Retreat

The Slayer army has suffered its first defeat. Vampires now hold the upper hand, Slayers sit at the bottom of the pile, and Buffy has lost the goodwill of nearly everyone. That includes Twilight, the season's mysterious Big Bad, who is tracking her through her magic.

With the world turned against Slayers, Buffy has to find a way to restore the old balance while keeping her girls alive long enough to manage it. Her best option comes from Oz, the one werewolf she knows who supports suppressing magic. His methods can hide the Slayer army from Twilight, whose search is aimed at magic in particular.

Under Oz's guidance, the Slayers and Wiccans try to live as ordinary people, using meditation and hard physical labor. Not everyone accepts the plan. Willow, Giles and Andrew see little point in giving up magic, and their doubts leave open whether a Slayer can have a peaceful life at all.

This is Volume 6 of Buffy Season Eight, a comic continuation of the Buffy story. It follows a defeat and a forced retreat, and it carries a wry, chatty tone alongside the pressure of being hunted.