Axe Armor

"Uh-oh. I can sense there are some zombie knight armored guys out there. Well, what do you call them? Axe Armors?"

--Su Ji-Hoon, Welcome to the Haunted Estate

Axe Armors, also known as Axe Knights, are common enemies in the Castlevania series. They are heavily armored zombie warriors that wield an equally heavy axe which they may throw like a boomerang.

In When the Cold Breeze Blows Away, they would also serve for the Undead Alliance, because Dracula joined that faction.

Description
An Axe Armor, as its name implies, uses a heavy axe as its primary weapon. They attack by throwing the axe, which then returns to their hands, or more rarely, is thrown in an arc. Some Axe Armors can also hack with this axe. Some variants also hold shields, making them tougher to defeat, and may block some attacks. A playable version of this enemy is available in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (see Old Axe Armor). Axe Armors carrying a long handled axe that is used only for hacking are called Great Axe Armors.

In the early platform side-scrolling adventures, the Axe Armor could throw axes horizontally at either high or low elevation levels. Both elevations offered the player a chance to avoid being hit by crouching or jumping respectively. Some later revisions of this behavior don't allow the player to crouch under higher thrown axes, forcing them to either jump over or retreat from their trajectory.