Welcome back, once again, to Enchantments! For all the new faces, I am Professor Mullen. Today, we will be discussing Neigo. Neigo is an annual winter dueling competition run by the International Dueling Association (IDA), and it is unique to the United States. The competition is only one match long, and it features the year's winner of the International Dueling Competition (IDC) facing off against a witch or wizard chosen by the IDA. This year's competitors will be Lisa Arring, the winner of the IDC and a good friend of mine, and Renalda V'riss. At the moment, I know very little about Miss V'riss. She was specially chosen by the IDA, so I presume she is a very good Dueler.

Neigo will be held on the 30th of December in Messington, Colorado at the Batalla Stadium where the IDC is usually held. In proper Neigo tradition, the arena will be covered in ice and snow, and various obstacles such as ice walls will be spread about. This is a tradition that began with the very first Neigo competition in 1936, and it makes the match much more interesting to watch and difficult to win.

I participated in Neigo last year for winning the IDC, and I faced off against Marlo Ruez. Marlo and I dueled hard and dueled long, but in the end Ruez beat me with a Freezing Water Spell. You see, I was using fire-oriented hexes to melt the ice around Marlo as I hurt him, but most of those spells lost their strength mid-flight because it was so cold. I could have thrown a fireball at him the size of a basketball, but it would have hit him the size of a Golden Snitch. Marlo used the cold to his advantage. He manipulated freezing ice without fear of it losing strength. In fact, the arena being as cold as it was helped his various water- and ice-oriented spells.

I will finish off today's lesson by giving a brief overview of ice and water spells we have learned before. The first one I taught many of you was the Snow Spell, with the incantation of Snewful Denaris. This is a mutli-useful spell, because it can be used to throw or - with practice - lift the opponent. It can also be used to surround and overwhelm the opponent, which gives you much time to use your next enchantment. The Freezing Water Spell that Marlo used to defeat me is performed by saying Meeshnook. This spell is used to cover and freeze an opponent. It is extremely helpful with slowing down whoever you are facing, believe me. Finally, the Icicle Spell, activated with the incantation Icerabera, is an excellent spell for simply trying to stab your opponent. It is, essentially, the same as the Arrow Spell, but can be more or less dangerous, depending on the situation.

HOMEWORK: Answer the following questions.

1. What is the Neigo?
2. When and where is it held?
3. Who are this year's competitors?
4. Who runs the Neigo?
5. When was the first Neigo held?
6. What is the tradition for the Neigo arena?
7. When I competed, who did I face, and what was the outcome of the match?
8. Which of the three spells that I listed would you use in Neigo and why?