Before we entered the desert, I pulled back Birdie's feathers so it could stop. I got off it and cleaned its face with my shirt. I put the shirt in my harness' pocket as I could feel the warm weather ahead of us and continued the journey shirtless. I noticed…abdominal muscles?! How in the world did I rebuilt them?! I had not worked out since college and my skinny-fat physique had been replaced by a nice set of abdominals, bicep guns, and a mouthwatering body! This bio-dome race sure kicked the butt out of crossfitness training!

After galloping at a steady phase for a couple of minutes, we saw a walking figure. "Let's go!" - We accelerated towards it… The figure became more visible as we approached, it turned around.

"Fancy seeing you again!" - smiled Arnold - "Well, this is a competition after all. Join me in this sick game." - he invited me.

"With my luck, I can't even imagine what's coming up!" - I accepted the challenge with intensity in my eyes.

"See those small, rocky hills around the desert? We are standing on one right now. It turns out that I've been running from these @#$% giant-golden moles which pop-up whenever I'm not on a hill. Let's see who can whack the most and avoids getting eaten by them!"

A scoreboard propelled itself towards us and was being kept afloat by drones: it displayed our names, had a picture-avatar of us, a timer ticking backwards from 5:00, and displayed, 0, for both of us.

"Meet you in the finish lane!"" - said Arnold as he slid downhill on a…snowboard?! When did he get that?

I tapped Birdie and we rushed downhill! - "Pretty smooth sliding!" - I complimented Arnold.

"Stay alert, we'll enter their territory soon!" - Arnold directed the board to a raised slope which he used as a ramp and performed a 360. We reached the end of the cliff and jumped to the sand. We were standing side to side. We looked around the silent, lifeless, desert. We proceeded walking cautiously.

"Well, we might have a draw" - I smiled...

ROAR!! ROAR!! ROAR!! - a dozen of giant-gold moles popped from the ground surrounding us. One of them was next to Arnold, it opened its mouth and bit his leg! Arnold smiled and said, "well, aren't you a feisty one?" - He raised his fist and whacked the mole's head with one blow!

The other moles were digging our way rapidly. A mole jumped to us and opened its jaws, Birdie drilled it in midair. Some moles vanished in the ground, only to appear next to Birdie ready to bite. Birdie peeked them swiftly.

I turned to see Arnold and saw how he hammered like watermelons mole's heads with his bare hands - "Bro!" - I said in amazement.

A mole jumped and bit Birdie's butt. Birdie screeched! I turned my body, grabbed my hunter's knife, and stabbed the mole's head. The first wave of moles was exterminated. Arnold's score was ahead of us, the timer kept ticking down.

"You are a worthy challenger" - smiled Arnold. We continued walking.

"You are on a terror bird, I'm on my feet. You should be aware of its stamina and vitality. If you need to recover, you know where to run to" - Arnold gave me a thumbs up…

Around 30 golden moles popped around us, all of them screaming with their deafening screech. Arnold and us rushed at them, "Come at me, bro!" - yelled Arnold.

Moles jumped at us and Birdie pecked them in midair. They tried the same butt strategy, but I rode Birdie backwards in anticipation to their back attacks; I slashed them in half. Birdie fell to the ground and laid breathing heavily. - "Oh, no! You're getting tired!" - I said as I jumped off.

I wore its deceased friend beak-knuckle I picked previously and held the hunter's knife on my other hand. I turned to see how Arnold was doing. That MOFO pulled out 2 moles from the ground and squeezed them like oranges!

I rushed towards the incoming wave of moles and pierced through the closest one with a beak-punch. Another mole jumped to my stretched arm that had its buddy nailed to it and bit me. I cracked its forehead with my hunter's knife.

Mole's screeched as they surrounded me and blocked my way back to Birdie…Then I heard it, Birdie growled in pain as it was outnumbered by moles, chewing it, preying on its body…