There is a way to get a companion to help with the fight. Honestly it wasn’t that bad. Give it a shot and see how far you get with your upgrades before looking for the character that can assist you.
This is already looking like a solid starting point!
I find a lot beginners fall into the trap with over sharpening and making it to contrasty.
With how dark the parts on the head of the bird I could see why you wouldn’t want to push the shadows too much but the shadows on the rest of the image could be brought down a bit more if that’s the look you would want to go for though.
But that’s really the key point, how you want it to look and the overall feeling the image conveys. Making the creative choices and experimenting is going to help you find the right balance of colour correction and stylistic grade that will make your images pop.
Ghost: https://ghost.org/