Bazuso

Bazuso is a giant of a man whose great height lets him swing an oversized pole-axe with sweeping reach. The look of his helmet, weapon, and armor shifts from the manga to the 1997 anime to the film trilogy.

Loud and swaggering, Bazuso mocks anyone who hesitates to face him and bellows challenges at his foes. That bravado deserts him at the end, when the mortally wounded warrior tries to beg Guts to hold back before the young mercenary finishes the job.

Bazuso's fame rests on feats of raw power: he is said to have beaten back more than thirty opponents in a single fight, killed a bear unaided, and hurled men through the air with one-handed swings of his pole-axe, earning him the names Thirty-Man Slayer and Bear Slaughterer. Set as a general defending a fortress under siege, he cuts down mercenary after mercenary until a knight leader offers any reward for his head. The young sellsword Guts steps forward and haggles the price up to seven gold pieces. Expecting to dispatch the boy with ease, Bazuso instead finds the duel fought on even footing; Guts damages his pole-axe, opens a deep gash across his waist, and drops the colossus to his knees. When Bazuso pleads for a pause, Guts drives the sword down through his head, cleaving it partway and knocking loose an eye. Afterward Corkus grumbles that he had meant to slay Bazuso himself for the glory, while Griffith remarks on the fortune and drive Guts displayed in the fight.