Yes he did, he used his memory make magic to block the ice with fire and thought that it took out grey. Anyone with half a brain wont be that stupid and just stand there thinking that its over. But Grey is suppose so win, so there you go.
'Just standing there' in the sense of actively shooting fire.
He didn't throw the attack and stop. He threw the attack and Gray struck him immediately through the attack.
Sorry, you can't spin this one as Rufus acting dumb. Gray burst through the flames one panel after the attack began.
Not to mention Rufu's magic is so broken that you dont know whats its suppose to do. I can argue that he has memorized Grey's magic and could just erase the ice all together thus completely shutting Grey down. You could say that Rufus can only erase a magic that he's only seen, but the Ice make is just Ice shaped into different things, so just eliminate the ice itself = game over for Grey.
You could argue that, but we were just specifically told that Gray Making too fast prevented memorization there at the end, so it'd be explicitly wrong.
No, Grey is no longer considered as near Natsu.
'No longer'? No, it's never been said that, they've always been rivals.
Makarov's certainly noted he's quite strong.
Natsu lost to the owl dood coz he got motion sickness if I remember correctly.
And Gray beat Owldude who had the additional power of Natsu's flames.
Grey hasn't taken out anyone really worth mentioning as uber. Juvia? nope, bad match up, she's water, ice freezes water.
Boiling water...
The owl? he uses tactics and researches his enemies before going after them and he's really just weak so again no.
And was boosted.
Orasion seis speedy dood? nope, he couldnt do shit and needed his ice bro to figure it out on how to win.
Mind you, *most* of the Oracion Seis people weren't beaten solo, but instead needed help.
The Oracion Seis were supposed to be more-or-less similar in level except for Midnight and Zero, and some of them were tough individual fights with people like Jura.
Ultear? nope, they fell into the see and she saw some memories thus losing the will to fight.
After he had figured out how to get around her time magic and inflicted some major blows, which knocked her into the sea to begin with. He performed quite well in any case.
Yea, sure, the sea might've been the finisher.... but she's supposed to be one of the strongest Kin of Purgatory.
Other, weaker kin were doing stuff like facing Elfman and Evergreen at the same time and winning. Natsu needed help from Makarov to beat Zancrow, and then against Kain, it required a Lucy/Natsu teamup too.
Grey hasn't really taken out anyone of note. While Natsu has taken on Jellal, zero, that wind dood, etc. so, no, not on the level. not even close.
Lyon, Juvia, Sugerboy of Edoras who's magic was particularly good against ice. None exactly pushovers, and I'd say all are better than Wind Dood. Jellal, Zero, and the other strongest Natsu foes were all done with boosts and often not even solo.
Plus, hey, he took out Rufus just now, who's shown to be quite strong.
I mean, you can come up with reasons to try and discount all his wins, but there's also a counter-reason in pretty much all of the cases why it's still impressive.