Layla Smith/Overview

**Edit Tab**

## The Slayer

As the Slayer Layla has a prodigious amount of skill and competency in the martial arts of all kinds, armed and unarmed, with a strength and dexterity to match. Capable of dealing massive amounts of destruction equal to the rest of the group in some circumstances, Layla is most often the first target for any enemy and yet is almost always prepared for a fight thanks to her rapid healing. Her skills and innate abilities allow her to perform extraordinary feats regularly, and she rarely fails to get an attack in. Despite having been in the United Kingdom for what may be less then two months, she has already racked up a sizeable list of felled enemies, more than the rest of her friends combined.

While on occasion offered weapons to use, Layla still persists in fighting unarmed against opponents. Most notably, this has led to a characteristic use of assaults to an opponent's genitals, which have often worked to great effect. This largely coincided with a fortunate string of male opponents against whom this tactic could be used most optimally and vigorously.

Due to being the most skilled in combat, Layla is often dispatched alongside Imogen or Robert, whomever is the most vulnerable at the time, whenever the team needs to split up. Despite this, Layla can get carried away in the momentum of a fight and leave her slower, more vulnerable companions behind. Before the group started to find their footing, this occasionally left her friends impotent against the threats facing them. This also almost backfired twice on Layla, when fighting against Mr. Miller in the fight in the warehouse and against the vampire carollers, where Layla was notably ineffective in dispatching opposition compared to her previous efforts.

As "the new girl", and an American to boot, Layla generally knows little about the local area and has relatively little influence or reptuation among the school or local community. This, coinciding with the complexity of the threats arrayed against the group, has left her somewhat more dependent upon the rest of the group for help in solving social or intellectual problems. Her personality as a Gothic rebel and loner has not helped.

Layla has displayed a constant urge to hunt down fleeing opponents to the best of her ability whenever the opportunity arose, she did so with a vengeance. While part of this was the result of her hatred against them and it being her job, it is hinted that part of it stems from a desire to protect. She also has some affection for John, the frog in Layla and Imogen's room, protesting strongly against Imogen's suggestion to use John as a guinea pig for a spell and insisting on Imogen finding a way to restore John to humanity, though no progress has been made due to how busy the group has been. Consequently, Layla took James' death rather poorly, and preferred to kill Mr. Miller herself instead of allowing Barnaby to do it, not wanting Barnaby to suffer from any guilt. Layla's softer side has also manifested in her treatment of Robert after he was confined to the hospital for so long (having been the one to take him there in the first place after being wounded by Mr. Miller's shooting).

For a while, Layla did not want her friends to join her on patrols and adventures, until they reassured her that it was their choice, and having been in for so long they were already in danger. With James' death and Robert's continued hospitalisations, however, Layla wavered on the matter until she was reassured by her friends that they wanted to help her.

Layla does not like being restrained, and chafes under the supervision of the Watchers' Council. Not much is yet known about her history, although she has dodged questions regarding fire and her old school. Whatever occurred seems to have made her more cautious regrading fire, as despite being a rebel, she will not falsely pull the fire alarm in episode 3. She spent most of her Slayer career in the UK outside of their supervision as a result of Mr. Miller's turning. She reacted negatively to Mr. Davidson when he turned out to be her next Watcher.