How to make side-characters look competent next to the chosen one
I'm writing a storyline for a game where the forces of evil have humanity cornered. Truly everything seems lost, that is, until our main character decides to step in. Let's call him <PERSON>. The Chosen.
<PERSON> is extremely strong and has a special ability that's seemingly designed to counter the evil monsters. As a result he defeats enemy after enemy effortlessly, becoming humanity's last hope. He is stationed in a small village on the front lines where he gets to know the villagers and protects them from the monster assaults. Word spreads about his deeds and a second character is introduced: Sir <PERSON>, the Virtuous, Vigilant Paragon of Hope, Knighted by the King, Slayer of Monsters.
<PERSON> is currently the kingdom's greatest swordsman and leads the royal knights against the forces of evil. He's beloved by the citizens because of how many of them he has saved. 17
He and his army set up camp in the village on order and from that point on <PERSON> serves as the face of the kingdom.
The problem is that <PERSON> is only human - he does not have the unique superpowers Chosen like <PERSON> have. He is still very strong, but very strong for a human. After he set up camp the player isn't going to look at him anymore unless he decides to raise his affection level with <PERSON>. <PERSON> only has a single chance to prove himself as the competent knight he is. But I'm afraid that it doesn't matter how many mobs I let him defeat, the player will invariably compare those feats to his own. I can't have him be strong enough to defeat the bosses, the player is supposed to do that on his own.
When he tags along to scout for one of the bosses and he gets swatted aside it doesn't really give the wanted reaction of "Goodness, that monster is strong!", but rather something of an "Haha, silly <PERSON> got defeated again." His competence as a swordsman has become an informed attribute. Even if I let him defeat a few monsters on his own he still feels weak because the great <PERSON> kills those in his free time to farm xp.
I don't want <PERSON> to be strong strong, but I do want the player to acknowledge him. Is there a way to make <PERSON> look like a competent knight without affecting his or <PERSON>'s power level? 950