History OneManArmy / Literature

** To put it in prospective, Voldemort is seen to effortlessly murder a room full of Death Eaters in book seven, and still he's afraid of Albus Dumbledore.

* In HarryPotter, both Lord Voldemort and Professor Dumbledore.

* In the period between the first and second book of the CouncilWars series, we have a town requesting an infantry legion be sent to deal with the raids from a neighboring town. They get [[{{Badass}} Herzer Herrick]]. What does he do when he arrives? [[SubvertedTrope He trains the town militia up to a decent standard of performance.]]

** Harry himself is no slouch [[spoiler: expecially not now that he's the Winter Knight]]. To whit: He has done everything from [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome summoning a zombie T-Rex]], to [[GravityMaster taking the force of gravity from a quater mile radius and condensing it all down into a range about 200m accross]], to [[PlayingWithFire setting an entire mansion on fire at once]], [[{{Badass}} and so on and so forth.]] There is a reason that [[spoiler: now that Morgan's dead]] he is the most infamous warden in the world. [[spoiler: Now that he's the Winter Knight, it's even better. When he really cuts loose, he can jump 50m with a few step start, form ice claws sharper than steel and use them faster than Sidhe can react, and bench press in the realm of 400 Kilos.]]

* In ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', Turin's father, Hurin, performs a YouShallNotPass to cover the ''entire'' back of the human army in the Battle of Countless Tears. He fights off the entire orc and troll army, killing so many that [[AtopAMountainOfCorpses the orcs use the bodies as a bridge to cross the river he was guarding]]. And [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome yelling "Day shall come again!" every time he struck]]. Until his axe [[BadAss melted in his hands]]. He got captured, but still, biggest badass in Middle Earth
** Feanor was no slouch either, remember that one time Gandalf fought a Balrog and it was a tie? Feanor fought all of them. Every Balrog. At once, and it STILL took them hours, and a being that was on par with Sauron, meaning second only to Morgoth himself, to take him down. And this is after chasing a routed army virtually alone for hours. There is a reason he was called the greatest elf.

* Roland of Gilead, TheGunslinger of Creator/StephenKing's ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' series. In the first book, he kills [[spoiler:EVERY SINGLE PERSON in a town of dozens of people, all with a pair of six shooters, while they were armed and charging him in a crazed mob.]]

* Roland of Gilead, TheGunslinger of Creator/StephenKing's ''DarkTower'' series. In the first book, he kills [[spoiler:EVERY SINGLE PERSON in a town of dozens of people, all with a pair of six shooters, while they were armed and charging him in a crazed mob.]]

* [[MatadorSeries Emile Khadaji]] is a literal one-man army, though he uses deceptive tactics to make it appear otherwise. He parlyzes 2,388 soldiers over the course of six months, then when he's about to be found out, he does the same to their commander, then turns himself in. As intended, it inspires others to start a revolution. "If one man can do this alone, think what all of you can do together."

*** And even [[MagicKnight the Wardens]] pale in comparison to [[PersonOfMassDestruction The Senior Council.]] Summed up, this is a group of the 7 most powerful wizards on the planet. Not 7 of the most powerful. ''The'' 7 most powerful. This group includes: "Injun Joe" Listens-To-Wind, a native american shaman who is so proficient at spellcasting and shapeshifting he can [[CurbStompBattle curbstomp]] the native equivalent of an angel and make it look easy, Ebenezer [[spoiler: Blackstaff]] McCoy(considered the magical equivalent of the Heavyweight boxing champion) who is so strong he can pull a satellite out of orbit and [[ColonyDrop drop it on his enemies mansion]] and ''casually''[[spoiler: [[NightmareFuel literally rip the lives out of hundreds of people at once]]]]. Taking the cake though is The Merlin(the title of the leader of the White Council, named after [[KingArthur the obvious]]) is generally considered to be the single most skilled and powerful wizard on the planet. He stops the army of the Red Court with ''one ward''. This entailed keeping over a dozen PhysicalGods held back long enough for his own army to escape, and he did it with one ward. As Harry(and Morgan) notes:"You don't become Merlin of the White Council by collecting bottlecaps."

* In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' there's BigBad Visser Three and BadassAutomaton Erek King.

* ''TheInheritanceCycle'': Roran. It was one hundred and ninety three! Any of the Dragon Riders and elves probably count, but it's never stated explicitly.

** Any of the [[MagicKnight Wardens]] also qualify. Dresden himself is generally no slouch in the combat department, but even he is struck by the difference between his usual battle magic and the skill, ferocity, and efficiency with which dedicated Wardens can go to town. In ''Dead Beat'', the first time we really see Wardens at work, five of them scythe their way through [[NightOfTheLivingMooks dozens of zombies]] within minutes--and with [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Dresden zombies]], think less ''Film/DawnOfTheDead'' and more ''{{Terminator}}''. It's mentioned that Morgan once got within 20 yards of [[OurVampiresAreDifferent The Red King]], which entailed cutting his way through several {{Physical God}}s in addition to what must have been dozens of regular vampires in the way.\

** Harry himself is no slouch [[spoiler: expecially not now that he's the Winter Knight]]. To whit: He has done everything from [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome: summoning a zombie T-Rex]], to [[GravityMaster taking the force of gravity from a quater mile radius and condensing it all down into a range about 200m accross]], to [[PlayingWithFire setting an entire mansion on fire at once]], [[{{Badass}} and so on and so forth.]] There is a reason that [[spoiler: now that Morgan's dead]] he is the most infamous warden in the world. [[spoiler: Now that he's the Winter Knight, it's even better. When he really cuts loose, he can jump 50m with a few step start, form ice claws sharper than steel and use them faster than Sidhe can react, and bench press in the realm of 400 Kilos.]]

** Any of the [[MagicKnight Wardens]] also qualify. Dresden himself is generally no slouch in the combat department, but even he is struck by the difference between his usual battle magic and the skill, ferocity, and efficiency with which dedicated Wardens can go to town. In ''Dead Beat'', the first time we really see Wardens at work, five of them scythe their way through [[NightOfTheLivingMooks dozens of zombies]] within minutes--and with [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Dresden zombies]], think less ''Film/DawnOfTheDead'' and more ''{{Terminator}}''. It's mentioned that Morgan once got within 20 yards of [[OurVampiresAreDifferent The Red King]], which entailed cutting his way through several {{Physical God}}s in addition to what must have been dozens of regular vampires in the way.

* Literature/TheBible Samson slew a thousand men of the Philistine force sent to capture him...with a jawbone of an ass. {{Cracked}} said it best: "the Philistines went to war against just Samson. And, they pretty much lost."

* In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}} there's BigBad Visser Three and BadassAutomaton Erek King.

** Feanor was no slouch either, remember that one time Gandalf fought a blarog and it was a tie (they are both angels remember), Feanor fought all of them. Every Balrog. At once, and it STILL took them hours to take him down. And this is after chasing a routed army virtually alone for hours. There is a reason he was called the greatest elf.

** In ''Changes'', Murphy does a very decent impression of Michael. Only, she comes across as more of a LeeroyJenkins. It was still awesome, and in the classical sense of the word, which is what happens when one of the Archangels is hitching along for the ride.

* [[WheelOfTime Rand al'Thor]] is a bit of a loose cannon, but as the Seanchan discovered to their dismay, he is more than capable of blowing their front lines back across several hundred miles of previously secure territory in the space of an afternoon. Even if he had help. And blew a few of his comrades up too, but hey, that's insanity for you. By the antepenultimate and penultimate books in the series, he not only is able to unwittingly affect an entire city, for good or ill, just by being there, but capable of feats unaided that make the previous, aided, efforts against the Seanchan seem mundane.

** Then again, Wedge is the only pilot in the entire StarWarsExpandedUniverse to have flown against two Death Stars and lived to tell the tales.

* Roland of Gilead, TheGunslinger of StephenKing's ''DarkTower'' series. In the first book, he kills [[spoiler:EVERY SINGLE PERSON in a town of dozens of people, all with a pair of six shooters, while they were armed and charging him in a crazed mob.]]

* A {{Bolo}} is effectively a One ''Tank'' Army. Earlier models get referred to as Continental Siege Units, while later ones take it UpToEleven, becoming ''Planetary'' Siege Units, able to engage everything from a lowly foot soldier up to ''space battleships''.

* Druss the Legend from [[DavidGemmell David Gemmell's]] Drenai Series. With no training he kills six well armed veterans with a wood axe. Later he attacks a camp of forty raiders single-handedly and wins (Though this could probably be attributed to the fact their camp was on fire and their horses stampeding at the time). Throughout his life he goes through many such badass actions: Fighting a boxing champion to a standstill at the age of 17, ending sieges through single-combat with enemy champions, fighting hundreds of battles and campaigns, literately been to hell and back twice. But the greatest moment of Badassery is his death. 60 years old, poisoned and heavily wounded he holds the gates of Dros Denloch for a while against a horde of enemies, taking over thirty with before he finally falls.

* Honourable mention to the [[{{Discworld}} Kingdom of Lancre]], whose standing army literally consists of only one (normal) man: Shawn Ogg.

* TheBible Samson slew a thousand men of the Philistine force sent to capture him...with a jawbone of an ass. {{Cracked}} said it best: "the Philistines went to war against just Samson. And, they pretty much lost."

** In ''[[{{VideoGame/RogueSquadron}} Rogue Leader]]'', if the player knows what they're doing, Wedge can [[http://www.viddler.com/explore/ServerError404/videos/16/ take out a Star Destroyer within a minute]]. By himself.

* He's a pilot, not a commando, but [[XWingSeries Wedge Antilles]] is an [[AcePilot astonishingly good pilot]] who, more importantly, survives. The series mentions kill silhouettes painted on snubfighters--as well as having half of a Death Star, Wedge has so many TIES that they're grouped into wings, not individuals. In a later book, a character painting up a fighter is hip-deep in [[TheInfiltration infiltrating]] the enemy as a bombastic SpacePirate, and adds a ridiculous number of kill silhouettes.

** In ''[[RogueSquadron Rogue Leader]]'', if the player knows what they're doing, Wedge can [[http://www.viddler.com/explore/ServerError404/videos/16/ take out a Star Destroyer within a minute]]. By himself.