Ning looked at the bird more carefully. It was green feathered like emerald gems had been carved into every single feather of this bird.
Its eyes were crimson red while the pupils were abyssal black.
Its beak was the same color as its feathers, only more prismatic. The brown talons slanted towards the back as the bird flew towards Ning with another great burst of speed.
Ning waited for it to do what it did previously, and just in time, the bird disappeared once more to arrive next to Ning.
At the same time, Ning punched the air in front of him where the bird appeared.
When his fist hit the bird's tenfold increased beak, both he and the bird were pushed backward.
Despite his strong body, Ning saw the multiple bleeding points on his knuckles. "Dammit! Just how strong is this bird?" he thought.
The bird wasn't hurt at all, and it immediately returned to attack him once again. This time, it returned with its talon before itself.
If the beak alone was that strong, Ning was sure that its talons would be even stronger.
Instantly, Aether filled his body as his strength skyrocketed to the point it had never before.
Even as the talons flew close to him, Ning's body moved before his mind, and he instantly caught both the talons in his hands.
With a bit of effort, the talons crunched like dry twigs in his hands.
The bird screeched in pain and its wings suddenly turned into a large green silhouette before striking down on Ning.
However, the attack was unable to faze Ning at all. In fact, all the bird managed to do was ruffle his hair a little and put some slashes on his clothes.
'Goddamn, is this bird's feathers really made up of gems?' Ning thought. The wings definitely clinked when they flapped and glistened just like gems.
Ning decided to finish the job and pulled the bird down at an incredible speed while moving his leg at the same time.
The knee hit the bird right in the chest, and in the next instant, the bird's chest was caved in to the point that it could no longer live at all.
To be sure, Ning tore the bird in half before letting it go. He let the Aether in his body disappear quickly. Aether was a rare resource for him now that he wasn't allowed to absorb it from the atmosphere.
He had a few of those giant glass spheres full of Aether, but he wasn't sure how long he was going to be in this place, so he needed to be extra careful.
When he heard the small sound of the bird hitting the ground, he finally looked down and slowly drifted to the ground himself.
He simply had one wish right now, and that was the hope that his bird was one of the 50 different monsters that were supposed to have the crown.
Ning wasn't sure if the monsters were supposed to have it physically on them, or if the crown was supposed to manifest after he killed the beast.
So, he waited patiently for a few seconds and watched the corpse of the bird.
Within a second, a little light flickered from deep inside the bird and Ning's hope grew.
Then, the light increased more and more as something began to emerge from the bird.
"Yes!" Ning shouted in happiness when he saw it. The crown was here. The green light exploded as more of the crown…
"Wait, that's not a crown," Ning thought and looked closely. That was when the giant beak of the bird emerged.
Followed by its giant body, its giant wings, its giant talons, and finally, its long, feathery tails.
The giant, ethereal, emerald bird emerged from the corpse of the bird. This bird was 10 times as large as the dead one.
'What is this? Its soul? Its spirit?' Ning wondered. Then, the ethereal bird turned its crimson eyes towards him.
"Shit!" Ning said and immediately enforced his body once again before dashing forward to kill the bird before it could attack him.
When his punch landed on the bird's body… he felt nothing. His fist passed through the bird, and subsequently his whole body.
Ning tumbled to the ground behind the bird before coming to a stop not far away.
"What?" he looked surprised as he stared back at the bird. He couldn't touch its ethereal body at all like he was fighting its ghost now.
The bird stared at him with a hint of confusion in its eyes. It seemed to be disoriented after dying.
It wasn't intelligent enough to understand what was happening, but seeing its dead body, its instincts kicked in and it got ready to attack again.
Ning couldn't help but frown. He couldn't physically interact with the bird, then how was he going to defeat it?
Just as he thought that the bird moved its wings and started flapping as if ready to fly.
However, what instead happened was a giant green tornado formed around Ning with the wind so sharp as if it had sharp, crystalline rocks flying within it.
Ning pushed back the tornado using reverse gravity, and in an instant, the tornado vanished. But, along with that, the spirit of that bird had also vanished.
'Shit!' Ning thought as he looked around, getting ready for a surprise attack.
Just then, Ning felt something else wrap around him. 'Teleportation?' he thought and used Aether to disrupt space and void the teleportation powers.
The bird appeared out of thin air and slashed its talons at Ning. The talons couldn't touch him, Ning was sure of that, but he still tried to move away just in case.
However, as it transcended space, the talons alone appeared right in front of him and slashed all of the sharp claws at him.
Ning felt the space twist around the talons as it tried to pierce into his body, and despite being an Aether Divinity, Ning could feel his body tearing up at parts as if it were full at the seams.
"Goddammit!" Ning frowned. This bird was more dangerous than he had imagined.
