A young woman would wander into the building, she'd look around and sigh to herself upon noting that nobody else is inside the place right now. "Geez, and we came all this way just to find nobody? Those thugs were fine, but I want to see how ya do against a real foe, Termite." Skitter wanders over to a wall across from the door, leaning against it and simply staring at it as she mutters to herself... Well, she'd look as if she's speaking to herself, in reality she's talking to Termite, but there's no need to mention that if anyone asks, better to look a bit odd than admit to having a dangerous being living inside you.

From out of the shadows of the GYM, a cloaked figure steps forth, one eyebrow raised. The young man's honeydew eyes briefly glance over the young woman, as though searching for something beneath her skin. Whether or not he finds it is to be forever a mystery, yet one particularly observant might catch a hint of a grin I couldn't help but overhear that complaint of yours. While I will admit, I'm not a fighter by trade, I would like the chance to see what you are capable of, assuming you don't mind of course That said, Luard would waste no more time, not even bothering with introductions before glancing around the GYM, the fighting area looks to be a little small, but odds are he won't have the time for his larger spells anyways, so no harm done.

The masked girl stares at Luard, of course, he wouldn't be able to make out anything given the mask and armor covering her. But there's a slightly cocky tone to her voice as she looks over Luard. "Alright then, I'm game for a match against ya... Yo! Get in here everyone." At that, a horde of various bugs would begin swarming in through the broken door. Wasps, spiders, some ants, even mosquitoes and other less obviously dangerous things. The flying bugs would gather up above Taylor's head for now, as about 30 fire ants crawl from the door at Luard's back, assuming he didn't stop them, they'd aim to get onto his legs and begin biting the man. Taylor simply rushes forward for now, she's not quite in range yet, but she'd be fairly close to getting in melee with Luard pretty soon.

Luard's eyes dart around, mostly noticing the flying insects, yet he remains aware of some number of smaller crawling ones. Interesting, an ability that lets her manipulate the life force of other organisms, obviously only a specific type. Either way, they're so ridiculously small, Luard merely grins and draws a smaller magic circle with his right hand, writing in several runes, most notably one resembling a tornado, before thrusting his palm in the center Wind barrier. With that, what initially feels like a faint breeze would start up around Luard, flowing out of the circle. In a moment the circle vanishes, leaving little evidence of its presence, yet the ants would find it impossible to come within two feet Not even going to give me a chance to ready are you? I thought your manners would be better. No matter, I hope you're ready to show me everything you've got. Holding back would make this whole experiment worthless.

"I assumed you were ready since you challenged me and all? Sorry if ya weren't... I'm pretty used to going for the first strike honestly, sorta have to when fighting with bugs." She'd note the ants being unable to get near him, from their view it seems to some sort of wind? And he did say... Bah, let's see how it stands up to a greater force, Taylor closes the rest of the distance, and with a quick thought, a large black and red hammer with a pair of beady eyes on the end of it would burst from her back and into her hands. Luard might also note the acid that drips from the blunt end of it, bits flowing down to the floor and leaving a few burn marks. Or not, since said weapon is flying right at his chest with a vicious speed. "Anyway, I guess that's some kinda wind to keep my bugs away huh? Well... I wonder if there's a way to take it down, and how much it can block."

Kotori walks into the door, looking at it as she steps past It's been destroyed again.... Oof.... Hello everyone....

Taylor's hammer would squirm a bit in her hands as it hears Kotori's voice. The only thing stopping it from saying something to her would be that it doesn't quite want to let Luard know too much, but Taylor would get a basic rundown of Termite's prior host. Without even taking her eyes off Luard, the young woman greets Kotori. "O-oh, hello there... Nice to meet you I guess." Despite the attempt to be friendly, the girl's tone is very stiff as she speaks. Kotori would likely guess why fairly easily, given the obvious use of her former Despairasite.

Almost as though by instinct, Luard steps to the side, letting the hammer smash into the ground. Notably, Taylor wouldn't feel any sort of wind resistance, as though it easily parts to allow the hammer through My own design. I made it to deflect small-arms fire, but I think you'll find it more than serviceable for something much slower and lighter than a bullet. Luard puts his left hand on the hammer immediately after it slams into the ground, sending a pulse into it, much like his normal scans, aiming to read into its life force, vital signs, strength, general abilities, all that sort of thing.

There's quite a bit to the hammer in fact, but for some reason, Luard would hear a voice in his head rather than anything useful. Termite: "Eh!? What are ya doing poking around here buddy? Name's Termite and I don't want yall learning too much about me got that! So, I'm not gonna share much info with you, but I will say that I'm gonna have fun with this!" Taylor pulls the weapon down as an idea forms in her head, if the wind parts for her hammer, couldn't she deliver some bugs via that? About 20 wasps would suddenly rush down and land on the end of her hammer. The acid upon it moves away from where they sit, and with that, she'd aim to swing the thing down at Luard's foot. Rather than that being the main goal, however, the wasps which had landed on her weapon would try to rush onto Luard. Aiming to get into the collar of his jacket, and being crawling on his chest while stinging repeatedly.

Interesting Luard grins and steps back, easily avoiding the hammer's vague attempt to hit him. Naturally, this was expected, though it seems Taylor didn't expect what happens next. As soon as the wasps leave the hammer, they would feel the wind pick up notably, rather than landing on Luard, they would find the wind slowly pushing them back to the two foot mark I thought I asked you to show me everything you had? You're not going to get anywhere repeating tricks like that. I guess you're just not taking this very seriously. that said, Luard would lunge forward to Taylor's right in an attempt to grab her arm, careful to stop his foot an instant before reaching. If his grab is successful, Luard would send another pulse, much like the one directed at Termite, in an attempt to gauge Taylor's abilities and condition

Does he think she's got a limitless number of skills or something? Tch, the man would be able to grab on for a brief moment as her hammer vanishes into her shoulder once again. He may have gotten the left arm, but the right would quickly lunge up to his face and aim to grab Luard's neck, if she hit Taylor would aim to toss him down to the ground and summon her hammer again, hoping to slam it down onto his back and cause acid to spill from the weapon, if it struck he'd quickly feel the substance burning through his clothes and starting to tear into his skin. "Fine then, I guess I can try a bit harder... Heh, you're kinda making me want to use one of his gifts Luard. But that would be a bit wasteful." As for his scan, it would tell the man that she's fairly normal for the most part. She's no tougher or faster than a regular person, and her health is perfectly fine. It might, however, note that the source of her power appears to be some sort of entity attached to the girl, unseen, but present. Said being appears to do the heavy lifting in her control of bugs, and of course Termite exists.

One notable thing the scan would pick up, how her energy naturally flows, as mentioned for the most part its entirely average, the way her muscles move, in good shape no doubt, but overall everything he might expect from a human. Luard is too busy focusing on his scan to even attempt to dodge her grab, yet as soon as she tosses him to the ground, Luard grins, grabbing hold of her right arm in return, around the elbow. No longer needing to scan, Luard simply sends a light jolt of electricity. Taylor would hardly feel it. In fact, she hardly feels anything with that arm anymore I will admit I'm not used to such close quarters, but really humans are all so similar, far too often it barely even matters what you can do. Sad I'm sure.

Despite the electricity rushing at her, she'd still have some feeling and movement in that arm thanks to the thick layers of silk in her costume. It'd block out a good bit of the effect, though she's still a bit slower in that arm than before... The hammer vanishes, only for Taylor to reach down to her belt with her left arm and pull out a simple can of pepper spray, which Luard would quickly find being emptied right into his face as the girl stares down at him. Various bugs watching him from numerous angles for some reason. "Hmm, alright so you aren't half bad. But don't think I'm done quite yet. That lightning trick isn't bad, but it doesn't quite work as well on my armor as it would bare skin."

Luard raises an eyebrow as the girl pulls some sort of mysterious canister out of her belt, assuming it probably isn't good, Luard lets go of Taylor's arm to roll to the side, before slowly working his way back to his feet. Of course, Luard wouldn't notice any of the insects. He hasn't been hurt much, yet he seems to be breathing heavily I'm not much for hand to hand admittedly. Never really had need of it. Rather unfair to get a head start, but what can you do, right? Once he's on his feet, Luard would grin, arms out to the side in a bit of a shrugging gesture

A very stupid part of her wants to rush in, but that seems foolhardy at this point... Instead, she'd toss the can right at his head, a spider attached to the thing holds down the trigger, and as it flies through the air a thick cloud of noxious pepper spray would form as it travels toward Luard's face. Likely leaving him breathing it in if he's anywhere near where it went. "Hmm really? I guess you did say you aren't much of a fighter, personally, I've learned a bit about such things over the years." From above, a rather large spider web would drop down onto Luard. Assuming he didn't move, the man would find himself covered in the sticky threads, of course simply dropping it won't tie him up, but Taylor just wanted to distract him. From there, Termite would take shape once again, this time rather than simply swinging the weapon at him, acid seems to gather up in a larger pool on its surface for a moment. She'd stab the weapon forward, and at that, a jet of acid would rush toward Luard's chest. Though Termite's surface now seems to lack more acid, for now, having been slightly worn down with such a trick.

Luard instinctively takes a step back from the canister, still assuming its nothing good. This would protect him from the worst of it, but not the entirety of the cloud, causing him to close his eyes and bring up his cloak to provide some amount of a filter. What is this infernal... Primitive little.... He doesn't get much further before the net drops, rather than waste any more time, Luard begins making one of his larger magical circles, the pair glowing red as he begins drawing from beneath the net. Naturally, the acid would splash against it, dissolving the circles just as sure as if they were physical, but of course this would cause it to splash onto the web as well, giving Luard a hole to escape through. Rather than say much of anything, Luard coughs into his sleeve, bending over just a little as he does so.

Taylor looks over at the man and smirks under her mask, so he's never seen something like that before? Geez, how would this guy deal with Tinkertech if pepper spray is giving him guff? Of course, she hasn't won yet. They very spiders which had weaved the web would begin leaping down onto the man, black widows to be exact. She's not sure if his wind is still up, but they'd aim to shoot their webbing onto his head as they fall and attach to it. If they succeeded the spiders would quickly begin biting the top of his skull and injecting him with their venom. As for Taylor herself, even as the spiders are dropping she wouldn't waste any time. The cough seems to say he's suffering a bit, and spiders falling on him should distract a bit too right? With that, she'd conjure up her hammer once again. There's no acid on it for now, but the beady eyes do gleam with bloodlust and somehow the strike would follow Luard to an extent if he moved, the Despairasite itself guiding the girl's strike, of course, she can still only reach so far.

The girl would be rather curious at the lack of bruises... He's tougher than he looks it seems, but not the best fighter by a long shot. Hell, Termite thinks that even his old host might have done okay as long as she kept up the heat against Luard. Either way, Taylor would dismiss the Despairasite and pick Luard up, quickly placing the seemingly fine young man onto a small couch in a corner of the building. "Well partner, I'd say that went pretty well wouldn't you? Sure he wasn't the toughest foe we could have met, but he wasn't a total pushover like the thugs I normally go after... Hmm, need to work on my skills though, gotta get better at grappling it seems." And a few other things really, but for now the masked girl simply walks off into the night. Departing with one last glance toward Luard... She could easily go through his stuff right about now, but even if he's suscept, that seems like a bad idea. So instead, she'd exit stage left and grin under her mask, that went better than expected after all.