Sabertooth was the guild that was once the strongest in all of Fiore. At least until they managed to annoy the leaders in Fairy Tail and got knocked down a peg. But for a long time, while Fairy Tail’s most powerful members were gone, they ruled over Fiore as the most powerful guild in the main universe.

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But who are Sabertooth? What drives them? What dark secrets do they have, and who leads them today? This guild has perhaps one of the most fleshed-out stories in the entire series of Hiro Mashima’s shonen classic besides the lead characters themselves.

10 FORMERLY THE STRONGEST GUILD

Sabertooth sting

At one point, this group was known for being the most powerful guild in all of Fiore. They proved themselves to be better than all of the guilds that had been around at the same time, from Blue Pegasus to even Lamia Scale. They did so by winning at the Grand Magic Games pretty consistently after Fairy Tail left.

However, it didn’t take long before Fairy Tail returned and proved they were the most powerful guild of them all.

9 KICKED OUT ONE OF THEIR MEMBERS FOR WEAKNESS

During the Grand Magic Games, one of their number was defeated early on in the games. Yukino suffered a rather quick defeat battling against Kagura of Mermaid Heel. The result of this match was that Yukino was informed she would have to leave the group.

Jiemma made her strip in front of all the other members and removed her guild tattoo before having her kicked out. She would rejoin later, but this would be a huge turning point for the group as they tried to figure out what sort of guild they wanted to be.

8 THE ONLY MEMORY MAGE

One thing that Sabertooth has that no one else is Rufus Lore, the Minstrel Who Sings to the red Moon. Rufus is the master of Memory-Make magic, which gives him control over the element of memory.

This allows him to completely memorize any type of magic he sees, then use it for his own help. He can also use this knowledge of magic to stop it from working on him, making him able to copy and avoid any spell he’s witnessed just one time. This is unique in the series, and no other guild in the series has anyone quite like him.

7 ATTEMPTED TO KILL ONE OF THEIR MEMBERS

The true dark point in Sabertooth was after Sting and Rogue lost to Natsu. Because they were so soundly defeated despite their best efforts, they were nearly removed from the guild.

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Lector stood in the way of Jiemma having them kicked out, but this resulted in Jiemma trying to erase Lector from existence when he learned the cat had become a member of Sabertooth. Fortunately, Minerva saved Lector from being destroyed, and Sting took Jiemma out for his hatred.

6 PREVIOUS MASTER WAS DEFEATED

Sting's Light attack in Fairy Tail.

Sabertooth was originally lead by Jiemma, a large man who looked like Fairy Tail’s version of the Street Fighter character Akuma. Jiemma chose to rule over Sabertooth rather than lead them, however, and eventually lost in a fight against Sting after angering the young Dragon Slayer.

Because of Sabertooth’s belief that might makes right, Jiemma’s loss caused his daughter Minerva to turn on him, encouraging Sting to take over leading the guild for the future.

5 THE YOUNGEST GUILD MASTER

Of all the guilds in the canon storyline, Sabertooth has the youngest guild master of them all. Their leader, Sting Eucliffe, is only 19 years old—he’s not even the oldest member in his guild, with several members of the group surpassing him in age.

But it remains to be seen if any of them could surpass him in pure power, thanks to his ability as a White Dragon Slayer, allowing him to control the power of light to use as he wants.

4 THE FIVE STRONGEST

As a guild, Sabertooth was around for quite a bit of time, even before everyone in Fairy Tail vanished for seven years. But at the time, they weren’t really thought of very much and ranked behind other, more powerful guilds.

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Ultimately, what helped them rise to the top was having five new members join the group, improving their power by leaps and bounds. Those five were Orga, Sting, Rogue, Rufus, and Minerva. However, during the Grand Magic Games, Yukino is seen as the replacement for Minerva until she can return.

3 BETRAYED BY IT'S MEMBERS

Unsurprisingly, Jiemma wasn’t done with the guild after being kicked out. But rather, he and his daughter both wind up leaving and joining up with the group Tartaros.

There, they both have their bodies completely rebuilt and made into part-demons, giving them incredible magic energy and the power to fight back against Fairy Tail and Sabertooth. Nonetheless, Jiemma is defeated by Sting and Rogue, resulting in him leaving for good.

2 DEFEATED BY A SINGLE MEMBER OF SPRIGGAN 12

Perhaps what’s most surprising is the group’s loss to a single member of the Alvarez Empire’s Spriggan 12. The entire group worked to protect Magnolia, working alongside the guild of Blue Pegasus.

They battle against many of the Empire’s foot soldiers and have no problem winning, but when faced against Bloodman they’re all quickly beaten down, unable to stand against the wide variety of anti-magic abilities he displays. It takes Yukino knocking some sense into Sting to rally them back and get them back into the game again.

1 HAS BECOME MORE LIKE FAIRY TAIL

In the end, Sabertooth was inspired to become more like Fairy Tail, thanks to the actions of Natsu and the others. Natsu proved to them that guildmates should be more like family members than constantly demanding everyone to win at everything or removing them.

This leads to Sting wanting to make the guild more like a family where everyone could feel at home, and he leads the team more like Makarov or Natsu might now that he has control.

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