It is easy to see how many people would look down on the smaller races as warriors and fighters. However, a legend such as Kaya's show that anyone, regardless of size or race, can overcome the natural predisposition of these races, and the prejudice of the people around them.
Kaya was a hunter who hunted not for food, but for sport. For the fight itself. For the thrill of fighting and killing bigger and bigger enemies. Her name is found first mentioned in a book mentioning her single-handily killing a Hydra. Counts of her killing bigger and bigger, stronger and stronger enemies, shows up scattered across multiple writings of different people at different places. Her last legend tells of her traveling between continents, then jumping in the water to fight a kraken. The ship that carried her there waited for her for weeks, until they discovered that she had ascended.
Kaya is not shy about her life before even her legends began: She was a mercenary who was constantly getting arrested for getting in fights. She got stronger for getting into fights from a very early age, always for people mocking her from being small and weak.