A/N: Sorry for the delay.

Chapter 10: Blood and Battle

Harry released Shanks, trusting the pirate to run on his own, in favor of using both hands to retrieve his eavesdropping orb from his robes. He grabbed the ball from the box before stuffing the container back into his pocket, snapping out questions in the meantime.

"Skit, which way?"

The pirate threw an arm up to point the way as he yelled, "Right turn at this fork!"

"Incendio!" Harry flicked off, lighting the navigation rope on fire. Burning the marker to stone black ashes should significantly slow down any straggling parties from reinforcing the enemy.

"Shanks, any suggestions?" the wizard asked before activating his glass orb in the hopes of picking up some information on traps and attack patterns as the Lieutenant ordered around his men.

"Skit," Shanks finally called out, "think you could maybe lead us to another wide cavern? If we go back to the entrance, there may be marines there to shoot down at us from above."

"Will do, Captain."

"Nokah, stay in the back and keep us alert on how far behind the enemy is."

"Got it, Captain," the pirate replied, slowing down slightly and pulling out a small mirror. He flicked it around at several angles before calling out, "there's a ten meter gap at the moment; we're relatively safe since the leaders of the pack don't have the guns out right now. No worries if they do though," he concluded cheekily.

"Dahaha," Shanks laughed in his carefree manner. "Your haki armor's the best, Nokah, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

"Left at the next fork!"

The sharp turn brought the pirate group from the pursuing army's line of vision, but it was only a matter of time. Harry's orb vibrated lightly with the attack cries of Lieutenant Rango's subordinates, only occasionally cut in with orders to ignore the burning rope, to run orderly as trained, to keep an eye out for a devil fruit, and to leave the pirate captain alone. Rango, it seemed, was just as eager for a rematch as his pirate counterpart.

"There's one cavern that's close if we take a left up ahead, but it's smaller than the entrance pit," Skit offered.

"Will it hold us twice over?"

"More than three times, less than five," the pirate confirmed.

"Perfect," Harry smiled. "That gives us room enough to maneuver while restricting the Marines."

"But less room means you can't escape from my haki," Shanks protested. "That cuts in on my most effective attack for the masses of foot soldiers. I mean, I'm not saying the nine of us can't take on just five dozen marines, but that's a lot of bodies."

Harry frowned in thought. "How good is your armaments haki?"

"I can stop bullets as long as they're not reinforced or shot point-blank."

"Then have your men enter the cavern. You stay in the passageway and cut down as many of the Marines as you can before joining up. Wait, first pull in your haki as much as possible."

Harry cast a light sticking charm on Shanks' hands followed by a disillusionment charm. As the magic trickled down the pirate captain's body, its effect flickered slightly before finally settling, successfully turning Shanks into a human chameleon.

"The left turn is coming," a pirate yelled, urging the group on faster.

"Alright Shanks, I'm going to levitate you to the ceiling of the cavern. Your hands should stick tight. Release your conquering haki when you think the time is right. The effects of the sticking and camouflage will break the moment you let your haki out, so be prepared and keep a tight hold on it until you're ready."

"Got it."

The pirates filed into the cavern while Harry stuck Shanks to the ceiling and quickly flew himself up as well. The idea of having the pirate captain fall into a large group of marines alone when the spells broke made Harry uneasy, so instead the wizard stuck himself a meter away and cast a powerful Protego in front of himself in hopes that it would lessen the effect of Shanks' haki.

Less than a minute later the pirates could hear the Marine soldiers thundering down the tunnel. Fortunately for the Red-Hair pirates, their enemies' large size was a disadvantage when navigating the changing pathways, but now that the actual fighting was due, some weeding would be necessary.

"HAAH!"

Startled by the loud cry from above, several marines glanced upwards towards the sound and were caught off-guard by the wave of haki, sending over half their numbers tumbling to the ground unconscious. Both Harry and Shanks dropped as the haki blew away the magic spells but were able to run into the cave in the confusion.

"Not so fast," the Lieutenant growled. With a quick draw, he slid his sword from its sheath and attacked the pirate captain, clipping the man's shirt as he rolled past the grotto entrance.

Jumping to his feet, Shanks turned back and drew his saber with a smirk. "Let's go, men!"

"Marines, attack!"

Battle cries erupted as the two groups collided and clashed with swords and knives, most choosing to forgo firearms in the tight area. The Marines clearly outnumbered the outlaws, entering the cave in waves, though it didn't do them much good as the pirates swiftly cut them down. The dead and unconscious bodies littered across the stone room's entrance, impeding the Marines' progress.

Lieutenant Rango, recognizing the debilitating effect of Shanks' haki on his men, pushed the pirate captain away from the cavern entrance towards the back of the room. The pirate crew, familiar with their captain's idea of fun, steered clear as well.

A sweep from the right was easily deflected by a vertical parry followed by a diagonal slash in return that was ducked under in favor of carrying out a strike from below across the chest. Harry watched the fight with appraising eyes for a few moments, following the glinting swords and humming in surprise when certain strikes left no mark due to both participants' apparent mastery of their haki as armor.

The wizard, however, wasn't satisfied being just a spectator. Glancing around the enclosed area with distaste, he apparated out into the tunnel at the back of the marine company.

Casting a disillusionment charm, he immediately silenced the few marines alerted by the cracking sound of his travel with clean cuts across the throat. This did, however, have the unfortunate effect of splashing blood on his camouflaged body. Harry quickly dispelled the first spell and recast it, the image of his body flickering into view before it disappeared once more. Grasping dagger and throwing knives in his assured grip, he slid through the gaps of the crowd and attacked.

The gurgling of Harry's first victim as he fell to the ground, hands futilely holding back the blood gushing from his jugular vein, alerted the others to the attacker in their midst. The six soldiers not yet engaged in battle with pirates turned around, eyes searching for the enemy. As Harry flickered again to hide the new blood stains, they immediately attacked, only to find no one there and another of their numbers down, this time with a throwing knife in his eye.

In less than five minutes, Harry killed another two and knocked the others unconscious with heavy blows to the neck. Inside the cave, the pirates were finished as well and gathered along the walls, patching various injuries as they cheered their captain on.

"Done already?" Harry asked cheerfully, dropping down next to the katana wielding duo Toki and Taki, wiping off his dagger on the shirt of a fallen Marine before returning it to his robes.

"Most of them were rookies," Toki snorted.

"Weak," Taki added.

"That's not too surprising," Harry replied, "since their Lieutenant was only recently relocated to the Grand Line. No major injuries then? You'd think the marines would have some fighting formations or some such to better use their advantage in sheer numbers."

"Some," Taki admitted, showing his bleeding arm that Toki was tying off with a strip of cloth from his ripped shirt.

"That's the other good part of Captain's haki. Most teams aren't formed based on the strength of their wills. If half a team's members are taken down before the real fight, any formation is just too filled with holes to work against us. To fight Grand Line pirates at their level would require specialized strategizing they clearly didn't do."

"Well, their leader didn't know we had the same goal until this morning. Speaking of which, how much longer do you think they'll keep fighting?"

Toki and Taki traded looks before replying with dubious expressions. "It really depends on the captain," Toki explained. "Normally, in such a situation, you would expect the Lieutenant to feel anxious about being the only marine still standing, but he seems to have completely forgotten about all his men. Captain, on the other hand, is having a lot of fun, so…"

"A long time," Taki concluded.

"That's no good," Harry frowned, giving a sweeping glance around the cave. The fight was much shorter than he expected, and he didn't like the idea of sitting around just because someone was purposefully dragging their duel out.

"Oi, Shanks," he yelled out swinging back to his feet. "Wrap it up already, alright? What if the fruit in my pocket rots, huh?"

Shanks laughed, and with a lightening quick flick, reversed the sweep of his saber to attack the Lieutenant's sword. The blade fell from the marine's hands to the floor with a dull clatter.

"Devil fruits don't rot, Harry," Shanks grinned, holding his blade against his opponent's throat. Lieutenant Rango scowled for a moment, gritting his teeth in the humiliation of his loss, before his body slackened.

"Ensign," he barked, "the objective is here with an unidentified male of black hair and green eyes. Blow that ship into wood chips."

In shock and anger, Shanks stabbed his blade into the marine's shoulder, ignoring the smothered scream of pain as he reached into a bulging pocket and retrieved a Den Den Mushi.

"It seems we'd better return to Beckman," Shanks commented lightly, tugging his saber free and replacing it at the side of his hip. "I doubt he's in any trouble, but let's not underestimate the dirty tricks up a Marine's sleeve simply because they're the law. You ready Skit?" he called out towards the man who finished taping close a wound on his leg.

"No prob, Captain," he saluted, shoving himself up from his place on the floor. The group fell into a quick pace back to the pit hole.

"Homenum Revelio!"

There was thankfully no ambush of marines waiting for them and the pirates clambered up the rock face. Harry followed along behind them, choosing to conserve his magic.

A path through the forest had already been cleared by the Marines, so the group cut through easily along the obstacle-free trail. Soon enough, the booming of cannonball fire could be heard. The group picked up the pace and skidded across the beach where they saw the Red Hair Pirate ship engaged in battle with a small fleet of three Marine ships. Yassop was sniping from the crow's nest and the deck had a few people dashing around to put out fires and retrieve the occasional cannonball. Beckman and Lucky Roo had both somehow or another landed on enemy ships and were cutting down the enemy numbers. The others, Harry could only assume, were down below firing the cannons.

"In the boats then," Harry advised with a smile, "and don't bother with the paddles."

The pirates piled into the two rowboats they had used to dock on the island and Harry tapped them both twice with his wand, propelling the boats quickly to the mother ship. A stray cannonball was shockingly reflected away from the group by a punch from Nokah and they arrived at their destination with no additional trouble.

"Captain!"

"Captain, you've returned!"

"Captain, orders sir?"

"Ahoy, there Captain! Come to join the fun?"

The pirates aboard the ship greeted their captain before continuing their duties. Shanks glanced around at his vessel first and then looked outwards at the enemy fleet. Finally, he turned back towards the treasure hunting team that was pulling up the rowboats from the ocean.

"Well men, do what you like. I'll be taking on that extra ship there." Shanks pointed to the lead ship Beckman and Lucky Roo had left alone with a broad grin before shucking off his shirt and jumping overboard.

"He plans on swimming across?" Harry asked skeptically, looking overboard in hopes of a better glimpse at Shanks' half-naked body. He made a mental note to get a good look upon the pirate captain's return, since he would doubtless be a sexy sight with his wet hair and trousers clinging to his skin.

Toki and Taki shrugged. "Yes," Taki answered succinctly.

"Captain likes swimming," Toki explained, "and it works. He just needs to climb up the ship side, usually with a pair of daggers for hand holds if there's no rope ladder, and he's on the deck, ready to fight. Plus, it's not that far, really."

Harry shook his head with a chuckle. Not far indeed. It was at least a hundred meters distance in rough waters by Harry's estimation. "How does he still have his hat on? No, never mind. I'm going for a better view of the fight." He swung up the rigging to the crow's nest and landed beside Yassop who was lying on the floor beside a rifle.

"Welcome back," Yassop smiled, loading another bullet. "A triumphant return, I hope?"

"Of course," Harry grinned. "And ready to help the allies in distress, yeah?"

"Pfft," the sniper pirate scoffed, patting the long barrel of his current weapon . "I'm afraid that at this distance, your little knives won't help much. Even I needed to switch from my pistols."

Harry just hummed, patting down his robes before reaching into an inner pocket. "It's true throwing knives wouldn't work in this kind of situation," he admitted. "The distance makes it impossible to time the throw accurately for the weapon to hits its target blade first. But if the problem is limited to needing power to reach greater distances, well, an alternative propulsion method is simple enough." He pulled out leather pouch of throwing stars, etched with runes. "Ah, it's been ages since I've needed to use these. I wonder if I'm still any good."

The wizard gripped one firmly between thumb and forefinger and squinted, wishing not for the first time that it were possible to add a vision zooming charm to his glasses. Hermione had quite a lecture about how such a feature was impractical and dangerous, however, so he pushed the thought from his mind and aimed at the small human figure he could make out tying the sails up on top of the bow side mast.

Evidence that his aim was true came a minute later when the small silhouette was observed tumbling down to the deck from a dangerous height. That particular Marine would be out of the fight for quite some time. Yassop whistled in admiration.

"I'm going to have to make more of these," Harry muttered to himself, fanning out his remaining stars and frowning when he counted less than two dozen. 'Especially with my magic handicapped in this world,' he thought. 'Of course, with restricted magic come a restricted number of runes I can carve in one sitting. So irritating.'

"Ah!" the wizard half sighed and half yelled in exasperation. He put the stars away and flopped to the floor of the lookout platform. 'I wonder how much longer I can last without a proper preparation period,' he thought to himself. 'To think I haven't cast a single battle spell and I've already used so much magic resources.'

"Would you like a gun?" Yassop offered, when it became clear Harry wasn't going to use any more of his magic throwing stars.

Harry winced. "That's, er, not a good idea. Guns in my hands explode like firecrackers with more or less the same damage depending on how much gunpowder is loaded in it."

Yassop raised an eyebrow – Merlin, could everyone do that but him, Harry wondered – and gave a skeptical click of his tongue. "If you say so," he accepted, before turning back to fire another shot.

The sky was delicate blue with clouds, and smoke floated gently across in shades of white and gray as Harry gazed upwards. He settled in for a long wait as the battle raged beneath him.

Who was he kidding? Harry Potter, the Man-Who-Conquered, did not just wait around in the middle of a fight just because his magic was low and his supplies limited. Summoning up his energy, the wizard apparated aboard the lead ship with a loud crack. Here, he'd likely find the officer in charge, that Ensign ranked Marine the Lieutenant was ordering.

And it didn't hurt that Shanks was due to arrive any second now, soaking wet and shirtless.

A/N: So the Red Hair Pirates kick ass :)

The first adventure is finally about to be wrapped up! I'll probably give Harry one more cool fight scene and then move on and get to fixing the millions of side plots I've got going on, haha. Especially Harry and Shanks' relationship ;)

Thanks bunches to my beta, Indifferent Nobody, for her amazingly thorough work.

11/7/11 with 163 reviews!