Battle Axe

Appearance
A double-bladed iron axe with a short wooden handle.

History
Due to the superior strength enjoyed by most monster breeds and demons, most sapients have adapted by creating new types of spears as to strike at them without putting themselves in range of the often deadly claws, fangs, and magic that those foes benefit from. However, some sapients, especially among the species who benefit from greater physical strength, have instead worked to create massive weapons of war designed to smash, crush, and obliterate the defenses of those foes and allow a mortal sapient to overwhelm supernatural threats before they can use their unnatural abilities. The battle axe is one such weapon.

Its curved dual blades are designed to slice straight through the toughest of armor and bite through even the improved flesh of demons, with the weapon's impressive weight allowing the user to outright crush the target as well as cut it. However, as not every species is brave enough, or strong enough, to take advantage of its traits, merchants and blacksmiths the world over have designed a special varient, created using an unique spell discovered by a rather daring wizard. The spell would cause any metal object to bounce like a crazy ball. This mundane spell, when applied to a weapon, was discovered to allow for a smaller battle axe to be produced ; it could be thrown from a distance and gain the same level of lethality as the classic heavy battle axe through sheer momentum.

Thus, one of the most popular monster hunting tools was created.

Tactical Analysis
The battle axe is designed for pure raw brute strength and is noticeably trickier to use than most weapons ; the battle axe is too unwiedly to be thrown at the same rate of speed as swords or spears and its heavy weight will cause it to quickly arc to the ground, giving it a short range. Thus, the battle axe may initially seem to be a sub-par weapon... however, if the axe strike a hard surface, it will bounce off from it, granting it extra momentum and range. Although a direct axe strike is an unimpressive one, axes become exponentially deadlier as they bounce off surfaces and gain momentum ; bouncing twice or more before striking a target result in the axe become a metallic whirlwind of death that will outright obliterate weaker monsters and inflict considerable damage on the toughest of targets.

In the hands of a master and in close quarters, the weapon's sheer firepower and bouncy properties will make it excel. Many tougher monsters who may ambush adventurers from around corners or behind cover can be flushed out safely and efficiently using this weapon. Its drawbacks lies however in its low firing rate, which make it less useful against large crowds, its mediocre flight speed, and its less than stellar effectiveness when used in direct strikes ; if an enemy is rushing straight toward an adventurer in open ground and said adventurer is equipped with a battle axe, the axe will fail that adventurer.