History OneManArmy / Literature

** He's a pilot, not a commando, but Wedge Antilles is an [[AcePilot astonishingly]] [[ImprobablePilotingSkills good pilot]] who, more importantly, survives ''absolutely everything thrown at him ever''. 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 rendered in [[ChromaticSuperiority red]], so that one TIE silhouette represents twelve kills, because he's taken out too many to fit on the fuselage otherwise. 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.

* While ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' has a strong base of SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome to it that keeps this kind of thing fairly limited, [[WorldsStrongestMan Ser Gregor Clegane]] is a definite example. An almost 8-foot tall giant of a man with immense strength, he is able to wear armour-plate that most men would be unable to even move in, while still being fast for someone of his size. This is in addition to chain and leather armor underneath said leaden plate as extra cushioning. He is also able to wield a two-handed greatsword as if it were a dagger, allowing him the use of a shield in the other hand. The result is a man who can charge and break pike lines all on his own: now, just for giggles, add a very big horse. [[AxCrazy Worse, he's got the psychotic bloodlust to do just this whenever, wherever]].

** Literature/RythmOfWar also indicates this is true of the Heralds. One of them is able to hold off [[spoiler:half a dozen Windrunners]] effortlessly, absolutely stunning Dalinar. According to the Stormfather, this level of skill was roughly ''average'' for the Heralds. Taln was unquestionably considered the greatest warrior of the group, so one can only imagine what he could do.

* In ''Series/BabylonFive: The Passing of the Techno-Mages'' trilogy, [[BaldOfAwesome Galen]] becomes the most powerful Technomage by the end of the third book and is able to wipe out an entire city block by himself, as well a the planetary defense ships. When confronting Kosh, the latter isn't certain he would come out on top if Galen chose to fight. Later, Galen goes to Z'ha'dum and not only survived, but also helps Sheridan survive (more or less) and shuts down the planet's observation network. He also manages to take on two rogue Technomages, who have sided with the Shadows and learned some dangerous tricks of their own. Compared to that, his feats in ''Series/{{Crusade}}'' seem like child's play.

** Harry himself is no slouch [[spoiler: especially not now that he's the Winter Knight]]. To whit: He has done everything from [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome 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 across]], to [[PlayingWithFire setting an entire mansion on fire at once]], 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.]] He's also enough of a MemeticBadass that a group of Wardens, all of whom were more skilled and experienced than him, hesitate to take him on.

** Voldemort is infamous for having murdered some of the most powerful and skilled wizards and witches around, both alone and in groups. Perspectively, he is seen to effortlessly slaughter a room full of Death Eaters and took on McGonagall, Slughorn, and Kingsley, all of whom are on the level of this, the latter two having also taken out multiple opponents at once and while he didn't outright beat them until he got angry and his magic exploded, they were described as being unable to finish him off either.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', both Lord Voldemort and Professor Dumbledore. To put it in perspective, Voldemort is seen to effortlessly murder a room full of Death Eaters in book seven, and still he's afraid of Albus Dumbledore (who can single-handedly overpower an entire contingent of Aurors). Who is, at that point, [[spoiler:dead. But Voldy still gets rattled by the name when Harry mentions Dumbledore]] during their final confrontation.

* While ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' has a strong base of RealityEnsues to it that keeps this kind of thing fairly limited, [[WorldsStrongestMan Ser Gregor Clegane]] is a definite example. An almost 8-foot tall giant of a man with immense strength, he is able to wear armour-plate that most men would be unable to even move in, while still being fast for someone of his size. This is in addition to chain and leather armor underneath said leaden plate as extra cushioning. He is also able to wield a two-handed greatsword as if it were a dagger, allowing him the use of a shield in the other hand. The result is a man who can charge and break pike lines all on his own: now, just for giggles, add a very big horse. [[AxCrazy Worse, he's got the psychotic bloodlust to do just this whenever, wherever]].

** Shardbearers. Shardplate makes them nearly impossible to harm conventionally, as well as enhancing strength and speed, and a Shardblade is a weapon that can cut through normal armour effortlessly and instantly kills if it passes through the spinal cord at any point (and it literally passes THROUGH living tissue, without cutting it).
*** The trope is discussed a bit more in the third book, ''Literature/{{Oathbringer}}'', with the Alethi combat truism "Shardbearers can't hold ground." No matter how powerful, they're just one person. Sure they can cut through a city's walls and slaughter anyone who comes to fight them, but one person simply cannot occupy a city on their own.
*** The dark nature of such absurd killing power is discussed more than once. Shardplate, Shardblades, and Surgebinding were all originally designed to allow humanity to fight [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Voidbringers]]. Now that the Voidbringers are gone, humanity has turned these weapons on each other, and it's rather horrifying how easily they slaughter mortal men.
** Also [[spoiler: Kaladin]] proved that, even without Shards, a Surgebinder can be a one man army. Of course eventually some Surgebinders do end up with shards...
** The flashbacks also show that Dalinar was this in his youth, even without Shards. At one point one of the other Noble's jokes that they need to get Dalinar shards, not to keep him safe, but because he makes everyone else look bad by doing what he does without them
** The books like deconstructing the trope as well. Sure, Shardplate makes a man nearly impossible to harm--but not ''actually'' impossible. Shardbearers might kill dozens of hundreds in the process, but if isolated they will be overwhelmed eventually. Meaning they still require support from regular troops to keep themselves safe.
** Literature/RythmOfWar also indicates this is true of the Heralds. One of them is able to hold off [[spoiler:half a dozen Windrunners]], with no apparent effort, absolutely stunning Dalinar. According to the Stormfather, this level of skill was roughly Average for the Heralds. Taln was unquestionably considered the greatest warrior of the group, so one can only imagine what he could do.

** Shardbearers are actually stated outright on several occasions. Shardplate makes them nearly impossible to harm, as well as enhancing strength and speed, and a Shardblade is a weapon that can cut through normal armour effortlessly and instantly kills if it passes through the spinal cord at any point (and it literally passes THROUGH living tissue, without cutting it).
** Also [[spoiler: Kaladin]] proved that, even without Shards, a Surgebinder can be a one man army. Even if said Surgebinder has almost no knowledge of how to use his abilities.
** The books like deconstructing the trope. Sure, Shardplate makes a man nearly impossible to harm--but not ''actually'' impossible, and the entire enemy army will overwhelm them in time, meaning they require support from regular troops.
** The dark nature of such absurd killing power is discussed more than once. Shardplate, Shardblades, and Surgebinding were all originally designed to allow humanity to fight [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Voidbringers]]. Now that the Voidbringers are gone, humanity has turned these weapons on each other, and it's rather horrifying how easily they slaughter mortal men.
** The trope is discussed a bit more in the third book, ''Literature/{{Oathbringer}}'', with the Alethi combat truism "Shardbearers can't hold ground." No matter how powerful a Shardbearer or a Surgebinder, they're just one person. Sure they can cut through a city's walls and slaughter anyone who comes to fight them, but they can't conquer a city by themselves. What are they going to do, personally hunt down and kill every single person who disagrees with them? They need an army to control the area while they handle the more dangerous tasks that require their attention.

* It takes four hundred soldiers to take out [[TheBerserker Ripred]] from ''Literature/TheUnderlandChronicles''. Gregor qualifies as well.
* Literature/TheBrightestShadow: All true masters of sein become this. Actually literalized in that it's implied that in some cultures, masters are actually counted as armies during warfare.
* Druss the Legend from Creator/DavidGemmell's Literature/{{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.
* Remo Williams - aka ''Literature/TheDestroyer'' (the overall title of the series of pulp thrillers in which he stars) - is a definite example. Trained in the mysterious martial art of Sinanju, he's capable of running across water, dodging bullets, and feats of effectively superhuman strength (achieved through concentration and energy-conduction of a UseTheForce-like kind rather than by bulging muscles). Most of these were carried over in a low-key way into the one film so far based on the series. Ultimately, he's revealed to have become an actual avatar of Shiva.
* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'':
** 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.
** In the very first book, ''The Eye of the World'', he taps into a vast reservoir of magic (the titular Eye) and uses it to annihilate a Trolloc army of maybe a hundred thousand that had been about to sack the country of Shienar. In this case he's more of a conduit than an agent, but he does at least manage to point the power in the right direction.
** In ''Crossroads of Twilight'', he takes out another hundred-thousand or so Trollocs, this time under his own power. Moreover, he is caught almost totally off-guard and is holed up in a farmhouse that is practically indefensible and is more of a liability than a bulwark. He does have some help from the handful of Asha'man with him, however.
** In ''Towers of Midnight'', he goes against several hundred thousand Trollocs, with only two personal guards. The sheer intensity of the power he shows drives every Darkfriend within a few miles completely insane. It's a rare series where the ChosenOne, while insanely messed up, is clearly the ChosenOne for a very good goddamn reason: he is actually so powerful and impactful to armies and the Pattern itself that you can actually believe talk of destiny in facing an ancient unkillable evil Dark One.
** Close enough to what the Aiel call Lan, the most bad ass swordsman in the world.
** Also [[spoiler: Demandred]] in ''A Memory of Light'', during the Last Battle.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
** Honourable mention to the Kingdom of Lancre, whose standing army literally consists of only one (normal) man: Shawn Ogg. Except when he's lying down. Of course, given that behind him stand [[MamaBear Nanny Ogg]] ([[RunningGag except when she is lying down]]), [[FridgeBrilliance this may be the most powerful army in the Discworld]]. On the other hand, Lancre has Granny Weatherwax. She might not single-handedly slaughter her way through an invading army, yet she is still famed as invincible, ruthless, and ''terrifyingly competent''. As an usurper and his shrew of a wife, a wicked godmother, the Queen of the Elves and an entire family of [[strike:vampires]] Vampyres (to name only a few) have discovered to their misfortune.
** ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'' features a throwaway reference to an action figure called "Captain Carrot: One Man Night Watch". It's appropriate. Captain Carrot isn't technically from Lancre, but Copperhead, which is close enough that his father sent a messenger to ask Magrat Garlick for help with spelling a word. He's perfectly capable of slaughtering an entire army if he has to, but he's so good at talking to people he never had to.
** Sam Vimes has stopped entire wars dead in their tracks just by being himself at them, and he gives orders to Carrot. This frightens people, and it should.
* In the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' novels, the main character is this on a personal level, and her third hyper-capable command, the second HMS ''Fearless'', are both this. The first ''Fearless'' was an antiquated light cruiser interrupted on her way to the breaker's yard to be turned into a test ship for an experimental weapon. Having failed at this, she is shuffled off to a quiet assignment to run out the clock ([[ReassignmentBackfire not that it happens that way, but that was the intention]]). The ''second'' ''Fearless'' is a state-of-the-art ''heavy'' cruiser, with double the firepower of a conventional heavy cruiser, and she finishes the story by taking out a ''battlecruiser'' three times her size.
* In ''Literature/TheExecutioner'' action novels Mack Bolan, Vietnam veteran turned vigilante, decimates the American Mafia using everything from frontal attacks with rocket launchers, machine guns and sniper rifles, to using infiltration and wiles.

* Marcus Creasy from the ''Man On Fire'' novel tortures and kills his way through the entire Italian Mafia in his RoaringRampageOfRevenge. Both film adaptations really toned down his accomplishment.
* ''Literature/TheIliad'':
** There are two states available of Achilles: AchillesInHisTent and routing the enemy. Interestingly, Homer [[PlayingWithATrope played with this trope]]: almost all of the Olympians stuck their fingers into affairs of mortals at the time, so Troy would be screwed even without Achilles, as it had its share of divine enemies, and the Greeks got their asses handed to them while Achilles was wangsting because his mother specifically asked Zeus to provide a nice background for his later return.
** He often gets overlooked, but arguably the biggest badass in ''Literature/TheIliad'' is Diomedes. Agamemnon calls him a coward, so, just to prove his mettle, he goes and kills so many Trojans that Ares himself is compelled to intervene. Diomedes proceeds to send Ares [[ManlyTears crying]] home to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeus daddy]]. Keep in mind that Ares is ''the fucking God of War.''
** Also, Patroclus. When the Trojans were getting too close for comfort, Achilles still wouldn't fight. Patroclus put on Achilles' armor and charged into battle. He, by himself, roused the Greeks and pushed the Trojan army back. They thought he was Achilles. Too bad he met up with Hector, an even more badass one man army. Even that's selling him short. Hector wasn't able to take him down alone, ''Apollo'' had to sneak up behind Patroclus and knock his armor off, and Eurylochus stabbed him in the chest first. Patroclus himself tells Hector he came in third at best.
** All of the above pale before Ajax. Diomedes defeated two gods in one day (Ares and Aphrodite), and Patroclus routed an army until he lost his armor, but both were defeated by Apollo. Ajax, however, was never beaten in the Illiad, even by the gods. In fact, when Zeus forbids the gods from helping the Greeks (but not from opposing them), all the Greek heroes are driven from the field, one by one, except Ajax, who is wounded by several gods, but never stops fighting. How many times can you put "the combined efforts of several gods, while he had none to help him, failed to stop this guy" on someone's resume? He racks up a mook body count roughly equal to Achilles, fought Hector to a stalemate, and when he actually does die in later (now lost) poems? It's by suicide. That's right, the only thing badass enough to defeat Ajax is... Ajax. Wow.
** Really Diomedes could have ended the Illaid a lot sooner, the dude managed to kill every person he fought against. The only reason he ever fails is because of divine intervention or due to his honor (like that guy he traded armor with). Took ''three Olympian gods'' to stop him from killing Aeneas and potentially ending Rome right then and their. He was so powerful that when Diomedes decided to fight Hector, ''Zeus himself'' sent lighting bolts down in front of him, because he knew that he can kill Hector (heck before this happened, Diomedes hurled a spear at Hector which would have killed him if Apollo hadn't magicked his helmet at the last second, but even then Diomedes was able to KO him).
** Myth/GreekMythology was filled with examples of this. Even Oedipus got in on it, when he unknowingly killed the king of Corinth (also his father) and his entire bodyguard, leaving only one survivor. The survivor ended up lying that they had been attacked by a gang of thieves, because no-one would have believed him if he told the truth. Jocasta said at one point that if you want to play Oedipus, play on his fears. The messenger that tells Oedipus he was actually adopted by Polybus is there to bring Oedipus back to Thebes, where he'll be rewarded for bringing the king (ie. ulterior motive). And the servant who confirms the tale is a slave, and at the time the testimony of a slave was only considered valid if delivered under torture. Layers upon layers of confuddled possible half-truths.
* ''Literature/WorldWarZ'' mentions in one of Todd Wainio's recounts a soldier who "was a monster with a two grand body count". They are ''zombies'' though--they aren't remotely strong against anyone with a gun, the range to use it with and decent aim, and they tend to come in crowds, meaning that high body counts are a foregone conclusion. The relatively light defense at Hope ended the battle when they created a zombie pile so big, the zombies couldn't climb it, without a single casualty. Though apparently quite a few of that monster's body count was done by hand; Todd recounted one instance where he picked up one zombie ''and used it as a club against a whole mob of other zombies''.
* ''Literature/XWingSeries'':
** He's a pilot, not a commando, but Wedge Antilles is an [[AcePilot astonishingly]] [[ImprobablePilotingSkills good pilot]] who, more importantly, survives ''absolutely everything thrown at him ever''. 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 rendered in [[ChromaticSuperiority red]], so that one TIE silhouette represents twelve kills, because he's taken out too many to fit on the fuselage otherwise. 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.
** Then again, Wedge is the only pilot in the entire Franchise/StarWarsLegends to have flown against two Death Stars and lived to tell the tales.
** 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.

* Zhao Yun is recorded as single-handedly taking on Cao Cao's army in order to rescue Liu Bei's heir in the historical novel ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms''. May or may not have actually happened.
* Roland of Gilead, TheGunslinger of Creator/StephenKing's ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' series. In the [[Literature/TheGunslinger 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.]]

* ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'':
** Túrin's father, Húrin, 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 [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome yelling "Day shall come again!" every time he struck]]. Until his axe melted in his hands. He got captured, but still, biggest badass in Middle-Earth.
** Túrin could also count as this. He defeated upwards of 80 foes singlehandedly and killed the second most powerful dragon in the verse alone.
** Fëanor was no slouch either, remember that one time Gandalf fought a Balrog and it was a tie? Fëanor 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.
* A Literature/{{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''.
* [[BigGood Allanon]] in Creator/TerryBrooks' ''Literature/{{Shannara}}'' series. In ''[[Literature/TheSwordOfShannaraTrilogy The Elfstones of Shannara]]'', TheAlliance against [[TheLegionsOfHell the Demons]] consists of the Kershalt Trolls, the Westland Elves, the Dwarves, the Border Legion Free Corps, and Allanon. That's right. The man is actually badass enough to qualify as an army whenever the leadership gets together, and is entrusted to do things like hold entire ridgelines by himself. Being the most powerful Druid ''ever'' probably helps. And then of course there are things like the Skull Bearers, and [[TheJuggernaut The Reaper]] which might also qualify for this.
* ''Literature/WarOfTheDreaming's'' Peter Waylock, especially after he gets his hands on an EmpathicWeapon. It gets better when we find out that Peter Augustus Waylock is an in-universe MemeticBadass.
--> '''Van Dam''': "At this point, we think he was giving false orders over the radio. Once we found out, he ordered a radio silence."
--> '''Wentworth''': "''He'' ordered?"
--> '''Van Dam''': "Yes, sir. We think that's what caused the shoot-out at the cross corridor."
* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'':
** Shardbearers are actually stated outright on several occasions. Shardplate makes them nearly impossible to harm, as well as enhancing strength and speed, and a Shardblade is a weapon that can cut through normal armour effortlessly and instantly kills if it passes through the spinal cord at any point (and it literally passes THROUGH living tissue, without cutting it).
** Also [[spoiler: Kaladin]] proved that, even without Shards, a Surgebinder can be a one man army. Even if said Surgebinder has almost no knowledge of how to use his abilities.
** The books like deconstructing the trope. Sure, Shardplate makes a man nearly impossible to harm--but not ''actually'' impossible, and the entire enemy army will overwhelm them in time, meaning they require support from regular troops.
** The dark nature of such absurd killing power is discussed more than once. Shardplate, Shardblades, and Surgebinding were all originally designed to allow humanity to fight [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Voidbringers]]. Now that the Voidbringers are gone, humanity has turned these weapons on each other, and it's rather horrifying how easily they slaughter mortal men.
** The trope is discussed a bit more in the third book, ''Literature/{{Oathbringer}}'', with the Alethi combat truism "Shardbearers can't hold ground." No matter how powerful a Shardbearer or a Surgebinder, they're just one person. Sure they can cut through a city's walls and slaughter anyone who comes to fight them, but they can't conquer a city by themselves. What are they going to do, personally hunt down and kill every single person who disagrees with them? They need an army to control the area while they handle the more dangerous tasks that require their attention.

* In the last ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' book, ''The Last Olympian'', [[spoiler: Percy himself becomes this after taking a swim in the river Styx, giving him NighInvulnerability, and increasing his strength and reflexes, at the cost of making him tire out quicker, and making his emotional FatalFlaw even more harder to control]]. In this state, he takes on a two-hundred plus army of monsters. By himself. [[spoiler: And [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome kills all but twenty, who flee, pretty much without breaking a sweat]]]]. Even after he loses it in the second book of the sequel series, ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'', Percy still (mostly) single-handedly trounces [[spoiler: the First and Second Cohorts of the 12th Legion of the Roman Army]] ''in their own war games''.
** In ''[[Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus The House of Hades]]'', Frank goes up against about two hundred monsters with poisonous breath in Venice. [[spoiler:He receives the Blessing of Mars in the process and kills all but one, which is then transformed into a snake to help free his questmates.]]
** Later in ''The Blood of Olympus'', Nico takes out six Roman soldiers in about ten seconds. While malnourished and ''[[spoiler:[[HeroicRROD close to falling apart at the molecular level]]]]''.
* ''Literature/TheNightsBlade'' provides a One ''Woman'' Army example in Aleanor.
* Saucerhead Tharpe from the ''Literature/GarrettPI'' series has been described this way, as he's been known to take on a dozen ogres single-handedly and toss them around like dolls.

** Steel Inquisitors (created to ''kill'' mistborn and possessing many of the same powers, plus an insane HealingFactor) also certainly qualify, and a [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Koloss]] may not be worth an entire ''army'', but a fully-grown one is certainly worth a ''company'' of human soldiers. Taken UpToEleven with [[GodEmperor the Lord Ruler]]- it's explicitly stated that he could kill the entire population of his capital city (currently in a state of revolt) ''by himself'' given enough time [[spoiler: but fortunately Vin manages to figure out his AchillesHeel before he can actually start doing that]].
* In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' there's BigBad Visser Three and Automaton Erek King.
* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', both Lord Voldemort and Professor Dumbledore. To put it in perspective, Voldemort is seen to effortlessly murder a room full of Death Eaters in book seven, and still he's afraid of Albus Dumbledore (who can single-handedly overpower an entire contingent of Aurors). Who is, at that point, [[spoiler:dead. But Voldy still gets rattled by the name when Harry mentions Dumbledore]] during their final confrontation.
* Lionblaze from ''Literature/WarriorCats'', due to his NighInvulnerability. One is example of this is at the ending of ''Outcast'' when he takes on a large group of cats who had been giving the Tribe of Rushing Water trouble throughout the book and comes out covered in blood- none of which is his.
* In the ''Literature/CodexAlera'' there are numerous characters who, for whatever reason, are of such badassitude that they just handle entire armies on their own.
** When the gates to Garrison are breached by the Marat [[TheHorde horde]], more than ten thousand strong and accompanied by wolves and herdbanes [[BondCreature that fight beside their warriors]], Pirellus of the Black Blade orders Amara to have the remaining ''legionare''s regroup on the top of the walls to prevent more Marat from scaling the fortificaions. When Amara asks him who will hold the gate, he responds that ''he'' will, and proceeds to do so. Singlehandedly. Against ''the entire horde.'' [[BringIt While getting impatient at the way the Marat seem to be holding back]].
** Giraldi explicitly calls Araris a "one-man Legion" in ''Cursor's Fury'' after he massacres dozens of Kalarus' Immortals singehandedly.
* In the period between the first and second book of the ''Literature/CouncilWars'' series, we have a town requesting an infantry legion be sent to deal with the raids from a neighboring town. They get Herzer Herrick. What does he do when he arrives? [[SubvertedTrope He trains the town militia up to a decent standard of performance.]] In this book series, it is said that a single elven warrior could cut through an entire platoon of human troops with little difficulty, being genetically-engineered {{Super Soldier}}s created for a war long ago. In ''Council Wars'', [[SuperiorSpecies elves aren't just better than you]], ''they're better than a lot of you''.

* ''LightNovel/AllYouNeedIsKill'': Played straight, deconstructed, and discussed. Both Rita and Keiji are clearly [[OneManArmy One Man Armies]], and it's stated that without Rita humanity would have lost the war years ago, but they're not so powerful as to be able to save ''all'' their teammates, a failing which rips them up inside. Some of Keiji's army friends think that Rita is just a propaganda creation because ''nobody'' could possibly be that good. After [[spoiler: Keiji breaks out of his loop,]] his incredible battlefield prowess causes his old teammates to regard him warily.
* Loki Stormbringer (real name: Brian Gragg), chief enforcer of the Darknet in the ''{{Literature/Daemon}}'' duology. Each book ends with Loki versus a seemingly very much superior military force, the internal security of a clandestine military base in the first and an entire army of mercenaries in the second. Each fight turns out to be a CurbStompBattle...in Loki's favor.
* ''Literature/TheZombieKnight'' has Gohvis, TheDragon of [[ReligionOfEvil Abolish]] ([[WeAREStrugglingTogether or half of it, at least]]) and one of the most powerful [[CameBackStrong reaper servants]] in the world. [[TheDreaded Just hearing that he was on the way]] once caused a [[TheAlliance Vanguard]] [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority two-star general]] and her squad to [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere abandon the field without a fight]], and before hearing Garovel describe the guy, [[TheHero Hector]] thought the rumors he'd heard about him referred to a ''plague.''
-->'''Hector:''' Right...Hmm. [[BigBad Dozer]] has a country named after him, but why is Gohvis so famous?\\
'''Garovel:''' Regicide. Genocide. And punching a hole into a volcano that then erupted and wiped out an entire Vanguardian stronghold.
* Violet from ''{{Literature/Valhalla}}'' finds herself alone against overwhelming forces three times in the story- The opening with the gangsters, the hazing scene with the recruits, and the climax. In all three moments, out of the lack of creativity to do anything else, she takes on the opposition herself and cuts through them like a tornado.

* The Primarchs of ''Literature/HorusHeresy'' were made to be this and do they ever deliver. Their kill count can climb into the thousands and they can perform absurd feats of strength, from holding a foot of a HumongousMecha up with their bare hands to swinging heavy battle tanks out of their way with hammers. To give a more direct example, even when attacked by surprise in cramped, close quarters by twenty armoured, heavily armed and prepared soldiers, alone, unarmed and unarmoured himself, Roboute Guilliman wipes the floor with the Alphas in less than a minute.
* ''Literature/JourneyToChaos'':
** During ''Literature/AMagesPower'', Fairtheora guarded Ataidar's border with Latrot (half of the southern border) by himself. Kasile's father thought that anything more would be superfluous.
** Such is Dengel's spiritual and magical power that he can swat any number of soldiers like flies with a single gesture.
* Literature/JamesBond, who has this trope as part of his ''job''-he's sent into enemy territory to take down entire private armies or criminal organisations on his own. He's able to take on multiple opponents with little problems in hand-to-hand combat or gunfights, and always manages to demolish whole criminal empires by the end of the book. However, ''[[Literature/ForYourEyesOnly From A View To A Kill]]'' deconstructs this aspect-being used to handling huge threats alone, Bond goes up against several heavily armed Russian operatives by himself without any backup and barely escapes death.
* In ''Series/BabylonFive: The Passing of the Techno-Mages'' trilogy, [[BaldOfAwesome Galen]] becomes the most powerful Technomage by the end of the third book and is able to wipe out an entire city block by himself, as well a the planetary defense ships. When confronting Kosh, the latter isn't certain he would come out on top if Galen chose to fight. Later, Galen goes to Z'ha'dum and not only survived, but also helps Sheridan survive (more or less) and shuts down the planet's observation network. He also manages to take on two rogue Technomages, who have sided with the Shadows and learned some dangerous tricks of their own. Compared to that, his feats in ''Series/{{Crusade}}'' seem like child's play.
* In Creator/JohnCWright's Literature/TheGoldenOecumene trilogy, Marshal-General Atkins Vingt-et-un is the ''entire military'', and does a fine job of it.
* ''Literature/TheWitchlands'' has Aeduen, whose insane HealingFactor makes him practically unkillable. Couple this with his extensive combat training, his lack of morals and his ability to manipulate other people's blood, and it's no surprise that in a MeleeATrois between him and two armies, he's the one who comes out on top.
* The Star Wars Expanded Universe gives us a few Jedi who count as this (mostly of the [[BadassFamily Solo/Skywalker clan)]], but special mention has to go to Grand Master [[MemeticBadass Luke Skywalker]], who has the Force potential of [[TheChosenOne his father]], the [[ImplacableMan stubbornness of his mother]], and combat skills roughly equivalent to those of Mace Windu.
* In ''Literature/{{Hurog}}'', Tisala [[spoiler: escapes after being tortured]] and is not exactly in perfect health when she kills a group of bandits, only armed with a tiny knife. Not that Ward is any less badass, he just doesn't get to prove it.
* In ''Literature/{{Okuyyuki}}'', protagonist Reilly takes on a whole tank platoon single-handedly--as in, not in a tank himself, but on his own with a ''[[KatanasAreJustBetter sword]]''--and makes a very creditable performance of it.
* ''LightNovel/TheReunionWithTwelveFascinatingGoddesses'' has Deities and Deity Knights (the latter being Spirit Knights who've managed to form a contract with a Deity). A force of 3000 is seen as being merely enough to fight a Deity on equal terms. One Deity Knight manages to crush a force of 2000 without killing any of them.
* ''Literature/TheJenkinsverse'': Due to how fragile most species in the galaxy are, even baseline humans are TheJuggernaut, but actual trained soldiers are a horror. Adrian Saunders stands out due to his [[CombatPragmatist pragmatism]], [[TheEngineer working knowledge of alien technology]], [[CrazyPrepared and preparation]]. The Hunters, a race of insane predators who spend all their time eating sentient races, actually declare war on the entire human race because Adrian manages to slaughter a thousand of their soldiers with a few clever traps.

* ''Literature/CaptivePrince'': Damen is renowned as an unholy terror on the battlefield. In two separate battles, he leaves his forces behind and singlehandedly cuts a bloody swathe through the enemy army to kill the commander. After the battle of Charcy, he notices his men looking at him awestruck, then belatedly notices the trail of corpses he left behind.

* In the period between the first and second book of the ''Literature/CouncilWars'' series, we have a town requesting an infantry legion be sent to deal with the raids from a neighboring town. They get Herzer Herrick. What does he do when he arrives? [[SubvertedTrope He trains the town militia up to a decent standard of performance.]] In this book series, it is said that a single elven warrior could cut through an entire platoon of human troops with little difficulty, being genetically-engineered {{Super Soldier}}s created for a war long ago. In ''Council Wars'', [[OurElvesAreBetter elves aren't just better than you]], ''they're better than a lot of you''.

** ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'' features a throwaway reference to an action figure called "Captain Carrot: One Man Night Watch". It's appropriate. Captain Carrot isn't technically from Lancre, but Copperhead, which is close enough that his father sent a messenger to ask Magrat Garlick for help with spelling a word. He's perfectly capable of slaughtering an entire army if he has to, but he's so good at talking to people he never had to.

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

** The Venerate are a more straight example. As millenia-old sorcerers any one of them can tear through armies single-handedly although only Tal'kamar and Isiliar really get to show this off

** Harry himself is no slouch [[spoiler: especially not now that he's the Winter Knight]]. To whit: He has done everything from [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome 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]], 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.]] He's also enough of a MemeticBadass that a group of Wardens, all of whom were more skilled and experienced than him, hesitate to take him on.

*** As also put by comedian [[''Series/ModernLifeIsGoodish'' Dave Gorman]]: "The moral of the story is, don't mess with Samson."

** Harry himself is no slouch [[spoiler: especially 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]], 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.]] He's also enough of a MemeticBadass that a group of Wardens, all of whom were more skilled and experienced than him, hesitate to take him on.

** Túrin's father, Húrin, 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 melted in his hands. He got captured, but still, biggest badass in Middle-Earth.

* In the last ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' book, ''The Last Olympian'', [[spoiler: Percy himself becomes this after taking a swim in the river Styx, giving him NighInvulnerability, and increasing his strength and reflexes, at the cost of making him tire out quicker, and making his emotional FatalFlaw even more harder to control]]. In this state, he takes on a two-hundred plus army of monsters. By himself. [[spoiler: And [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome kills all but twenty, who flee, pretty much without breaking a sweat]]]]. Even after he loses it in the second book of the sequel series, ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'', Percy still (mostly) single-handedly trounces [[spoiler: the First and Second Cohorts of the 12th Legion of the Roman Army]] ''in their own war games''.