Brent closed his eyes and took in a slow, deep breath as he stepped into the arena and therefore into the third challenge of IMPS. He couldn't believe he'd made it three-fourths of the way through IMPS. It wasn't that he didn't have faith and confidence in himself. It was the fact that all sixteen of the chosen champions were really good, and the competition was intense. With the incoming warmer weather, he was expecting to be greeted with intense heat. Maybe even warmth. It had never crossed his mind that there might be a frozen tundra awaiting him. The chill immediately met his body, and his gaze traveled first to the snow standing up to his knees and then to the snow traveling up the mountaintops as far as his eyes could see.

As a California boy, this was intimidating.

As he shivered in response to his new environment, he realized he needed to act fast. He had no idea where he was, but it reminded him of Antarctica, a place he'd only read about in textbooks. If this place was anything like Antarctica, he'd freeze to death unless he found a way to protect himself.

For insulation and warmth, he cast, "Caelum Saepio!" It was a spell he'd used before in this competition, but it was useful, and as the old saying goes, 'Why fix what isn't broken?' With the chill taken care of, he turned his wand to the snow packed around the lower part of his legs. There was seriously a lot of snow around here, more than he'd ever expected to see in his lifetime. He cast a Hot-air Charm on the snow to melt it away from his body, so that he was free to move around and at least create a path for himself. At last, he caught site of his feet again, and he was happy to see they hadn't been frostbitten in the time they'd been buried. He pointed his wand toward his shoes. "Henshu!" he called out, in hopes of giving himself better traction. This wasn't exactly the kind of environment he wanted to go slipping and sliding through. A final spell came to mind, and he began pointing his wand at his body in various places as he cast it. "Impervius!" he exclaimed, hoping he could make his clothes and body waterproof.

He'd insulated himself, gotten the snow away from his legs, given his feet better traction, and made himself waterproof. With the feeling that the environment wasn't going to immediately kill him now, Brent's eyes turned toward the piles of snow surrounding him. There was literally no pathway through the snow, and it would take him forever to use the Hot-air Charm on every inch of snow he encountered. He squinted in concentration as he tried to recall the spell to take large chunks out of an object. He remembered reading that it had once been used to carve out rock and ice, so it could carve a pathway for him, right? "Defodio!" he said.