However, if he were to face the current S-Class Mages in the Guild, he genuinely couldn't win.
The four current S-Class Mages in the Guild each have their own unique strengths.
Erza's Re-quip Magic is incredibly versatile; her armor's defense and offense are both formidable, and as the daughter of Irene, the founder of Dragon Slayer Magic, her immense magical power is noteworthy.
Ezreal could certainly fight against Erza, but he would absolutely not be her match.
Laxus is even more so; his magical power is simply monstrous!
Moreover, his attack speed and movement speed are ridiculously fast!
None of Ezreal's Summoned Beasts can keep up with his speed.
The extreme speed of Lightning Magic, combined with powerful offensive capabilities.
Ezreal's Summoned Beasts are just large, living targets that can endure a few more hits in front of Laxus.
Only he himself, relying on Arcane Shift, can barely contend with him in terms of speed.
If they truly faced off, being able to retreat unscathed would already be a difficult feat.
Mystogan has no magic power within him, making him seem easy to deal with, but his Hypnosis Magic is incredibly overpowered, and he casts it over large areas.
It would be very difficult to exhaust the magic power in his magic staff's magic crystals.
Ezreal hasn't thought of a good counter-strategy yet to withstand his Hypnosis Magic.
As for Gildarts, whom he hasn't met, does this formidable man even need an introduction?
He escaped the Black Dragon's clutches.
His sheer magical power outburst alone made Natsu lose his will to fight two years later.
He utterly defeated Grimoire Heart's Vice-Chairman in a direct confrontation.
Can't win, absolutely can't win... Ezreal speculated that based on this red-haired uncle's performance later in the series, when he directly confronted the Magic King, he is definitely on the level of the Twelve Shields.
At the very least, he would not be weaker than God Serena, who is known as the strongest of the Ten Wizard Saints.
The Guild's annual S-Class trials are always internal battles.
The initial content is always devised by the Master himself, varying each year, usually testing teamwork, courage, wisdom, and so on.
But the final item is fixed: it must be a battle against one of the Guild's existing S-Class Mages to prove one's strength.
Ezreal really has no confidence in defeating any of the Guild's current four S-Class Mages in a direct confrontation.
However, his current strength, compared to other members, is actually on a different level.
He is far superior to other members of the Guild, but absolutely no match for the Guild's S-Class Mages.
Ezreal is very certain that he is not weak.
It's just that these four S-Class Mages the Guild currently has are a bit too overpowered!
In any other Guild, even the younger trio of Laxus, Mystogan, and Erza would absolutely possess Master-level strength.
From watching the anime before, Ezreal noticed that the S-Class strength within the Fairy Tail Guild was completely on a different level compared to other Guilds.
Even the strength of their A-Class Mages far exceeded that of A-Class Mages in other Guilds.
Ezreal is confident that his current strength is what a normal S-Class Mage should possess.
An ordinary A-Class Mage facing him would lose one hundred percent.
It would even be difficult for them to escape.
He is a very normal S-Class Mage, not an S-Class Mage with the monstrous strength of these four in the Guild.
If he were to participate in the Guild's internal S-Class trials in the conventional way, he would find it very difficult to win.
He might as well come up with his own method.
And the Skull Gang is the solution he thought of.
Originally, he had thought of taking Ikaruga with him to deal with it, since he was looking for Ikaruga anyway, and asking her for help seemed more reasonable.
However, when it came to disposing of the bodies, having Ikaruga present wouldn't be ideal.
But on the way back, he changed his mind.
If he could make destroying the Skull Gang his S-Class trial, Ezreal felt it would be no problem.
With his strength, he could guarantee that if all information about the Skull Gang was exposed, not even a fly would survive.
He was just worrying about where to find high-quality resources to evolve his Summoned Beasts.
Using these people from the Skull Gang as expendable materials, and also getting an S-Class Mage title for himself, would allow him to take on S-Class requests later.
It was simply killing two birds with one stone.
He had to secure the Guild's S-Class title as soon as possible; if he remembered correctly, the main storyline of Fairy Tail would begin not long from now.
Natsu and the newly joined Lucy had unauthorizedly taken an S-Class mission to an island inhabited by demon villagers.
On that island, there was also Deliora, a powerful demon created by Zeref.
It had been sealed for over a decade by Gray's master, Ur, using Iced Shell, and was already incredibly weakened.
While it was still alive, he had to quickly take that mission and absorb Deliora.
A great demon, even if its power was on the verge of being completely lost, was still a sick tiger; its remnants were very valuable.
If he truly finished absorbing it, he would likely have his first S-Class Summoned Beast.
Additionally, there was that Giant Village, the one burning with the Eternal Flame.
Gray's father thought he had encountered a demon and froze the entire village with Ice Devil Slayer Magic, but in reality, what was frozen was not a demon.
That Eternal Flame was actually the remains of the Hellfire Dragon Atlas Flame.
To what extent could the remains of a true dragon evolve a Summoned Beast?
Ezreal was very much looking forward to it.
"Facing a Dark Guild, this is no joke. Are you sure it's okay?" Makarov pondered for a long time before asking this question.
"Master, trust me, I will handle the Skull Gang. Just wait for the Magic Council to praise our Fairy Tail by name at the year-end meeting!" Ezreal said with a smile, standing up. It was the first time since joining the Guild that he used such an intimate address as 'Master'.
His smile was bright and confident.
Makarov looked at Ezreal, his eyes somewhat distant; he seemed to see an 18-year-old Laxus once being so bright and cheerful.
"Year-end summary meeting? Does that mean you're going soon?" Makarov asked.
"If I drag it out too long, I'm afraid they'll realize someone was killed and move their base, which wouldn't be good," Ezreal said.
The old man was silent for a moment, then slowly nodded.
"Then I'll leave it to you. Special S-Class Trial, Master's direct request mission: Annihilate the Dark Guild, the Skull Gang!"
"Recipient of the request, Ezreal, is that correct?"
"Of course."