“Wha- what happened?” Alex said, rubbing his head.

  Alex looked around. He was in a room where there were swords, shields and armor. The light in the room was dim, and the smell of candle wax The light in the room was dim, and waves of unpleasant odor, sweat, blood and urine washed over Alex. He could hear the muffled roar of a crowd, clashing metal and screech of beasts.

  Alex went up to the nearest person and asked, “Is this some special performance for the Guiness world record event?”

  “Ask someone else, slave!” said a tall black man with a huge bushy beard. The man was wearing a full set of silver armor, and looked like a gladiator.

  “Who you calling slave, bro?” said Alex.

  The man grinned, “You shall be my first victim in the arena today, slave!” The man walked away.

  “Oh! My bad, practicing acting before performing are we?”

  Suddenly, a man in a toga came up to Alex, “Hey! What’s going on?” he continued, “You should be in your armor by now! What are you wearing?”

  Right after the man finished talking, several slaves rushed to get a set of armor that fitted Alex perfectly. Alex had seen a documentary once about gladiators. He knew this armor. It was the armor of a Thrax. A curved shield and shortsword, a heavy helm, leg greaves.

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  “Wow! Fancy suit! I hope I am the star of this special performance! You guys really should give me a heads up next time!”

  “Hurry up, you ”1 yelled the man in the toga. “Your fans await you!”

  “Quick rehearsal before the show, am I right? See ya in Hollywood!”

  As Alex slowly strutted towards the doors into the arena, the roar of the crowds got gradually louder and louder. When he stepped onto the arena, the sound of applause that engulfed him was immense. With no hesitation, Alex made a ‘Hulk Hogan’ hand-to-ear move. The crowd loved it and cried even louder.

  He looked at his ‘opponent’ and realized that he looked familiar... a lot like the tall black man with the beard.

  “Wait, you again? From the dressing room?” Alex called out, “Oh! You don’t know what you got yourself into, bro!”

  “Prepare to die! Slave!” The man shouted and advanced.

  “Bring it on!” Alex said, joyfully, “Oh yeah! Don’t go for my face, it kinda ruins…”

  The man got close to Alex and swung his gladius at Alex’s head. Alex quickly dogged backwards, but not fast enough. He felt something wet on his cheek. It stung. He touched it and his hand came away red.

  “Yo, what was that…”

  The man took another strike.

  This time, Alex dodged.

  “Wait! Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!”

  The man stopped, laughing, “What kind of is this?”

  While the man was laughing, Alex scanned the entire arena. One by one, he noticed that each of the crowd were wearing togas. If this was a performance, wouldn’t the audience be in normal clothes? Maybe they were part of the show... but where are the professional cameramen? In fact, there were no cameras at all. But the weirdest part was that there was no lighting!

  And then, Alex remembered the presentation, the purple portal and the device’s countdown: “Time set to 182 AD. Preparing for a time shift in 3…”

  “Excuse me, kind sir,” Alex said to the man.

  “What slave?”

  “What year is it?”

  “Year 572! What do you mean slave?”

  “Year 572…” Alex muttered, “Holy doo doo, this is real!”

  “Yes this is real! Now prepare to die!”