Chapter 13: Cipher Battle Pt. 1

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some gems I need to shatter. You." Phil suddenly turned and swiped an arm at Steven and Connie, who were standing at a slight distance, knocking them into the side of the obsidian dome.

"How do we get out of this?!" Pearl asked with growing worry.

"This dome is made out of obsidian!" Garnet said. "The only way out is to defeat Phil!"

In the meantime, Phil was trying to blast Onion with lasers from his finger, but Onion dodged every one of them while looking like he was performing amazing stunts such as a back flip. "Whoa!" Amethyst exclaimed. "Onion is totally bad-a—" Amethyst was cut off, however, as Phil decided to attack her and Bismuth, who were right next to each other, poofing Amethyst, but not Bismuth, who grabbed Amethyst's gem to protect her from being shattered.

Meanwhile, Steven and Connie had recovered from the blow they received earlier and had opted to fuse into Stevonnie, and Peridot had resorted to charging at the creature. Peridot ran at Phil, emitting a battle cry along the way, and leaped at him, trying to tackle him to the ground. However, Phil ended up "swallowing" Peridot as she vanished going into him. Phil then pulled out a stopwatch for a second, looking rather bored, before putting it away as Peridot came tumbling back out of Phil. "Aha!… Huh?" Peridot said, confused as to what had just happened.

"You just don't get it; do you?" Phil said. "I am the most powerful creature ever to exist! What hope could you possibly have in defeating me?"

Just then, Amethyst happened to regenerate. Not even needing to say so, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl all fused together into Alexandrite. "Cipher!" Alexandrite roared from her lower mouth, causing Phil to turn around to see Alexandrite there, along with Stevonnie and Bismuth.

"Ha! So the mortals are trying to fight back. Adorable." Phil said. Alexandrite then pulled out Sardonyx's war hammer and Sugilite's flail and charged Phil. Alexandrite swung the hammer at Phil, knocking him into the side of the dome, then hit him with the flail, sending him over to where Sadie and Onion were trying to avoid the unfolding chaos.

"Yeah! Go Alexandrite!" Stevonnie cheered, then charged for Phil themself, pulling out Steven's shield and Connie's sword, merging them together into Stevonnie's spiky shield, then threw it at Phil, sending it flying at him like a frisbee, striking him in the torso. However, just as it seemed that Phil was being defeated, he abruptly put an end to the gems' efforts.

"ENOUGH!" Phil yelled. "I am going to destroy each and every one of you pests! And nothing is going to get in my way!" Phil then shot a laser from his eye, forcing Alexandrite and Stevonnie to de-fuse. "Let's get this over with."

Phil then dropped the obsidian dome, much to the confusion of everyone, until he got several hundreds of rocks from all over the beach, ranging from the size of a tennis ball to the size of a small refrigerator, with his telekinesis, and made them float in the air. "Get ready to feel a WORLD OF PAIN!" Phil yelled, flinging the rocks at them.

Amethyst had to use her spin dash to avoid the barrage of rocks, while Pearl gracefully leaped over the rocks, and Garnet had resorted to punching the rocks away with her gauntlets. Sadie and Onion were just simply running for dear life while Lapis flew up carrying Peridot with her and Bismuth shape-shifted her hands into hammers and was smashing the rocks. Meanwhile Steven had summoned his large shield and was using it to protect himself and Connie from the barrage of rocks.

However, Phil also had some rocks coming towards Steven and Connie from behind Steven's shield, and it wasn't until one bounced off the inside of the shield that they noticed. Acting quickly, Steven summoned his bubble shield around himself and Connie, shielding them both from the rocks. However, the rocks were gradually wearing down Steven's bubble shield, until eventually, the bubble collapsed completely. One of the rocks, about the size of a baseball, hit Steven in the back of the head, knocking him to the ground face first with a thud.

"Steven!" Connie yelled, dropping down to her knees to make sure he was okay, or at least still conscious.

Thankfully, he was. "Ow… my head…" Steven mumbled, sitting up and putting a hand to the back of his head where the rock had hit him.

"Steven, are you okay?!" Connie asked with worry.

"I'm… not really sure, to be honest." Steven replied, worrying Connie even more.

After what seemed like forever, the barrage of rocks had finally stopped. However, it turned out that Peridot had been poofed by one of the larger rocks, and Phil was going in to shatter her. "Oh no! Peridot!" Steven said, pointing out Peridot's dormant gemstone to Connie, as well as Phil heading towards it. "Come on! We have to save her!"

Connie quickly agreed, running towards Phil alongside Steven. "We'll take care of Phil! Get Peridot and get out of here!" Connie shouted to the others.

"What?! That's a suicide mission! You'll be shattered!" Bismuth said, while Garnet quickly grabbed Peridot's gem.

"Trust us!" Steven said back.

"Hey! Come and get us you pointy jerk!" Connie taunted towards Phil, then turned around and ran away with Steven.

This immediately caught Phil's attention, and enraged him. The others tried to run after them to ensure their safety, but Phil stopped them. "Oh no. You all stay here." Phil said, forming an obsidian cage around everyone that was still there. "I have some children I need to make into corpses." He continued, as he turned into his monstrous form, turning red with bright yellow limbs and hat, black eye with a bright yellow pupil, and growing four more arms, as well as two mouth-like openings in his body with a few black tongues and several sharp monstrous teeth.

"I'll see ya real soon." Phil said in a monstrous voice, before turning around and pursuing Steven and Connie.

"W-what?! NO!" Amethyst yelled, trying in vain to stop Phil. However, there was nothing the gems, Sadie, and Onion could do but watch as Phil chased down the pair. "Aw, come on! How did that thing even know that obsidian was gem-proof?"

Steven and Connie were running for their lives away from the enraged Phil. "When I get my hands on you kids I'm going to DISASSEMBLE YOUR MOLECULES!" Phil yelled, still chasing Steven and Connie.

The pair frantically ran up the hill to try and escape from Phil, only to reach the edge of the cliff.

"Oh no! We're trapped!" Connie said.

"Wait! Hold on! I could use my floating powers and get us down safely." Steven said. However, right after he said that, Phil had caught up to them, now back to his normal form, and caught the two in a tractor beam from his eye.

"Peekaboo!"