The opening cinematic of Witcher 2's Enhanced Edition that shows Letho of Gulet assassinating Demavend, king of Aedirn. Letho uses a magical bomb to freeze nearly everyone on the deck of Demavend's ship, evades blows and incoming arrows with his cat-like agility and hides behind a dying swordsman to protect himself from a mage's psychokinetic blast; cutting through the remains of Demavend's retinue in seconds, he decapitates the king and leaves without a trace.
An honorable mention has to go to the archer that the cinematic starts with - a normal human, he nonetheless comes the closest to actually harming Letho.
Just before, as he and the Nilfgaardian ambassador are talking, a ballista bolt flies near them. The Nilfgaardian runs for cover while Foltest barely moves, taking his time to explain the functionnment and advantages of the Countess' ballistes, before outlining their major flaw: due to the heavy recoil, they can't hit twice at the same place.
And following that, Foltest and Geralt team up on firing the king's own ballista - with the witcher serving as a spotter to take down a treacherous count Etcheverry, who made the unwise decision to stay on the castle walls.
When the dragon shows up to interrupt the siege of La Valette Castle and nearly incinerates Foltest, Geralt takes the monster on and impales his silver sword in the creature's jaw, saving the Temerian king yet again.
In the siege's aftermath, Geralt has an option to stop the massacre of helpless civilians - first he threatens the marauding soldiers with Foltest's wrath, and then duels the commander of a unit that was about to burn the innocent folk down in their own homes. The cherry on top is refusing the reward.
If Aryan La Valette survives, Geralt encounters him when escaping the castle dungeons and helps him to reach an oil storage. While Geralt escapes through the secret passage Aryan points out, the noble himself stays behind to set the castle on fire in a last act of defiance against Temerian tyranny. The resulting fire is remembered by locals for years to come.
The best part? Aryan survives that, and Geralt meets him again in Loc Muinne.
The prep and boss battle with the Old Man of the River, the Kayran. A gargantuan, magically mutated Aeschna. That Geralt can impale on a special harpoon trap, slice off its tentacles with his silver sword, ride one of them around the clearing until it brings the ruined bridge down on top of it. Before stuffing a Clock Punk device filled with Grapeshot bombs down its gullet and blowing it up from the inside out. Crazy-Prepared at its finest.
Geralt and Letho's Aard Beam-O-War. Which the former loses, but then, Geralt had just repeatedly notched and disarmed the Kingslayer of his bastard sword.
The fact that Iorveth has defeated the commanders and units of every Northern special forces regiment and collected their emblems. Vernon Roche is the last on his list. And even when ambushed by the Blue Stripes and Loredo's goons at Cáelmewedd, if Geralt gives him his sword, he only loses the three commandos that die in the cutscene, driving the rest of humans away with catastrophic losses. That's what a warrior the elf really is, for all the claims that he shoots people from behind trees.
Geralt nutting one of the morons in the face, stealing his sword and cleaving him open while Iorveth shoulder lifts-barges a guy over the gunwale and into the Pontar with his hands tied. Then he breaks the rope cuffs and retrieves the borrowed sword Geralt throws him, which lands point first in an unfortunate mook's chest right behind him for the Scoia'tael guerrilla to rip free!
Roche's Big Damn Heroes moment in Henselt's camp - in Iorveth's path. As the Nilfgaardians are about to execute Geralt, Roche and Ves come to his rescue and they slaughter the Black Ones together.
The moment before the attempted execution counts, too.
The end of Chapter II on the Iorveth path is this as a whole at the Battle of Vergen. Boiling oil gets poured on the Kaedweni soldiers and set alight, Geralt and company put up a spirited defense on the walls, a pair of trolls potentially join in on the action, and Saskia reveals her true form to Geralt while saving his life. And just when things are about to get hairy, Iorveth arrives in a glorious Big Damn Heroes moment, and Saskia gives a Dare to Be BadassRousing Speech to her demoralized assembled troops, raising their spirits again. In the end, a small ragtag rebel army consisting of untrained peasants, a handful of knights, some men at arms, dwarven civilians, trolls and Scoia'tael archers manage to beat the army of the most powerful northern kingdom, which has them outnumbered five to one. Henselt's humiliation and concessions afterwards, as well as Dethmold's execution, are the cherry on top.
The end of Chapter II on the Roche path is this as well. Geralt lifts Sabrina Glevissig's magical malediction upon Henselt, then saves the Kaedweni monarch again from the Viper witchers: Serrit and Auckes. And manages to kill one of the brothers in the skirmish, cutting off Auckes' leg above the knee then splitting his head open with an overhead chop, while he's flying up in a reverse clothes-line. After Sile's betrayal, Roche and Geralt fight their way through all of Henselt's rear-guard and can even hold the king's life in their hands despite his victory at Vergen.
Henselt: You've won the battle, but lost the war. The city's in my hands.
Vernon:(bars the door behind him) ... And you're in mine.
In the Two vs One witcher duel in Henselt's camp, one has to mention the mirroring of the Geralt vs Egan fight at the end of the first game. With the White Wolf saving Henselt's life by deflecting Serrit's thrown dagger while he draws his sword in one smooth motion. Followed by Aard heel-palm blasting the assassin clean out of the tent before indulging in an intimidatory Slow Walk and a near Blood KnightGrin of Audacity as he faces down the two fellow mutants.
At the end of both paths, if Geralt chooses to save Triss from Nilfgaard's compound. He storms the place all on his own, planning to trade hostages by capturing the (until recently) unflappable Shilard Fitz-Oesterlen. Unfortunately, Renuald aep Matsen, the Emperor's military presence at the summit, decides to just shoot the ambassador instead, and when Geralt is left alone, faced down by the very elite of the Imperial army, he gives us this one, very, blood-chilling condemnation.
Geralt: Now I'll have to kill you all.
Followed by another set of badass boasts that Geralt delivers to Renauld after you've defeated three waves of the Impera Brigade's finest; soldiers chosen to guard the life of the Emperor himself.
Renauld aep Matsen:Congratulations, witcher. They were my best men.
Geralt of Rivia: You should have picked them more carefully. Or trained them better.
Renauld: Or perhaps they were ready for any foe but you?
Geralt: Free Triss, or join them.
Alternatively, storming the Kaedweni camp alongside Roche. Or not storming it, and realising that Roche did almost as well without your help as he would have with.
Just the sheer bromantic teamwork that Geralt and Vernon employ is nothing short of sheer awesome. As they assault the camp, Geralt tricks two guards towards the iron grating with the Axii sign and brains one against the bars with a tug, while Vernon pulls his close, steals his keys, unlocks the door before kicking it open into him, followed by Geralt deflecting an crossbow bolt away from the Blue Stripes Commander at a full-tilt run once the second pair of sentries spot them; Roche then employs the aforementioned overhead double-handed throw of his Zweihander, impaling the second arbalist on the higher floor of the ruins. Geralt launches Vernon up to that level with a seamless boost and he in turn hip throws the reloading Kaedweni over the edge to slam at Geralt's feet and allow the witcher an easy kill of skewering him to the floor.
Throughout the rest of the slaughter, Vernon will take out the other snipers and use their crossbows to cover you!
Roche catching up with Dethmold, the murdering slime who had his Blue Stripes Boys hanged.
Vernon:(punches the sorcerer in the face)
Dethmold:(grabs knife off desk)
Geralt:(slams fist into the crook of his elbow)
Dethmold:(wailing) You've broken my arm!! You've broken my arm! Do you know its worth, you son of a bitch?!
Vernon: Now it's worth shit, like the rest of you! (pins the loathsome adviser down and draws his special forces dirk)
Dethmold:(terrified) What do you want? I'll give you anything.
Geralt's showdown with a young dragon on the roof of a burning castle tower. In the lore, even being near an angry dragon is tantamount to suicide. After a lengthy duel on the ground the Witcher latches onto the fire wyrm's neck with his steel sword and just manages to hold on throughout some aerial acrobatics, he then digs his trophy hook under Saesenthesis's eyelid for leverage - and pulls her into an uncontrollable spiraling loop; crashing her chest first into a jagged tree.
The final confrontation with Letho during the epilogue, should you choose to fight him. When the player first faces him in Chapter I, Letho is the strongest enemy faced in the game. An unprepared player could be killed within seconds. But during the epilogue, it seems that the Villain Forgot to Level Grind, bringing Geralt to at least Letho's level of power, if not much higher. Winning this fight is very satisfying when you consider Letho is the one who put Geralt in this mess in the first place. And believes himself the superior warrior, playing on your fear of failure. Though perhaps, he's just trying to convince you to spare him - as he knows that Geralt's memories have all returned and considering that Geralt defeated the Slyzard that almost killed him...
Have a party with the Blue Stripes in Chapter I, and we get this unforgettable moment...
Vernon: You've got shitty glass-ware in Flotsam! Not fit for a hero, but I've an idea! (slugs peasant in the gut) Drink the whore-son's beer from the floor!
Losing the fistfight with him in Chapter II is almost worth it. If - you know, Vernon was stronger than a Striga!
One of Vernon's first lines in the game is ridiculously badass when you look at it in hindsight. When Geralt says: "I thought you died." He's speaking of when the Blue Stripes Commander was hit with a jet of dragon-flame before the bridge he was lying stunned on collapsed under the brown dragon's weight as it attempted to kill Foltest and Geralt. Roche's mild and collected response? "I'm not so easy to kill."
For a villainous example of awesome, Letho's Magnificent Bastard and One-Man Army status through the game, playing several factions like the Lodge of Sorceresses like a fiddle, defeating Geralt in a duel, assassinating Kings and sowing chaos and war in the North, all while being consistently underestimated as nothing more than a big dumb brute thanks to how he looks and Obfuscating Stupidity. And even if Geralt decides to kill him, by the time he catches Letho The Bad Guy Wins in his mission to prepare the North for invasion. On top of that there are his revelations to Geralt that he is a much more complicated and grey character than the straight up villain he looks like. His revelations include that he and his fellow Vipers fought the Wild Hunt at Geralt's side after leading him to them to repay him for saving his life, saved and protected Yennefer in his absence, and his motives are revealed not to be malevolent or genuinely loyal to the Emperor, but that he was coerced into it with the promise he would be able to restore the School of the Viper for his fellow oppressed southern Witchers all along. He can even potentially save Triss for Geralt by barging into a Nilfgaardian camp of their elite soldiers to take her from them, and protecting her from witch hunters.
that shows Letho of Gulet assassinating Demavend, king of Aedirn. Letho uses a magical bomb to freeze nearly everyone on the deck of Demavend's ship, evades blows and incoming arrows with his cat-like agility and hides behind a dying swordsman to protect himself from a mage's psychokinetic blast; cutting through the remains of Demavend's retinue in seconds, he decapitates the king and leaves without a trace.