Badass Normal / Literature

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• Earth-born Hari Michaelson in Matthew Stover's The Acts of Caine is, in his Caine persona, a superstar in a D&D-inspired parallel universe. He goes up against the most brutal warriors of a fighting species, thaumaturgists, humans channelling the powers of their gods, and, well, gods. He beats them all through a combination of training, a few semi-magickal meditative disciplines, his knives, and, when he's physically incapable of anything else, extraordinary tactical ability and a healthy dose of badassery.
• After the Golden Age has the Hawk, a Non-Powered Costumed Hero who is famous as the only vigilante superhero in Commerce City not to have any actual superpowers. He is nonetheless one of the city's most skilled and respected crime-fighters.
• Animorphs
  • The one time Tom appears uninfested, he punches a Taxxon and then tries (and fails) to punch Visser Three.
  • Loren gains the morphing ability near the end of the series, but she never uses it. That said, The Andalite Chronicles proves she was a badass long before then. She used her baseball pitching skills to hit Visser Three in the head with a rock.
  • In Back to Before, a side-novel that takes place in an alternate timeline where the Animorphs never got their powers, Rachel grabs a baseball bat and beats "Tom" with it when he's trying to take Jake to the Yeerk Pool.
• Edward from the Anita Blake series has no superpowers whatsoever and regularly goes up against vampires and shapeshifters for money and at one point against a creature that turns people into pulp for no apparent reason. Similarly, the members of RPIT, most notably Dolph and Zerbrowski, are at least acknowledged and often feared by members of the supernatural community.
  • Anita is a Federal Marshall, necromancer, succubus, licensed Vampire Slayer, and part of a triumvirate with the master vampire of St. Louis and leader of the local werewolf pack, plus the mess of lycan blood she has in her. Edward...is a guy in his early 30s. Monsters call Anita The Executioner, they call Edward Death.
• Artemis Fowl:
  • Domovoi Butler. No superpowers whatsoever, and yet one of the two most feared humans on and under the planet, due to his incredible martial arts skills. He is the only human in history to take on a troll, and win. In single combat, no less.
    "There were two men in the world more educated in the various martial arts than Butler. One of them was his uncle, and the other lived on an island in the South China Sea, meditating and beating up palm trees. You had to feel sorry for those goblins."
  • Curious about who the other most feared human on and under the planet is? That would be his employer, Artemis Fowl the Second, criminal mastermind extraordinaire. He's a teenager, and what he lacks in physical skills he more than makes up for in mind.
• A very interesting version in At the Mountains of Madness. The Elder Things, while being Starfish Aliens, are this in the grand scheme of things. Their physical structure is composed of totally, absolutely mundane elements, yet they are able to fight against the other Eldritch Abomination to a standstill. They also form family units, with homes that depict artworks and such, and the one which escaped and slaughtered the team did so because the team dissected others of his species. Even one character noted that they are not so different to humanity - after all, were the situations reversed, the humans would do the exact same thing.
• Baccano!:
  • While several of the characters are immortal beings that have drank the elixir of life, many of the most amazing fights and other feats are performed by completely normal humans such as Claire Stanfield, Chane Laforet, Jacuzzi Splot, and Ladd Russo. It's worth pointing out, however, that Ladd is Ax-Crazy and Claire thinks he is immortal.
  • Claire takes this trope even further - he manages to best a vampire in a fight. The author of the novels has even stated that, if such a situation were to come up, Claire would be able to win against all of the many characters in the series with little effort; the reason the author plans to avoid such a fight is simply because should Claire be pitted against the rest of the cast, the story would come to a swift and uninteresting end. What's more, at the age of 90, Claire - still a mortal - continues his eccentric activities, traveling around the world and locating treasures merely to impress Chane.
  • The light novels themselves note that the only character that might match up against Claire in a fight is Ronnie Schiatto. The resident demon/eldritch abomination has trouble fighting Claire Stanfield.
• BIONICLE:
  • Vezon, although never actually fighting, manages to remain a main character, not dead, unbelievably unscathed after being captured by the worst torture master in the MU (with the building collapsing), and unmutated by Pit Mutagen, and all without powers! And plus he's got practically no mind, so he might even be considered handicapped...
  • Mazeka, minus the handicap. He's a Matoran (the verse equivalent of Hobbits) who learned how to "fight clean, fight dirty" and kill pretty much anything.
  • Speaking of the Pit, Hydraxon has no elemental powers at all. He doesn't even have a Kanohi Mask. What does he have? Slightly enhanced hearing, some throwing knives and A LOT OF GUNS. It took an earthquake from a 40 million foot tall robot crashing into a planet to kill the first one. The second one was just as tough. He's the only thing that the former Pit prisoners are afraid of and he trained the Toa Nuva.
• Robles and Kali from Bystander are both this.
  • Robles demonstrated this by having Lucretia take apart a combat drone. It took the superhuman but untrained Lucretia several minutes to take out that one alone. Robles then took out ten of them with only her bare hands in roughly 10-30 seconds without even being tagged.
  • Kali demonstrated this by just short of killing Lucretia.
  • To some degree, all of Lucretia's guard detail and the bank robbers she interferes with are this.
• Niko Leandros from Rob Thurman's Cal Leandros series has a vampire love interest, a half-human, half evil-fae brother, and is friends with Robin Goodfellow. He has weapon skills worthy of Ghengis Khan and Alexander the Great according to his brother and he's one of the only humans respected by the supernatural world in New York City. He also had Heroic BSOD when he thought his brother was dead and killed 5 Ccoa, 15 Cadejo, and a Gualichu single handedly with only his katana.
• A Certain Magical Index:
  • Shiage Hamazura. He's normally a Butt-Monkey, but he's a Badass Driver, Badass Biker, and The Gunslinger who once shot down three people while falling out of a helicopter. He beat Shizuri Mugino, The Meltdowner, the 4th most powerful esper in Academy City THREE TIMES IN A ROW. He's also possibly the ultimate Spanner in the Works, since almost everybody underestimates him since he has no powers.
  • The Head Resident of the Tokiwadai dorms. Despite having no powers, she administers discipline to a dorm full of Level 3+ espers, including two Level 5's, and she's feared by them all. To show how feared she is, she scared away Gunha Sogiita, who caught Mikoto Misaka's railgun with his fucking teeth, out of all people.
  • Wataru Kurozuma of Skill Out. Normal guy, no superpowers, can beat up dozens of gang members without breaking a sweat, even if they have weapons.
  • Amata Kihara, who beats up Accelerator, of all people, with just a clever application of martial arts skills.
• Tavi in Jim Butcher's other series, Codex Alera. He is uniquely powerless in a world in which all humans can control elemental spirits called Furies, though he compensates for this near-crippling deficiency by becoming a courageous, insightful, empathetic, and generally badass leader. This may be a slight exaggeration of this trope, as while he is normal by our standards, in his world he is considered a (sub-normal) freak. By the end of the third book, it is explicitly stated in-story that he is far more capable than most people with great Fury-powers. And then he becomes a Empowered Badass Normal with the full furycraft ability of the First Lord.
  • Ehren. He's manipulated Aquitaine, a Manipulative Bastard in his own right, he's faked his own death, advised the First Lord, and assisted Tavi in his escapades at every chance. He's also a complete Deadpan Snarker and very loyal, particularly to Tavi ("That's insane. The plan is insane. YOU are insane... I'll need some pants."). While he does possess furycraft, his powers are average or below average compared to everyone else, meaning he's effectively "normal" in the setting.
• Conan the Barbarian does not have any magical abilities, but he regularly overcomes evil wizards and supernatural horrors with his strength, speed, toughness, and natural cunning. Sorcerers, demons, ape-men, half-goddess witches and even aliens, Conan has fought them, crushed them and driven them before him.
• A Court of Thorns and Roses:
  • Feyre establishes herself beautifully over the course of the first book. She is a regular human that can hold her own against Fae and their clever tricks. The defining moment is probably her fighting a massive, carnivorous worm while trapped in a labyrinthine maze and defeating it with only quick thinking and clever timing. People are still talking about it in the second book.
  • Nesta was still human when she managed to unnerve the previously unflappable king of Hybern.
• Roland in The Dark Tower. The whole Ka-tet become Badass Normal by the end of the book including Oy, the Team Pet.
• Hugh the Hand from The Death Gate Cycle. After being forcibly resurrected and not being able to kill himself again, he manages to hold his own in The Labyrinth, an insane twisted prison of magic.
• Alexander Storm from the Deathstalker series. He was one of the few characters not either a cyborg, super-gladiator in disguise, or afflicted by an ancient alien maze, and yet he still managed to survive half the fights that hit him, right up until his Face–Heel Turn.
• Deltora Quest:
  • The Power Trio themselves Lief, Barda and Jasmine are just a blacksmith’s son, a former guard and a wild forest girl in a world full to brim with monsters, magic and other supernatural threats. Yet they’re the ones still kicking by the end day while every other threat is slain or banished. It’s especially highlighted during the grounded Rithmere games as they make it to finals solely thanks to their own combat prowess.
  • Doom aka Jarred Jasmine’s Disappeared Dad the Rebel Leader outshines even the aforementioned trio on this account, being the first person to be taken into the Shadowlands (where he was forced into combat with a Vraal in some Gladiator Games) who managed to escape with his life all by himself, albeit suffering severe amnesia over the trauma of it
  • Adin the first king of Deltora, as revealed in the prequel book Tales of Deltora was certainly this. Despite being a regular blacksmith with some minor training with swords and the bow, he manages hold his own against a Jalis knight Greel in single combat, kill a proto-Vraal from the Shadowlands and get all seven gems from all the tribes using just persuasion or proving his worth.
• Devil's Cape mentions Swashbuckler briefly, a member of the late Storm Raiders who had no powers, but still went up against various supervillains with them.
• In the Discworld novels, Commander Vimes has fought a dragon, outwitted a vampire, outran a pack of werewolves and is the only person to have bested the Summoning Dark, which is an ancient evil that works by corrupting and controlling men's minds. He does all this even though he is a middle-aged man with no powers whatsoever, going as far as to refuse magical help from wizards. Averted by the time of Snuff wherein it is revealed a portion of Summoning Dark still lives inside Vimes’ head granting him a small measure of supernatural abilities like being able to see in the dark, although Vimes refuse to use these powers since he’s a copper through and through.
  • Vimes has survived 9 assassination attempts by the Assassin's Guild without any injuries. After that, they gave up and started using him to test (read: punish) their trainees.
  • Carrot plays this a bit straighter than Vimes (who eventually gets superpowers) as he is ultimately just a well muscled man with a keen eye for police work and is able to read people and inspire them with his compassion and bravery. Though he’s also someone who can punch out Trolls, shrug off getting shot with a medieval gun and drive a sword through a stone pillar to kill the villain standing in front of it.
  • Tiffany Aching was revealed in I Shall Wear Midnight to be naturally a normal girl. Her magical powers are from her sheer determination to put an end to witch hunts. She's such a Badass Normal that she turned herself into a Empowered Badass Normal by willpower alone.
  • Rincewind is a 'wizzard' with absolutely no powers and an inability to learn any spells. (He knows one spell, but it's so dangerous and terrible no other spell wants to share a brain with it.) Even so, he is able to get out of just about any situation with a mixture of fear and speed. One time he manged to survive the disappearance of a dragon he was riding by punching into an alternate reality through nothing but a fervent desire to remain airborne.
  • Cohen the Barbarian and the Silver Horde are just a bunch old geezers with no supernatural abilities whatsoever. But thanks to almost a century of practice at kicking ass as adventurers they’re so skilled that even the skilled ninja assassins and bodyguards seen in Interesting Times can’t hold a candle to them in a melee.
• In the web-novel Domina, Adam Anders doesn't have a power, and can't use the toy maker. He compensates with lots of guns.
• Dracula has the Main Characters themselves Jonathan Harker, Jack Seward, Arthur Homewood, Quincy Morris, Mina Harker née Murray and of course Abraham Van Helsing who drive the titular king of all vampires out of London and chase him back to Transylvania to slay him. Special mention to Jonathan who not only survives being trapped in Dracula’s castle and escapes but personally engages the count in a fight armed only armed with a kukri knife and the sheer determination to make the vampire pay for assaulting and infecting his wife Mina.
• Vlad Taltos. He's a fairly good witch and a rudimentary sorcerer, but this world has Dragaerans who live for maybe 3000 years, are stronger and taller, and at least three of the ones he hangs out with have "Great Weapons", and are very skilled at sorcery. This is before he gains Lady Teldra/Godslayer.
• Multiple characters from Dragoncharm.
  • Dragons on his world are divided between the Charmed (magic-wielding dragons) and the Naturals (dragons who can't use magic). Fortune is a Natural who has to travel to the centre of the biggest Charmed colony on earth — which is fine, except that the Charmed are gearing up for war against the Naturals. Despite that, Fortune gets cornered in a cave system riot and escapes, rescuing a Charmed dragon from being body-swapped with a dying dragon in the process, helps inspire The Flight to act when before they were too reluctant to, for fear that the Charmed would kill them, meets Mantle, the Keeper of the Maze of Covamere and impresses him by explaining his very cool and collected understanding of Charm during a time when most dragons have gotten incredibly paranoid about it, and psyches out [[the Big Bad Wraith to the point that he brings about his own death]] without even trying.
  • Cumber was told to deliver a message with Fortune, but during the events of the story he tricks a warlord into giving him the freedom of his prison so that he can rescue Fortune, kills said warlord's rather fearsome second in command by luring him into the Realm (which is full of Eldritch Abominations that can and will tear apart any dragon too weak to fend them off, frees Fortune and a couple of other Naturals who have so far only ever seen Charmed dragons being monstrous... and unintentionally convinces them that some are really 'just dragons', gets himself and two Naturals through Wraith's patrols by turning all three of them white for camouflage in the snow, and keeps his head together when he suffers from Realmshock and when Charm disappears entirely and most other Charmed can't cope.
  • Tallow promises a very lost Fortune that he will take him to civilization, and does it, leading him through several days of heavy snowfall using nothing but his incredible pathfinding and flying skills.
• Unlike a large portion of the main cast in The Dreamside Road, Orson neither has nor wants special powers of any kind. He fights enemies beyond the skill of ordinary human beings through creativity and the use of his unique arsenal of weapons and “souvenirs”.
• David Gemmell's Drenai books:
  • Waylander. Despite being rather mediocre with a sword, his nerve, accuracy and ruthlessness (and a nifty double crossbow thing) mean he is the world's foremost assassin. In the later books he becomes known as "The Gray Man" (apparently one of the embodiments of death) and leads the resistance against a bloody demonic invasion despite being an octogenarian.
  • Arguably three of the other recurring characters of the series (Druss the Slayer, Skilgannon the Damned and Talisman/Ulric) would easily qualify, as each one of them can only be described as a force of nature incarnate but as they, individually, at some point have received magical weapons/enchantments which have made them stronger than before. Although, in the cases of Druss and Skilgannon, they were massively badass both before the magical weapons and after they had put aside their weapons (Skilgannon), or taken a terrifying jaunt through hell that rid their weapon of its power (Druss).
• "Gentleman" Johnny Marcone in Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files. Managed to bring Chicago's organized crime under his (relatively organized) reign, and has gone to toe-to-toe with the things that go bump in the night on multiple occasions. White Night ends with him becoming a recognized body in the supernatural community, able to defend his rights if any signatories to the Unseelie Accords infringe on them. There are twenty such bodies throughout the world, and Marcone's the only mortal. His biggest moment has to be when he was hung upside down and managed to kill a werewolf with a throwing knife. In the dark.
  • Karrin Murphy. She's faced down rampaging werewolves, vampiric minions, and an army of ghouls, despite being a squishy mortal. It does help that she's an experienced cop and damn good at Aikido, though.
    • She's also described as looking like "someone's favorite aunt" and a cheerleader, with a button nose, blue eyes, and blonde hair. Five feet and a hundred pounds of badass.
    • However, if she's wielding one of the Holy Swords (which she only does a last resort...for now), she moves up into the Empowered Badass Normal category.
  • Charity Carpenter was once a practitioner of magic, but gave it up after Knight of the Cross Michael Carpenter rescued and married her. In Proven Guilty she takes on the Badass Normal (and Mama Bear) role in the team assembled to rescue her daughter Molly from Arctis Tor. She uses no magic, only the muscles and skills she has built up as her husband's armorer and sparring partner.
  • Must run in the Carpenter family. In Ghost Story, has Daniel Carpenter, Charity and Michael's oldest son, who holds his own in a knife-fight with a magically-powered adversary on the basis of the training from his parents.
  • Marcone's bodyguard Hendricks also qualifies, managing to come through fights with super-ghouls and Denarians unscathed.
• Dune: In a world filled with super-powered lords (Paul), trained-since-before-birth martial artists (Duncan) and crazy desert-dwelling survivalists (Stilgar), Gurney Halleck stands out by being none of these, but still capable of fighting any of the aforementioned to a standstill.
• Durarara!!:
  • Masaomi Kida doesn't have any Super-Strength, KGB training, control over darkness, or a Hive Mind army like some characters: he's just a kid that's really good at street fighting. Really, really good at it.
  • Izaya is an even better example as he can go toe to toe with said people of abilities he lacks above and LIVE!
• Tiphaine (and her late partner Katrina) from S. M. Stirling's Emberverse series. They're ninja-style spies and assassins, but portrayed as being normal humans whose only abilities come from intensive training. Occasionally they skirt the edge of Charles Atlas Superpower, but never quite slip over.
• The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy has the main character. Hey, if you can be considered a hero by the standards of a town where everyone is super and you aren't...
• In the Fairy Oak series:
  • Cicero Periwinkle can hold his own against the Enemy while fighting besides Magicals. He even asked Duff to transform him to a hawk to look for the missing children during the siege of Fairy Oak. He keeps going even when tired, soaked and wounded.
  • Joe Shuanma, despite being around eighty years old, once saved a child from a bull and could lift an entire cart when it fell on him.
  • Non-magicals don't shy away from protecting their precious village from the army of the Enemy, fighting huge monsters with their work utensils, rocks or, even, furniture from their houses.
  • While the men were defending Fairy Oak from under the wall, the housewives did the same from their houses's rooftops.
• Kyja of Farworld is the only person in her entire world who can't do magic. she learns to kick ass with a sword, and when the other hero shows up, he can't do ANYTHING because he can't control his magic. the first book is mostly Kyja saving his sorry and crippled butt from baddies.
• Geoffrey Spazmo from Ben Elton's Gridlock. Spastic, but smart and brave as a lion. Kills two professional assassins with a coffee maker and a bottle opener. Still dies in the end... sniffle...
• Harry Potter
  • In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix it's revealed that Arabella Figg is a squib and a member of the Order. She breeds kneazle/cat crossbreeds to sell to wizards as Familiars and uses kneazles to help her spy.
  • Firenze joins the the other Hogwarts defenders in the final battle of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows despite having no magic to fight with.
• Many people consider Kyon from Haruhi Suzumiya already in this trope (if you include the novels, that is), as he still kicks everyone's ass without having any power at all. Worth pointing out that it's been made more or less clear that the S.O.S. Brigade members actually seem to be more loyal to him than Haruhi. Particularly in the case of Yuki who seems to take commands from him more often than Haruhi. Inspiring that kind of loyalty is indeed all kinds of badass.
• The Haunting of Drearcliff Grange School revolves around a class of students with unusual abilities, such as telekinesis, pyrokinesis, and Green Thumb. Kali has no special powers, but her formidable kick-boxing skills and status as a nascent empress of crime in South Asia warrant her inclusion. Bok would be another example, if she didn't spend the entire novel recuperating from a crippling leg injury.
• Heavy Object has Heivia and Quensar, who manage to destroy fifty-foot-tall robots with just some heavy explosives, some weak guns and their wits.
• Roran from Inheritance Cycle. In a world where elves have the strength of ten men, dragons grow to the size of large hills, and magicians tear castles apart with their minds, Roran is armed with only his determination and a metal hammer. When his village becomes condemned by The Empire, he uses his potent charisma to convince his people to flee their homes and travel from the northern tip of Alagaesia to the sun-drenched country of Surda in the far south, avoiding Galbatorix's troops all the while. He joins the Varden, kills the Twins (two extremely powerful magicians) with his hammer, kills 193 men in one go, survives being given 50 lashes to the back by Nasuada for insubordination and is up and fighting again a few days later, journeys across Alagaesia to rescue his kidnapped girlfriend from the mountain lair Helgrind, wrestles a battle-crazed urgal to the ground until the beast surrenders and acknowledges Roran as the stronger, and rises his way up to a commander in the Varden after only a couple of months of service. And he does this all without any magic whatsoever. Yeah, Eragon doesn't look so impressive next to that, does he?
  • Lampshaded by Katrina's, Roran's love who he marries in Brisingr, who remarks that the feats Roran accomplished without magic require greater courage than anyone else in Alagaesia has.
  • Murtagh qualified as this before his dragon hatched.
  • Nasuada is one of these as well. Though she mostly sticks to a leadership role, she grabbed opportunities wherever they were found (such as the Trial of the Long Knives, or when she was being tortured by Galbatorix) to demonstrate her own badassery.
• In Invisible Werewolf Dracula Meets Vampire Mummy Frankenstein, the party includes the titular super-strong monsters, a fairly strong gill-man, a magic cat...and a just-plain-human retired sprinter. A case can also be made for Commander Alice (she's a werewolf, which sounds cool... until you realize she's only as strong as most of the world's population).
• Although, Saeter from The Iron Teeth web serial is just a human without magic tricks, he is able to kill most of the beasts in the woods. this is because of his intellect and vast experience.
• Laura Webster, protagonist of Islands in the Net, is a PR agent and mother of a young child who, without any warning, finds herself up against drug dealers, computer hackers, super-soldiers, and worse. She is also tough, fast, smart, and determined enough not to let any of them stop her.
• Leaf from Keys to the Kingdom by Garth Nix. Poor girl gets dragged into Arthur's adventures even though she barely knows him. She continues to help him and do what needs to get done on Earth even after being kidnapped and forced to serve for months on a ship in Drowned Wednesday. She stands firm against monsters and Denizens from the House and rescues Arthur almost as often as his official sidekick Suzy Blue does.
• Knaves on Waves abounds in examples, which is unsurprising, considering it's a race between pirates. Trigger, Sheridan, Magwa and Jacques all have their standout moments, while the rest of the crew earns points for simply entering the race.
• Last Legionary: Douglas Hill's Keill Randor does have his skeleton rebuilt with an unbreakable organic alloy...but he was a badass who was a highly skilled fighter to start with. Man cannot kick ass on unbreakable bones alone.
• The Laundry Files has a wide variety of them, ranging from Laundry field operatives who are sent out to battle Eldritch Abominations with a warrant card, to the OCCULUS teams, Laundry Plumbers and various members of the Territorial SAS who get called in to clean up when Cthulhu is feeling a mite stroppy.
• Legacy of the Dragokin: Lydia can emulate Daniar's Thou Shall Not Kill philosophy without the advantage provided by the latter's dragokin durability, Super-Strength, and Breath Weapon.
• The protagonist from Legacy: The Tale of the American Eagle is the American Eagle, who is an accomplished martial artist, accurate with throwing knives, speaks various languages and practices sports like le parkour and BASE jumping in his day to day operations. In an effort to add realism, however, he is shown to be horribly wounded after each 'act' of the novel, and is often healed by extranormal means to get back in action quickly.
• Samwise Gamgee. A gardener at the beginning of the book. By the end of the trilogy... well, I know it's the film, but Shelob's lair is his CMOA. I mean, seriously. Sauron and Morgoth had trouble containing Shelob and Ungoliant, and Morgoth was the most powerful of the Ainur and Sauron the most powerful of the Maiar, but Sam goes and punches out Cthulhu. Note also that Sam and his fellow Hobbits are not simply "normals"; they're members of the single weakest race in Middle-earth, with the size and strength of human children.
  • It's even more awesome in the books; in the film, he and Frodo just use the Phial of Galadriel as a torch during his battle, but in the books, Sam actually uses it as a weapon. His willpower alone makes it burn so bright that Shelob's eyes are damaged, causing her to retreat.
    • In the books, Sam's badassness is really only visible in Shelob's mind. In the film, where it's harder to show that sort of thing, depicting the physical actions only would have made it look like any schlub with a good flashlight could have done the same thing. However, a short time later Sam goes into a fortress filled with orcs. Alone. He comes back out again, too... with the guy he went in there to rescue. Definitely badass.
    • The orcs who find Frodo's body after the battle know that there's been a SERIOUS badass through there. They think it's some ancient Elf warrior with a huge sword and probably an axe, too. The fact that it's a halfling who until a few months before hadn't thought of an axe as anything but a tool to cut wood with and had probably never SEEN a sword only makes it all the more badass.
  • In an earlier encounter with Shelob Frodo also applies (he also has other badass moments throughout the book, such as the wight encounter, the defiance of the Riders at the Ford, and the attack on the troll in Moria). Neither he nor Sam can see what is chasing them, and they are both running away, when Frodo decides that running is useless, turns round and goes to face whatever it is, and ends up using his will to subdue Shelob. Pity that all of Frodo's badassness was cut in transition from print.
  • When Sam and Frodo are trapped in the fortress of Cirith Ungol by the supernatural Watchers, they use the Phial of Galadriel as a focus and break the wills of the guardians, long enough to get through! The biggest badassery of it all, Frodo carries the One Ring to the very lip of the Cracks of Doom, in the Chambers of Fire where the power of Sauron is strongest in all the world. Only there, only there, weakened by over a year of worry, hunger, thirst, torture, labor, travel, and the cumulative burden of the Ring, only there where Sauron and the One Ring are strongest in all the world, is Frodo Baggins finally overcome by the Ring. Frodo does ultimately fail in his quest, and has to be rescued by the Mercy of God, acting through Sméagol, but Tolkien has said specifically that nobody else in the world east of the Sea, nobody, would have gotten nearly as far as Frodo did.
• On the subject of the worlds of Tolkien, Beren son of Barahir. A Man, mortal born and mortal doomed, who fought with the last band of guerilla warriors led by his father after Morgoth's forces overran his lands, last survivor of the ambush the slew them, and then he waged a one man war that was so successful that eventually Morgoth set a price on his head equal to the High King of the Noldor. Even then, most of his forces would flee if the rumor had him in area rather than try to capture or kill him. So Morgoth finally sent an army to track him down, with balrogs. Think about that, he had become enough of a nuisance to rate that. Finally forced to flee from that magnitude of a threat, Beren became the first Man to enter Doriath, successfully penetrating Queen Melian's defenses that had held off Morgoth's forces for centuries. Then, in order to win the hand of his lady love, he is successively tortured by werewolves, defeats two sons of Fëanor in battle with them mounted and him on foot, narrowly escapes death repeatedly, with his lady he penetrates Thangorodrim itself to take a Silmaril from the crown of the greatest evil power of all time, then he is slain and becomes one of the only Men ever to return to physical life (briefly) after his physical death. As an afterthought, he leads an army of Ents to overcome an army of Dwarves after a massive charlie foxtrot incident that led to the destruction of Doriath. Beren was, very probably, the greatest badass in the history of Middle-Earth other than some of the Ainur.
• Magic for Liars: Ivy Gamble is not a mage like her sister or her client, but her experience as a private investigator gives her such insight into psychology that it borders on Emotion Control magic.
• Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen has a number of these, with the assassin Kalam Mekhar being the most obvious. He's a trained assassin and former Claw. That's it — unlike the majority of the Claw, Kalam is neither a mage assassin nor does he use magically enhanced equipment. And yet he's pulled off stunts to rival those of Ascendants. Even Cotillion, the Patron God of Assassins, acknowledges his abilities.
• Joseph Carrion of the Mediochre Q Seth Series is one of the most badass characters around — despite having, at best, Charles Atlas Improbable Aiming Skills in a world populated by mancers, Dhampir, The Undead and functionally immortal superpowered geniuses.
• Elend Venture from Mistborn: The Original Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson is a Badass normal before he becomes a Mistborn.
• Several in Quantum Prophecy including Batman Expy Solomon Cord and Razor, teenage delinquent, Gadgeteer Genius and by book 3 de facto leader of the New Heroes.
  • In Book 3, Stephenie Cord also becomes a badass normal.
  • Dioxin also becomes a badass normal after he loses his powers.
• Rachel Elizabeth Dare from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians has no divine blood in her—her only power is to see through the story's Weirdness Censor. Yet she can navigate an impossible maze, and throws a hairbrush at Kronos once.
  • Percy's mom and stepdad actually battled a huge horde of monsters once, his mom wielding a shotgun and his dad a sword. When Percy asked Sally (his mom) when she learned to fire a shotgun, she replies, "About two seconds ago."
    • To make it even better, at least Percy's mom can, like Rachel Elizabeth Dare, see the monsters. His stepdad can't.
  • Let's not forget the moment in The Titan's Curse where Annabeth's father flies in to save the day in a Sopwith Camel and starts gunning down monster hordes with Celestial bronze bullets.
  • The Sequel Series The Heroes of Olympus plays this concerning the seven heroes. Although they're all demigods Annabeth is the only hero who doesn't have any supernatural powers from her godly parent - just increased intelligence. (The others all have a combination of various elemental gifts, Animorphism and Heart Beat-Down.) She's still acknowledged as The Leader of the quest, is one of the most experienced fighters and kicks serious butt with her smarts and battle tactics.
• Despite living on the planet Petaybee, where most people have adapted to perform well in very low temperatures, Yana Maddock, who was born off-world, still stands out as one of the most badass characters in the series.
• Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain: Many who lack powers are able to function in combat against supers.
  • Cybermancer figured out how magic interacts with chemistry, letting him make explosives valued by both villains and heroes.
  • The Original, as described, "is one of the toughest, fastest, smartest men around."
  • Miss A is the Original's sidekick, well trained in combat and able to hold her own against Reviled's super-strength, speed, and agility. At least, for his first fight ever with superpowers. It takes him about five minutes to work out how she fights the second time, and take her down.
  • Witch Hunter seems to be a sword-slinging, knife-flinging normal as well.
  • The Audit, aka the protagonist's mother. She's taken down serious badasses such as Bull with merely human strength and advanced planning.
• Sheriff Roxy Galán-Grant of The Poster Children. She's baseline human, yet Sheriff of the most well-known posthuman town in the US. Before that, she was sidekick to an Alpha-ranked superhero even among Alphas. Her sister-in-law also became law enforcement among posters, primarily inspired by Roxy's example as a sidekick.
• Richard from The Power of Five has moments where he's at least as competent as any of the Five. Oh, and then there's Lohan in the final book, who casually (and efficiently) murders his way across South America in his quest to survive and help Matt.
• Repairman Jack goes against things straight out of Lovecraft's worst nightmare with little more than healthy dose of righteous anger, resourcefulness and enough firepower to singlehandedly wage war on a small country. The results aren't pretty but awesome all the same.
• Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar series is chock-full of these, but usually the magic-users deal with The Affairs of Wizards and the normals deal with problems that swords can solve. Special mention, however, goes to Jimmy the Hand. He routinely takes on the plots and schemes of wizards and demons with nothing more than a quick blade, a quicker wit, and a lot of street-bred cynicism, before his Heroic Sacrifice when he destroys half the Serpent Queen's army by luring them into taking his home city and setting off a fuel-air explosion.
  • In the Conclave of Shadows trilogy, orphan Talwin Hawkins was trained in a wide variety of skills to become a medieval fantasy version of James Bond. He managed to kill his sworn enemy in a public sword-fighting tournament in a legitimate way, also winning the title of the best swordsman in the world. Which is a gambit to get himself hired by one of the most cunning ruler in the world, passed his magical lie-detectors, got his hands cut off and magically regrown, and killed a powerful necromancer with only his wits, sword, and a well-aimed steel ball.
• In Rogue Sorcerer, Jaren is able to hold his own against Aiden in a fair fight, and also protects his village from roving bandits on his own. Lyr also certainly counts, easily overpowering Aiden even after pressing his Berserk Button.
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms features more Chinese generals than you can shake a stick at. One who stands out even though he has no special qualities or strengths is Liao Hua. He starts out the story as a Yellow Turban and not only miraculously survives that ordeal, he joins up with Liu Bei. While the "Heroes" of Shu rapidly die out this guy stays alive to distinguish himself before dying of old age.
• The Obstinate Arrow task force from Scrapped Princess. Centuries ago, the Guardian Factor was seeded in human DNA to produce people with the strength and will to protect the Providence Breaker when she is born. None of these people are in the task force which confuses Zefiris when they come to the Pacifica's rescue and join her side.
• The Seekers of Truth have a couple. Trigger uses technology and an eagle eye, and Grizzly has lived in the woods for the last 25 years honing his body and his instincts, until he can read the sounds of every animal in his woods.
• Jenna Heap in Septimus Heap, despite not having Magykal powers, did knock the Toll-Man and Jakey Fry down in Queste and Syren respectively.
• In The Shadowspawn, Friendly Neighborhood Vampire Adrian's mundane girlfriend Ellen determines to (and does) become one, so she will be at least a little less helpless against the various horrors of that setting that he introduces her to. His old mentor Harvey Ledbetter would also be one, except that he has some minor magics and cantrips to help him along.
• The Brotherhood of the Pit in the The Silent War is a centuries old secret society of evil sorcerers. Vajan, poorly thought of by most of the organisation due to being a bastard, is never shown making any use of their magic. With combat skills, tactics and wits he still manages to be a recurring threat to the superpowered heroine.
• Levin from The Solomon Code is an ordinary human teenager serving in a secret organization of half-angel superhumans—who specifically requests to fight a newcomer with a magic auto-fighting sword because he needs someone to practice against.
• In Spectral Shadows there's the Amazing Detective Agency and Ratzo DiCaro qualify; heck pretty most of Noir would qualify, since they don't believe in using magic or powers of any kind. Also Jasper is this When he's outside of the Shadow Armor.
• Star Trek Expanded Universe:
  • Roberta Lincoln in Star Trek: The Eugenics Wars can keep up with the genetically engineered superhumans for the duration of the war and beyond. She even becomes the new supervisor of earth at the end when Gary Seven goes back to the Aegis.
  • The Department Of Temporal Investigations is responsible for protecting the Federation (and others within Butterfly of Doom range) from temporal mischief in all its forms, from Negative Space Wedgies, to well-intentioned idiots, to invaders from The Future. Quite a tall order, considering the DTI is still relatively nascent and understaffed, with only the most basic understanding of temporal physics. Despite this, they manage to hold their own against hostile powers far above their weight class. Partly, this is because there are also other good guys from the future helping out, but also because DTI agents, for all their technological deficiencies, are smart, motivated, well-trained, and frequently underestimated. The boring pencil-pushers in non-descript gray uniforms are the last people anyone expects to be a threat — and they're not... until they have to be.
• In the Star Wars Expanded Universe:
  • Darth Bane: Rule of Two: Kelad'dan goes toe-to-toe with Johun - a Jedi - and nearly comes out on top.
  • Boba Fett is shown to be quite the badass in spite of lacking Jedi powers. He's extremely physically strong and able to handle a lightsaber much like a Jedi. He even fights Mace Windu and does fairly well in a novel as a 14-year-old boy! As quoted by Han Solo himself: "There are six, maybe seven people in the entire galaxy who can beat Boba Fett in a fair fight... and I'm not one of them."
  • The Mandalorians in general are known for being Jedi killers during the many wars that dealt with Force-users.
  • Han Solo. Just shooting Darth Vader off Luke's tail in the first movie would have done that, let alone everything else he manages in the Expanded Universe novels...
    • Such as having the distinction of technically being the one who killed Darth Sidious once and for all.
  • Grand Admiral Thrawn. Who could not only command a mad Jedi Master but also cut him down to size when he got too big for his britches.
  Master C'Boath: "You doubt the power of the Force, Thrawn?"
  Thrawn: "Not at all. I merely present the problems you and the Force will have to solve if you continue with this course of action. For instance, do you know where the Coruscant sector fleet is based, or the number and types of ships making it up? Have you thought about how you will neutralize Coruscant's orbital battle stations and ground-based systems? Do you know who is in command of the planet's defenses at present, and how he or she is likely to deploy the available forces? Have you considered Coruscant's energy field? Do you know how best to use the strategic and tactical capabilities of an Imperial Star Destroyer?"
  • This is a man who rivals Palpatine in his Chessmaster tendencies, and, despite being very obviously alien, advanced to an incredibly high military rank in the highly xenophobic Empire. That alone should give an idea of his capabilities.
• The MedStar Duology is a rare series where the Jedi protagonist rarely engages in combat and the most intense fighting (or recollections of past fights) concern non-Force users.
  • Admiral Tarnese Bleyd is willing to engage in Hunting the Most Dangerous Game, the more dangerous the better, and once took down a rancor with a bow.
  • Unarmed combat instructor Phow Ji is an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy who has beaten multiple Jedi in unarmed combat (albeit while they aren't using the Force), regularly beats enemy soldiers to death, and can unleash a series of powerful blows in seconds. Even Bleyd is nervous about the idea of fighting him.
• The Stormlight Archive: Kaladin Stormblessed. He's a normal spearman who repeatedly fights his way through entire armies to keep his men safe. He even kills a Shardbearer—meaning a man wearing Shardplate and using a Shardblade—with nothing but a normal spear, which hasn't happened for centuries at the least. This is complicated a bit when Kaladin becomes an Empowered Badass Normal, and it's not clear exactly when he stopped being a normal.
  • Dalinar Kholin's flashbacks in Oathbringer show the conquest of Alethkar when he is basically an unstoppable one man army without any shards^note magic armor called Shardplate and magic swords called Shardblades that basically turn anyone into a one man army. At one point before he gets his Shards someone jokes that they need to get him some, not so that he can do more on the battlefield, but because he's making the rest of them look bad by accomplishing what he does without them.
  • Adolin Kohlin, his son, counts as well. As The Magic Comes Back, Adolin is feeling a bit left behind as basically everyone around him is suddenly manifesting powers. Despite that, he's a capable battlefield commander and solider, as well as one of the best duelists in the world. At one point his role in a plan is to duel other Shardbearers in formal matches to win their Shards. Everyone's main concern is getting others to actually agree to the duels, with no one worrying about his ability to win. Turns out they were right not to worry.
• Superhuman the book by Michael Carroll (the author of the The New Heroes trilogy), takes place in a world where not everyone has superpowers, but people with powers, both villains and heroes alike, aren't a new occurrence. The book details the efforts of four kids' efforts to stop a four thousand-year plot to resurrect and evil king, Out of the four kids there are two girls and two boys. Three of the kids have amazing superpowers. The first child to be introduced in the book, however, is the only one without powers. This boy, Lance, is presumably the youngest in the group, being only 14-years-old. However, his manipulative skills and way with words made him boarder on Magnificent Bastard status. Even those that didn't like him at first admitted that they needed his help off the battlefield.
• Chase from Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series has no magical ability, but can outfight anybody on the planet, and in the beginning of the series has a day job that involves him fighting demonic hounds that hunt by the sound of human hearts. He's mentioned as being "far tougher than he has any right to be", and carries enough weapons to equip a small army. Not surprisingly, his adopted daughter becomes a Little Miss Badass later in the series.
• Mark from Tempest (2011) is of purely human ancestry and has no magic powers, unlike the half-mermaid Tempest and the selkie Kona. Tempest feels like she has to protect him and keep him away from all the problems she deals with under the sea. But in Tempest Revealed, the Leviathan is killing people, and neither Tempest nor Kona can harm him with their magic. Then Mark shoots him to death with a gun.
• Deconstructed in the Temps story "El Lobo Dorado is Dead, is Dead" by Liz Holliday, in which the main character's attempts to be a nonpowered crimefighter come across more as "crazy survivalist", and her attempt to intervene in a hostage situation get the eponymous paranorm — her inspiration — killed.
• Tortall Universe
  • In Song of the Lioness, Alanna meets a fighter named Liam Ironarm, who doesn't have magic and actively shuns it (because he's afraid of it). He's the Shang Dragon, and one of the prerequisites for Shangs is that they be un-Gifted.
  • Protector of the Small's protagonist, Keladry of Mindelan, is the only one of Tamora Pierce's protagonists without magic of any kind. This was a specific effort to make her and her successes more relatable to young readers.
• Trinity Blood:
  • Hugue de Watteau is characterized as being the only ordinary human in the main cast who can stand his ground and actually persevere in a fight against vampires, a proficiency stemming only from extreme training and fitness and reflexes honed to perfection.
  • Hugue is not entirely normal (he's got Artificial Limbs). A better example would be Leon Garcia de Asturias aka "Dandylion".
• The Underland Chronicles: Gregor. And Luxa. And Ripred. Okay, pretty much everyone here can kick butt.
• The hunters from Unique. Despite not having any special abilities (which all three of the other groups do), they still give a definite sense of being the scariest in a fight.
• Rosario in Urban Dragon regularly goes up against zombies, demons, and a literal dragon, usually with little more than guts and good intentions.
  • Adam does the same, but actually has military training to back him up.
• Cheradenine Zakalwe from Iain M. Banks's Use of Weapons epitomises this trope. He gets a little less cocky about it after being decapitated, though.
• Dimitri Belikov from Vampire Academy, doesn't have any magical powers like the Moroi or Rose, but is so badass in battle he is considered a god by other guardians.
• The Wandering Inn: Even though Erin doesn't possess any magic, or extraordinary strength, she managed to kill a goblin chieftain, thus gaining the fear of his former tribe, and a nest full of huge spiders, which only experienced adventurers would dare to fight.
• A slightly skewed version is Bahzell Bahnakson in David Weber's The War Gods series. Among his own people, Bahzell is a Badass Normal at the beginning of the books. He is chosen by the God of War to be a Champion because of this.
• Warhammer 40,000 novels:
  • The titular HERO OF THE IMPERIUM from the Ciaphas Cain series has personally and successfully duelled everything from psykers and Greater Daemons of Slaanesh, an Ork Warboss, Khornate Berserkers, and Tyranid Hive Tyrants, Broodlords, and Genestealers, along with countless mooks and minions of all of the above. He certainly gets a lot of help from Jurgen and his trusty meltagun, but he killed the Warboss and a Berserker in single combat and all he had was a laspistol and chainsword. He's described by Amberley Vail to be one of the best marksmen and duellists she's ever known. Coming from an Inquisitor, that's extremely high praise.
  • The Tanith First and Only from the Gaunt's Ghosts series. As Light Infantry they're even squishier than other Guard regiments, yet that doesn't stop them from pulling off feats that would get other Imperial Guard units annihilated. Most of these feats consist of winning against vastly superior numbers of Chaos forces. Individual characters and squads have been known to kill all sorts of things that could easily wipe away enemies and units that could potentially destroy entire armies of Imperial Guardsmen all by themselves. These include, but are not limited to: numerous Chaos warlords, a Dark Eldar assassin, high-level psykers, a Chaos Dreadnought, and a squad of Chaos Space Marines. Scout Sergeant Oan Mkoll meanwhile is hardcore even by Tanith standards. That Chaos Dreadnought the Ghosts killed? A team effort helped by a lucky slash from a power sword and judicious use of flamers. In Ghostmaker, Mkoll kills a Dreadnought by himself. The rest of the regiment doesn't know about this incident, and they still believe him to be completely invincible and the Stealth Expert.
  • Horus Heresy series examples:
    • The mute bodyguard Maggrad, was by the standards of ANY universe containing Space Marines, an extremely proficient killer. This was further emphasized later when he was able to almost best an extremely experienced Space Marine captain. Dinas Chayne, another bodyguard, was also an incredibly talented soldier who was, even more amazingly, capable of briefly matching a Primarch in term of swordplay.
    • Maggrad, having fought waves of mutants to a standstill to protect his charge, is actually congratulated personally by Horus. The giant, superhuman, galaxy-bestriding Primarch and Emperor's favourite who he practically worships actually tells Maggrad that he admires him. Cue the closest thing to Squee in Maggrad's life.
    • The protagonist of the Graham McNeill short story, The Last Church. What could possibly be better than being an ordinary Guardsman who stands up to a insane demi-god? Being an old priest who gives a scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the God Emperor himself, and then declaring that he wants no part in the Big E's vision for humanity and calmly walking into his burning church. It becomes an even bigger Moment of Awesome if you go with the Fanon idea that Jesus was the God-Emperor in disguise, as that would mean that the old priest unknowingly told off the very deity he dedicated his life to.
  • Guardsman Hawke who, in the first book of the Iron Warriors series Storm of Iron, escapes the initial assault (blowing away a couple of Chaos Space Marines with an assault cannon as he does), hoofs it to an orbital torpedo silo, and takes out half of the Iron Warriors Chaos Space Marines besieging the Citadel. He's also the only Imperial Guardsman to survive the whole war, not counting slaves hauled off to Medrengard (though a few Imperial Fists in a Thunderbird manage to save him, whether or not they were in the campaign or just happened to be investigating is unknown). To put that in perspective, he had been written off by his superiors as a useless, foul-mouthed, insubordinate and ill-disciplined Guardsman barely worthy of the name prior to the attack.
  • Space Marine Battles series examples:
    • Fall of Damnos: Jynn Evvers and her mountain guerillas. For nearly a year, they wage war of atrocity with killer alien robots that come back when they die and kill scores of Necrons with ice picks and makeshift explosives. Also from this novel, captain Falka and his One Hundred (who were never one hundred, but it sounds nice), who charge a Necron phalanx head on and win.
    • Legion of the Damned: The Excoriators' Chapter serfs take part in siege, tending to cannons and fighting with las-rifles, nicknamed "torchlights" by the players for what good they do on a battlefield.
    • Siege of Castellax: Yuxiang, and escaped slave, who manages to start a rebellion and kill a Chaos Space Marine.
    • Death of Antagonis: Sister Sethano. Day after having her guts shot out of her, she walks into a trap and walks out of it, having killed her attackers.
• Rod Gallowglass (a.k.a. Rodney [too many middle names to list] D'Armand) is the Badass Normal in Christopher Stasheff's Warlock of Gramarye books, or at least until around the end of the third book. In a World… where everyone is at the very least a latent telepath, a few thousand people are full-blown, teleporting, levitating, telekenetic, you-name-it-it's-there telepaths. All he has is an advanced knowledge of Science and History, an epileptic robotic horse, training in all types of weapons, and an 8th degree black belt. He still manages to fulfill his role as The Chessmaster in guiding the planet towards democracy, plus raise the four most powerful telepaths to be born... ever. Even after he discovers his own "witch-powers" he prefers to rely on the skills he learned beforehand.
  • Later in the series, Yorick becomes the Badass Normal. Specifically in The Warlock Is Wandering. Isn't it amazing how well a Neanderthal, who can't manipulate symbols due to a lack of prefrontal lobes, can manipulate the rules and people around him?
  • Even later, in the semi-spin-off Wizard series, Magnus Gallowglass takes on a partner, Dirk Dulaine, who is decidedly a Badass Normal. You don't get much more "normal" than Dirk's genetics. His entire ancestry comes from maybe 100 individual people, who were then cloned. A few centuries later, and the servant population bears a striking resemblance to each other.
• The Wheel of Time has Thom and Gawyn to name but two.
• In the Wild Cards novels, a character who was never infected with the Wild Card virus is called a "nat" (short for natural). In the first book, a nat named Yeoman managed to take down a teleporting Ace.
• In the Xanth books there's Bink. In a land where everyone has a magic talent (unless they've mutated further away from human and are inherantly magical, like Chameleon) and man-eating trees (several varieties...), dragons... let's just say that Xanth in the early books is a Death World and leave it at that, Bink has no magical power whatsoever and has been forced to become a Badass Normal because of this. Subverted when it's revealed that Bink's talent is that he can't be harmed by magic: it manipulates all magic around him into acting in his best interests, combining Plot Armor and Magnificent Bastard, and by concealing itself it protected Bink by making him appear harmless and forcing him to become a Badass Normal. Double Subverted at the end of the second book, when an Eldritch Abomination reverses his talent, causing it to manipulate all magic around Bink in order to harm him and Bink is able to survive due to his skills.
• As explained on the relevant page, the pilots of Rogue and Wraith squadrons. In a galaxy where Jedi and trained commandos struggle, pilots still hold their own. Wedge Antilles might not be as physics-defying as a Force-Sensitive pilot, but he's counted with them as the best pilot alive, and is at the very least notable for being the only person to survive both attacks on a Death Star.
  • He is Blackmoon Eleven. The greatest pilot of all time. And when he led a battle that was supposed to be a stalling tactic, he unintentionally won, even though that was exactly what they were trying to avoid. It was lampshaded immediately afterwards by Tycho.
• In the Young Wizards series, Kit's sister Carmela is definitely badass normal when she manages to not only make an intergalactic voyage, chat with Aliens, learn The Speech, and wound the series antagonist in his plan of the week in Wizards at War, but she does so without any skill in wizardry at all, just by hanging out with Kit and Juanita.
  • In the same series, Juanita's mother sends the series antagonist back despite having no wizardry powers... all she just does is because it's inside her mind, give him 'all the pain she experienced in her life. This includes childbirth. Too bad you didn't get to see her pwn him again...
• The Zombie Knight
  • Lynnette Edith, a palace guardswoman. She went toe-to-toe with a reaper servant and an aberration armed only with a sword, and gave a pretty credible account of herself. She only gets more awesome when she later steals an aberration item and becomes an Empowered Badass Normal.
  • Colt. He successfully evaded a whole army of possessed zombie cops and the aberration controlling them for hours, outwitted the aberration when it tried to get his kids too, then forced the aberration to just kill him without being able to get his soul.

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