Buffy gets into trouble during Mass -- okay, Black Mass, but still...

if Buffy had had time, she might have wondered why a group of obvious devil-worshipers would choose to celebrate a Black Mass in the middle of the day or for that matter, why anyone in Sunnydale would choose to conduct another human sacrifice after what had happened to the Delta-Zeta-Kappas at nearby Kent Preparatory School about a year ago.

But for some reason, when six hooded individuals are running toward you with sharp knives, you don't have time to ponder such questions. Especially if you're naked.

On the plus side, three years of slaying vampires and fighting things that were often bigger than she was gave Buffy an obvious physical advantage over her attackers, most of whom moved so slowly that she wondered how they had ever managed to capture the girl on the altar.

On the minus side, well, Buffy was naked and even if she were dressed, it would take only one lucky strike with a blade to severely wound her, if not kill her.

"Get her!" cried the biggest knife-wielder. "If she leaves this room alive, we're done for."

Buffy smiled as she dodged yet another knife attack that would have been fatal to a less experienced fighter.

But then she realized she was playing a defensive game. She was dodging blades far more often than she was hitting bad guys and given the odds against her, it seemed unlikely that she'd be able to reverse that equation all that easily. That meant that the devil-worshipers only had to wear her down and they'd win. And Buffy had already done a lot of running that day.

Then one of her attackers made a mistake. Tired of seeing Buffy evade his knife thrusts, he paused for a moment and then threw his knife at her.

Buffy ducked in time and the knife went right over her head -- only to bury itself in the chest of the devil-worshiper who had been standing behind her.

The devil-worshiper collapsed and his coreligionists scattered, not one of them remaining behind to check on the status of their comrade-in-arms.

Buffy knelt down and examined him, but it was too late. He had been killed instantly.

Then she stood up and went over to the altar to untie the naked girl.

"Thank God you showed up," said the girl. "You must be an angel from heaven."

"I'm definitely something, all right," said Buffy as she pondered her next move.