generally refers to others with the highly honorific suffix "-dono", even when addressing subordinates, enemies, animals (Even despite not knowing Happy's name, he once called him Cat-dono), and those weaker than he is. He's shown to be very modest about the immense power he wields, claiming, in spite of his reputation, to be the weakest member out of the all the Ten Wizard Saints. He strongly believes that on the battlefield, those with great conviction are the ones who obtain victory, regardless of the quality or power of the Magic that either opposing side has at their disposal. He's also an extremely upright, honor-bound individual, believing that it is unjust to arrest a good person, being ready to fight against the law and exposing himself to consequences to protect such belief, as seen when he fought many Rune Knights alongside the rest of Light Team to prevent Jellal Fernandes from being imprisoned. Jura is additionally very dedicated and loyal to his allies, going as far as to shield them with his Earth Magic, while leaving himself open and taking all the brunt of a massive explosion on himself. Despite being usually portrayed as serious and stern, he has shown a comedic side, displaying expressions of comical surprise, especially when he was speaking with Hoteye.

His fellow guildmates seem to have great respect for him and during their mission, Lyon Vastia and Sherry Blendy looked up to him as a leader of sort, something which allowed him to easily keep them at bay despite their temperament, together with his good-natured personality and being prone to praise their work.

Galuna Island arc
Jura is first mentioned by Toby before his and Yuka Suzuki's fight with Natsu Dragneel. Yuka states they were part of the Lamia Scale Guild, with Toby letting Natsu know that it is the same one Jura belongs to, implying him to be very famous.

Oración Seis arc
He joins the temporary alliance between his guild and the Fairy Tail Guild, Blue Pegasus Guild, and Cait Shelter Guild to overcome Oración Seis, a member of an alliance of Dark Guilds called The Balam Alliance. As they left to start to attack the Oración Seis, he was wounded by Angel and her small familiars that disguised themselves as Ichiya Vandalay Kotobuki. However, he recovers thanks to the real Ichiya and just barely arrives to save the rest of the alliance in time from a lethal attack by Brain. Along with Sherry Blendy and Lyon Vastia, he pursued the Oración Seis members into a forest. Though they were ambushed by their lackeys, the three Lamia Scale members quickly defeated them.

Jura later gets into a fight with Hoteye, a member of the Oración Seis. During their battle, Hoteye points out that while Jura can make the ground hard, he can make it soft. Hoteye then asks which is stronger. Jura states that it makes no difference, as the one with the stronger conviction will always prevail. Hoteye immediately disagrees with his statement, and says the battle outcome depends on if you are rich. However, after Nirvana's first stage after its activation, it strengthens Hoteye's positive emotions, causing him to become good and proceeds to hug Jura, who in turn becomes surprised at the sudden behavior change. It is then that Jura learns that Nirvana "cured" Hoteye and the two agree to work together to stop the other Oración Seis. However, Jura becomes a little aggravated when he hears that his bald head reminds Hoteye of potatoes. The two then begin climbing up one of Nirvana's legs when its second stage is activated.

After arriving on top of Nirvana, Jura and Hoteye run into Gray Fullbuster and Lucy Heartfilia. There Hoteye, explains all about Nirvana, only to have Midnight appear and begin battle the team. Hoteye volunteers to stay behind as he instructs the others to find Natsu and stop Brain. Before leaving, Hoteye reveals to them that his real name is Richard. As they find him and save Natsu, Jura hears Brain's plot to destroy Cait Shelter and he easily tosses Brain aside demanding answers. while Brain is easily defeated by Jura, Brain prays that Midnight won't disappear either. Carla arrives along with Wendy, who heals Natsu and Happy. The group is in disbelief as they realize that defeating Brain didn't stop the Nirvana from moving forward to Cait Shelter.

Wendy begins to lose hope, but Natsu swears to her that he will protect her guild from the Nirvana as a repayment for helping him. Seeing Natsu, she remembers Jellal Fernandes and decides to go off with Carla to find him, leaving Jura and the rest. Brain, however, uses his telepathy and impersonates Hoteye. As a trap, he claims that Midnight is right below the King's room in order to finish them off. Unfortunately for Jura and the rest, they realize the trap a little too late and they are caught up in a explosion. Jura shields the rest of the group, but falls unconscious moments later.

As Nirvana is collapsing he saves both Wendy and Carla from being crushed by falling debris and they all get out safely. Hoteye arrives with both Natsu and Jellal, Carla asks why an Oración Seis member is helping them, Jura explains that Hoteye is now on the side of light. Shortly after the newly reformed Magic Council have come in to take Hoteye. Just as Jura was about to protest against this, Hoteye says it's alright and that he can start a new life later on. He respects his decision and states that he will look for his brother and asks for his name. Hoteye tells them that his name is Wally Buchanan. Hearing this, Erza Scarlet states that she is friends with him (which shocked them both) and that he is safe. Jura smiles towards Hoteye for the wonderful news as Lahar takes him. However, when Rune Knights try to take Jellal, Jura assists Natsu and the others with trying to help him but Erza stops them all.

After the alliance learn Cait Shelter's secret, Jura takes his leave along with his fellow guild members, and he restrains Lyon from attacking Ren Akatsuki.

X791 arc
After hearing about the missing Fairy Tail members' return, Jura visits Fairy Tail with Sherry, Toby, Yuka, and Lyon. Later on, Jura approaches Makarov and the two talk about a certain guild.

Grand Magic Games arc
Five days before the beginning of the Grand Magic Games, Jura, hanging out in his guild, is told by the guild master, Ooba Babasaama, that he will be participating in the games with Lyon. Hearing this, the other members of the guild cheer, all sure that they will win this year's games.

At the Grand Magic Games Jura is part of Team Lamia Scale, along with Lyon, Yuka, Toby, and Sherry's cousin, Chelia. During Lucy's fight against Flare, the Lamia Scale members are impressed by Flare's ability to can manipulate her hair, but Jura is annoyed due to his own lack of hair. During the first day, Jura is chosen according to fan votes to battle against Fairy Tail's Mystogan, who is Jellal Fernandes in disguise. When they meet, Jura says that he won't hold back because he's a Fairy Tail's member, to which "Mystogan" replies it's the same for him.

The two begin their battle, with Jura using his Earth Magic. Jellal fights back using Mystogan's former techniques, to go with his guise. Eventually though, Jellal starts using his Heavenly Body Magic after he realizes he would be unable to defeat him without it. As they fight, Jura takes notice to the use of the Magic and figures out Makarov's trick, though he simply smiles. Just when Jellal is about the use Sema, he suddenly drops to the ground, due and outside interference and Jura is declared the winner. Though surprised, Jura accepts his victory.

On the third day of the Grand Magic Games, Jura represents their team based on his master's orders to compete in the Day's event. The event, Pandemonium, consists on defeating monsters of different levels to earn points and progress. However, the event is finished by Erza Scarlet alone, which amazes the entire audience. When the pumpkin man announces the "MPF" and the turn of the other participants are finished, Jura steps forward and asks the pumpkin man if he can take it seriously, to which Mato says yes. He then prepares his Magic and strikes the MPF machine with his Rumbling Mt. Fuji, gaining himself a score of 8544 and shocking the audience with Makarov even stating he would be a match even for Gildarts.

Later, when Chelia is chosen to fight in third day's last battle, Jura tells her to go out with her all. Chelia seems to follow the order on the battlefield, attacking and enduring her opponent Wendy Marvell's attacks with impressive strength. Later, he asks Chelia to stop and not use her special attack, which goes unheard by Chelia. After the battle is declared a draw, he compares Wendy from the time with the Oración Seis to the Wendy now and acknowledges the differences.

After the fourth day's Naval Battle event is concluded, Jura learns that his team will be fighting Team Mermaid Heel in the Tag Battle portion of the day. He then watches and smiles alongside Chelia and Lyon as the new Team Fairy Tail steps out to compete as well. During Natsu and Gajeel's battle with Sting and Rogue, Natsu alone overwhelms Sting and Rogue with his attacks, Jura watches and smiles in response. When the battle ends with Natsu victorious, Jura stands with the rest of his team and listens as the event for the next day is revealed to have all team members participating. Hearing this, as well as Ooba's new goal of surpassing Fairy Tail, Jura smiles and speaks of Laxus.

As the final day of the Grand Magic Games gets under way, the teams and the teams' current positions are announced by the three announcers as the viewers cheer and welcome them. Jura enters the stadium, with his team currently standing in fourth place. While the announcers explain the rules of the day, Jura listens in with the rest of his teammates. As the games begin, Jura heads out into the area, soon coming across Semmes of Team Quatro Puppy and defeating him, earning his team one point.

As the majority of Team Blue Pegasus is wiped out, Jura manages to take out their leader, Ichiya, earning 5 points for Team Lamia Scale.

Magic and Abilities
Earth Magic (土魔法 Tsuchi Mahō): Jura possesses powerful Earth Magic which allows him to turn the ground hard (as opposed to Hoteye, who can make the ground soft), and to manipulate it as he wishes. This has been described as being capable of "making even the tinniest sand as tough as iron", and is thus the reason behind his epithet Iron Rock Jura. His Magic usually manifests itself in the form of large, cylindrical pillar of rocks, which can be shaped from the ground, greatly elongated and even twisted, allowing Jura to use them for both attack and defense. Jura has also proven himself capable of controlling all of the rock in the surrounding area, splitting it into boulders and sending it all flying at the enemy in a powerful avalanche. Aside from such uses, his Earth Magic can also be given more elaborated and intricate forms, mirroring humanoid figures and even architectural elements. Jura seems to cast most of his spells through the use of hand signs he performs, with the most common and used one being moving one of his hands with the index and middle finger stretched, and the others bent. Revolving around this versatile form of Magic, Jura's fighting style seems to be a stationary one, with him assaulting foes by modeling and changing the terrain around them, and protecting himself through the extremely effective defenses Earth Magic provides him with. Through the use of this Magic of him, he was able to defeat Brain, the leader of the Dark Guild Oración Seis, with little effort.
 * Iron Rock Wall (岩鉄壁 Gan Tetsu Heki): Jura's signature technique, in which he moves one of his hands with the index and middle fingers outstretched, creating large rock formations from the ground that form a wall, blocking incoming attacks. The barriers created by such spell can take the shape of both Jura's usual, cylindrical pillars, and that of larger rectangular slabs, thus reducing the number of elements required for a complete defense. In addition, Jura is also shown able to erect walls composed of massive bricks, as if they were built by hand. He has shown himself capable of manipulating such defensive barriers at his will, bending and twisting them to better guard himself or his allies from enemy attacks; in addition, he can split them into their constitutive elements, which he can freely move in midair and employ for offensive purposes, such as his Supreme King Rock Crush spell. These pillars are strong enough to block Brain's Darkness Magic without fail.
 * Continuous Formation (連鎖 Rensa): Jura creates pillars from the ground that form multiple walls in a straight line, blocking incoming attacks.


 * Rock Avalanche: While standing near to a rocky surface, Jura rapidly extends one hand towards the target, his fingers placed in his most recurring hand gesture. This prompts the nearby surface to be split into boulders of various size, which are lifted in the air and sent flying at the target with great force, striking them and then falling to the ground. This spell is fast and effective enough to catch someone as powerful as Oración Seis' leader Brain off-guard, leaving him surprised. (Unnamed)
 * Supreme King Rock Crush (覇王岩砕 Haō Gan Sai): Jura rapidly moves one of his hands in the target's direction, with the palm open. This prompts many stones from the area in front of him to rapidly fly towards the opponent, encasing them in a rocky formation. Jura then joins his palms, and the rocky formation explodes in its basic components, causing high damage to the previously encased target. This spell was powerful enough to defeat Oración Seis' leader, Brain. In the anime, Jura uses this spell with two phrases: first phrase, surrounds enemy with stones and encases them in a mass of rock; second phrase, crushes all the stones which surround the enemy.
 * Iron Rock Fist: Jura extends one of his hands, the index and middle fingers outstretched, towards the target. This prompts a very large arm made of rock, whose appearance is reminiscent of an intricate gauntlet, to emerge from the ground not far from him, and to move towards the foe with its fist clenched. This stone limb can be elongated for great lengths, with its "forearm" taking the form of an extremely long succession of segments; something which also makes it free to twist, allowing Jura to move it around as he wishes and change its trajectory, if the enemy does somehow manage to send the fist back at him. (Unnamed)
 * Rock Mountain (巌山 Ganzan): An extremely powerful defensive technique which Jura performs by joining his palms together. Such gesture prompts a large rock formation to emerge from the ground behind him, this taking the shape of a human clad in an Eastern-looking armor, complete with an helmet and with stone protrusions jutting out, with a frowning look and bright lights visible in the holes acting as its eyes. The presence of such formation is shown to repel enemy attacks, being strong enough to completely negate the effects of Jellal Fernandes' Grand Chariot spell, with the clash between the two moves sending a gale all over the surrounding area.
 * Rumbling Mt. Fuji (鳴動富嶽 Meidō Fugaku): An extremely damaging offensive technique which strikes a large area near Jura after the latter joins his hands together before himself. As he does so, the area immediately in front of him is struck by an immense release of Magic Power surging from the ground, which wreaks havoc on anything it finds, rising up several meters in the air and shattering the earth it emerges from reducing it to small pieces. This spell managed to gain an outstanding score of 8544 points when casted on the Magic Power Finder, and was stated to befit one that carries the title of Wizard Saint. Mount Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan, as well as an active volcano; something which makes Jura's spell somewhat resemble the phenomenon of an explosive eruption.
 * Iron Rock Spikes (岩鉄トゲ Gan Tetsu Toge): Jura creates earth spikes that immobilize his opponent.
 * Iron Rock Powder Explosion (岩鉄起爆塵 Gan Tetsu Bakuchiri): Jura summons earth spikes that pierce his opponent.

Immense Reflexes: In spite of his large size, Jura is notably dexterous and can rapidly react to danger, demonstrating remarkable speed in the use of his Magic: when confronting Brain, he could block and redirect a number of assaults from the man's Darkness Magic, even those performed at close range, by rapidly generating his earth defenses; while Nirvana was collapsing, Jura appeared out of nowhere to save Wendy Marvell from a number of boulders which were going to crush her, grabbing her and Carla and taking them away from danger in an instant while at the same time using his rock pillars to block the boulders. Later on, during his match with Jellal Fernandes, who was employing his Meteor spell to maneuver around incredibly fast, he was shown able to send the bricks composing his Iron Rock Wall after the foe in an instant, right after being attacked, even managing to strike Jellal through these very bricks despite his blinding speed.

Immense Durability: Jura has proven himself to be extremely resilient, surviving Angel's attempt to assassinate him, which had a knife piercing his stomach from side to side, and subsequently fighting as if nothing had happened through the entirety of the battle against Oración Seis (though Ichiya's Healing Perfume did help him with this), even managing to take on himself all the brunt of a massive explosion in order to protect Team Natsu, and yet again surviving to fight later. He was also shown emerging unscathed from the large beam generated by Jellal Fernandes's Sacred Song spell.

Immense Magic Power: A member of the Ten Wizard Saints renowned for his great skills, Jura's sheer amount of Magic Power is astonishing: when asked to prove it numerically on the Magic Power Finder during the Grand Magic Games's Pandemonium event, Jura employed his Rumbling Mt. Fuji spell to gain 8544 points, a score which marked a new record for the tool, and which amazed even Makarov Dreyar, the Master of the Fairy Tail guild, a fellow Wizard Saint known in his own right for possessing a monstrous level of Magic Power.

Master Sensor: Jura possesses good skills in sensing others through their Magic Power, as shown when he could find out that Hoteye wasn't hiding far from him seconds before being attacked by the latter's Liquid Ground Magic, with even Hoteye going on to praise Jura's sensing skills, acknowledging him as one of the Ten Wizard Saints. He was also able to notice something strange about Wendy Marvell's Magic Power at first sight, before she was revealed to be a Sky Dragon Slayer.

Expert Hand to Hand Combatant: Jura has shown to possess good hand-to-hand combat skills, fighting unarmed, alongside the rest of the Light Team, the Rune Knights who were trying to arrest Jellal Fernandes, knocking some of them out simply through the use of strong punches, with no need for him to employ his Earth Magic. During the Grand Magic Games, he was shown able to incapacitate and defeat Ichiya, another Mage renowned for his own power as Blue Pegasus' strongest member, with a simple and seemingly harmless hand strike from behind.

Equipment
Staff: During his first appearance, Jura was shown carrying around a long thin staff with the upper edge ending in a globe of a crystal-like material, wielding it with his left hand. However, when he came to the rest of Light Team's rescue, he wasn't shown wielding it anymore.

Khakkhara: After the 7-year time skip, when greeting the Fairy Tail members who returned from Tenrou Island, Jura was briefly shown wielding a khakkhara, a traditional staff commonly associated with Buddhist monks, distinguished by the large rings hanging from its top part. The khakkara Jura wields is massive, fitting its owner's size, seems to be entirely composed of metal and is very simple in shape, with its top part consisting of a plain, large ring, which has another single ring hanging from it. Right below the upper ring some bandages are wrapped around the staff itself. The khakkara is known as an effective weapon for real monks; however, it's as of yet unknown whether Jura can employ his in actual combat, or if it's just something ornamental.

Fairy Tail Gekitotsu! Kardia Daiseidou
In the video-game Fairy Tail Gekitotsu! Kardia Daiseidou, Jura Neekis is a playable character. In this game, Jura Neekis possess the following moves:
 * Main: Supreme King Rock Crush
 * Sub 1: Crushing Rock Bullet
 * Sub 2: Iron Rock Dwell
 * Sub 3: Dwelling Rock Rotation
 * Super: Iron Rock Wall

Fairy Tail: Zeref's Awakening
Jura is a playable character in the video-game Fairy Tail: Zeref's Awakening. Jura can only be unlocked by finishing of the Oración Seis arc. He possesses the following spells:


 * Rock Avalanche: Cost 20 VP, Jura is having that spell from the beginning.
 * Iron Rock Spikes: Cost 40 VP, Jura is having that spell from the beginning.
 * Iron Rock Humbak: Cost 60 VP, Jura must buy that spell in the shop.
 * Iron Rock Wall: Cost 80 VP, Jura must buy that spell in the shop.
 * Supreme King Rock Crush: Cost 120 VP, Jura must buy that spell in the shop.

Battles & Events

 * Jura Neekis, Lyon Vastia, Sherry Blendy vs. Red Hood
 * Jura Neekis vs. Hoteye
 * Jura Neekis vs. Brain
 * Jellal Fernandes's Arrest
 * Sky Labyrinth
 * X791 Grand Magic Games Inauguration
 * Jellal Fernandes vs. Jura Neekis
 * Pandemonium
 * MPF

Trivia

 * Jura dislikes peas because while eating some, a worm got in his mouth.
 * According to Hoteye, his head resembles a potato, which he used to eat with his brother Wally.


 * In Volume 32's extra content, Mashima provided the battle statistics for 31 of the 40 X791 contestants in the Grand Magic Games. The stats, however, were provided not from Mashima's point-of-view as the author but from the view point of Sorcerer Magazine reporter Jason. Which explains why some stats are missing and why others may be inaccurate. According to Jason from the Sorcerer Magazine, during his participation in the Grand Magic Games of X791, Jura's stats are:

Quotes

 * (To Hoteye) "The quality of the Magic itself is immaterial. He who has the stronger conviction will always prevail."