It didn't Blake a long time to come across a beast on his way to the energy mine. That beast was a pitch black crow with a purple head that was just in the middle of eating a mouse when Blake noticed it. Blake felt that the crow shouldn't be too strong so he circled around it a few time before letting out a 'battle chirp' and diving down.

Being rudely interrupted in the middle of its meal, the crow was naturally furious and when it saw the little thing that attacked it, it dodged to the side with a scornful look. It really didn't take Blake seriously due to his small size. What could that little thing possibly do to it? It disdained to even attack him.

Blake didn't really mind that the crow looked down on him as it made killing it a lot easier and besides, right now he was trying to improve the quantity of his fights rather than their quality.

He quickly devised a devious plan to deal with the bird. He intentionally slowed down and tried to cover his sharp beak. He let the crow dodge his attacks a couple of times and when he finally saw it lower its guard, Blake abruptly accelerated. The crow clearly wasn't expecting this as by the time it reacted, Blake's sharp beak was already only a dozen centimeters away from its chest.

However just as Blake's beak was about to touch it, the crow narrowed its eyes and a metallic sheen covered its feathers. It was almost as if it turned into a metal statue. When Blake reached him and tried to pierce him, he actually hurt his beak. It was the same as if a person rammed his head against an iron plate.

After using this weird ability, the crow couldn't move and so it plunged down towards the ground. Blake thought that the crow would transform back before reaching the ground but to his great surprise the crow statue actually hit the ground hard, giving rise to a cloud of dust.

'What the-' Before Blake could even finish his thought, a black streak pierced through the cloud of dust and flew towards him with immense momentum. Blake didn't even need to look carefully as he was sure that it was the crow. He tried to dodge to the side yet the crow seemed to have transformed somehow as it was now a lot stronger than before.

He did his best and managed to cover his vitals so the attack only caused him some superficial injuries. The metallic sheen on the crow's body was a lot duller than before but it hasn't disappeared yet. The crow flew on instead of turning around immediately and only when it lost its momentum did it slowly turn.

Blake figured that the ability increased the crow's raw strength in exchange for the flexibility of its body. Honestly he had no idea how that worked but it did and he didn't have the time to bother with it. Blake was kind of jealous of that ability as it was really cool in his opinion.

Anyway back to the fight. After the crow turned around to face him, Blake noticed that the crow was now staring at him with a confident look. At first he didn't understand why the crow would look at him like that but then it hit him.

'Crap, the crow was slowing down when it was flying upwards, probably because its weight increased, but now it is attacking from above.'

Just as he thought of this and was about to fly higher, the crow plunged down towards him and started spinning like a drill. Blake wondered how it would know where he is...