That had been one of the skills in my status, but I hadn’t really known how to use it. Granted, I’d activated the Ice and Snow spell with a random chant, so maybe there wasn’t any strict protocol.

It wasn’t that I had no steps to take.

I dub this “Operation Eye for an Eye.”

“O wind, choose this moment to become my servant and raise a tempest!”

I chanted the exact same words as my opponent. To put it bluntly, I stole ’em. No such thing as copyright in this world!

FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A whirlwind several dozen times larger than my opponent’s formed…

…and headed straight for the other group!

First, it swallowed the magician girl’s whirlwind and absorbed it. That didn’t negate my vortex; on the contrary, it sped up.

“I’ve never seen a whirlwind like that!” “It’s a monster!” “Run!”

My opponents were all taken aback. The storm was just that enormous.

It was safe to say that the moment I’d used magic, they’d lost their will to fight.

If the whirlwind pulled them in, I’d probably be able to send them out of the circle at the very least.

All of my opponents took a direct hit from my tempest. Great, it worked!

Except I think it might have been a bit too strong.

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeek!”

“Aaaaaaaaaaugh!”

“Help meeeeeee!”

Now trapped in the funnel, the party was being blown farther and farther away.

Shoot! I’d underestimated the power of level 99!

This went way beyond “outside the circle”!

The whirlwind gradually weakened with time, however, and at last, the adventurers seemed to touch down softly.

…Right next to the village of Flatta, at the base of the hill.

“Oh, crap…”

Frankly, they’d landed in the worst possible location.

After that, just to make sure, I went to the village.

“To think you’d send a veteran party flying with a single whirlwind! That’s our great Witch of the Highlands!”

“I saw your true power clearly with my own eyes, great Witch!”

“Now our village’s future is secure for several hundred years! You really are level 99, aren’t you?!”

The fact that I’d trounced that party was already the talk of the village.

Well, of course it was. This place was at the foot of the highlands, and they had to have seen that enormous spell…

“Everyone in that party said they were going to start again from square one! They said that, someday, they’d be just like you, great Witch!”

Hey, they were talking about me! That wasn’t the deal!

That said, since I’d launched them into the sky in front of witnesses, there was probably no way to hide it. Lying and telling them a brutal monster had appeared would send the village into a panic…

“Yes. I blew them away with magic.”

That the Witch of the Highlands was level 99 was now official, and everyone knew it.

A DRAGON DROPPED BY

After my true skills became public knowledge (against my will), I sent away for books on monsters and began studying.

I hadn’t developed the urge to slay monsters. Quite the opposite, in fact.

I did it because if I knew enough about monsters, I could give advice to anyone who came asking me to slay one, which meant I could get by without going anywhere.

I wouldn’t mind offering them some help. I just didn’t want anyone working me like a dog.

After all, I’m level 99. Even I know that that’s vanishingly rare in this world.

If all the troublemakers banded together and showed up at my house, it would be an utter disaster.

It had been only ten days since I’d flung that party off my hill, so my life hadn’t changed much. No one had asked me to kill a dragon or anything yet.

The sole difference was that the medicines I sold on consignment through the general store were going faster, so I’d begun gathering more herbs.

People probably believed that remedies made by a level-99 witch would be extra effective. Frankly, there’s not much difference.

“This isn’t a wired society; maybe information takes a while to travel. It sure would be great if the news died down without spreading.”

Saying that aloud might have been a bad idea, because somebody started banging loudly on my door.

Who was it this time?

It was unlikely that such rough blows were coming from a villager.

If I pretended I wasn’t home, they were liable to break the door down, so I hastily opened it.

If they wanted me to help them slay a dragon, I’d teach them a good method for vanquishing the beast and send the visitor on their way. I hoped there were no emergencies or villages in danger of being destroyed.

“Yes, who is it?”

Something enormous stood in front of me.

It was tall. Not only that, it wasn’t human.

Big wings. A big body. Can probably breathe fire. Has a pair of horns.

A dragon had dropped by.

In fact, it had been using its tail to knock. Hence the violent thuds.

“Um…may I ask what brings you here?”

According to the books I’d read, dragons were higher monsters, so they understood human speech.

That it had even knocked on the door at all implied such intelligence.

My book learning was coming in handy right off the bat, but I really wished this hadn’t been the scenario in which it was paying off…

“Here in the province of Nanterre, dragons are said to be the strongest monsters, and I, Laika, am renowned as the strongest of all dragons.”

So dragons don’t just understand human speech—they can use it?

Its voice was so loud that it reverberated in my head. It felt like being at a concert.

“And what might a dragon such as yourself need with me?”

“Recently, I’ve been hearing rumors that the strongest witch in existence lives here.”

“Don’t tell me you’ve come to test your strength…?”

“You’re sharp. That saves time.”

Just how far has that rumor traveled?

I’d at least like to keep it limited to the human race.

This could not have been worse… No one had asked me to go defeat a dragon. The dragon had come to me!

“I don’t want to be known as the ‘strongest’ anything. I just accumulated experience points little by little over three centuries until it became a huge number, that’s all. I’ll concede the title of strongest to you.”

“As if I could settle for that! Fight me. Let’s make this clear, once and for all!”

What a thundering nuisance.

As I keep saying, I don’t run a dojo, so don’t come by to bust it.

“What would you do if I said I don’t want to?”

“First I’d trample your house flat. Then I’d lay waste to your garden.”

Looks like I’ve got no choice but to fight…

If I lost my house, I’d never be able to relax and take life easy.

“All right. Let’s do it. However, I’m not claiming to be the strongest, so if I turn out to be much weaker than you, go easy on me, if you would.”

“Very well. As long as I’m able to confirm I am indeed superior, that will be enough for me.”

We found an area with lots of wide-open space, away from the house. After all, I couldn’t have my home getting wrecked in the course of the battle.

“Now then, I’ll show you the true power of Laika!”

“Yes, yes, by all means, be my guest.”

The dragon flapped its wings and soared into the air.

“I’ll burn you to ash!”

It spit flames from its mouth!

No way was I going to take the brunt of that. No serious burns for me, thank you.

“Freeze everything!”

I slammed an Ice and Snow spell into the flames.

My maneuver seemed to have worked. The spells collided, canceling and erasing the flames.

“Tch! Not bad! So you really are a high-level witch, then!”

Guess I can’t pretend to lose on purpose, either.

In the end, using my true power and defeating it quickly might be the most efficient method.

Well, what’s the best tactic here? After all, my opponent is airborne.

“I now briefly bid the ground farewell!”

I chanted, casting a Levitation spell.

Now you could say I was technically even with the dragon.

I use Levitation often because it makes getting home from Flatta easier.

So, how should I fight from here on out?

I don’t really want to get too close. That means I’ll be using magic, but I doubt a whirlwind could blow away an opponent of this size as easily as a human. Even if I did manage to knock my visitor out of the sky, if it fell on the village, it would cause massive damage.

A Lightning Attack, then? To be honest, though, I didn’t think I could control my power. Unlike slimes, dragons were highly intelligent, and if I killed one, I suspected I’d feel guilty. I’d do my best not to take its life.

That left Flame or Ice and Snow.

Dragons actually breathed fire, so flames might not do anything to them.

So it would have to be Ice and Snow.

“Mimic me and fly, will you? The insolence!”

The dragon raised a hand to slap me out of the air, but I evaded easily.

That empty swing left the dragon vulnerable.

I slipped right in close to it.

“I’ll burn you out of the sky!” The dragon opened its mouth, preparing to spit fire again.

Just what I’d been waiting for.

I sent an Ice and Snow spell right at its mouth.

“Freeze everything!”

The dragon’s jaw was immobilized in a burst of frost.