Kleever

Kleever, sometimes spelled as Kleaver, is a living sword and a boss in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest and Donkey Kong Land 2. Kleever is a cutlass with a green glowing pommel and a skeletal guard shaped like a Kremling skull. Kleever's name is a pun on the word "cleaver", which is a large broad knife.

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
In Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, Kleever is the boss of the second world, Crocodile Cauldron, and is fought at his domain, Kleever's Kiln.

There are two phases while fighting Kleever. In the first half of the battle, Kleever is held above the lava by an arm made up of fire. He attacks Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong by creating fireballs from the lava then throwing them at the Kongs. To attack Kleever, the lead Kong must pick up a kannonball and throw it at Kleever.

When Kleever takes a third hit, the second phase of the battle starts. Kleever retreats into the lava and reemerges without being held by the arm of fire. He instead moves around by hovering in midair. During this phase, Kleever tries charging into Diddy and Dixie. When the Kongs hit him with another kannonball, Kleever attempts to rapidly slashing at them for a few seconds. After taking six hits, Kleever explodes into shards and falls into the magma.

In the ending's Cast of Characters, Kleever appears under the Barnacled Bosses category.

In the Game Boy Advance version, in the boss level Stronghold Showdown, Kerozene's first two attacks is bringing out two small Kleevers to attack the Kongs. The small Kleevers are much weaker than the boss himself, and can be defeated instantly by one hit from a kannonball. The small Kleevers cannot throw fireballs and only attack by slashing rapidly either horizontally or in circles.

Donkey Kong Land 2
In Donkey Kong Land 2, he is renamed to Kleaver and made the boss of Krem Cauldron at the similarly named Kleaver's Kiln. Kleaver is fought differently than in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. He is no longer held by an arm made of fire, and Kleever is defeated takes four hits rather than six to defeat Kleaver.

Like the previous game, the battle is separated by two phases. In one phase, Kleaver throws fireballs at the Kongs and eventually a barrel. The barrel contains a kannonball, which Diddy or Dixie must throw at Kleaver. In the second phase, Kleever charges at the active Kong horizontally. A kannon appears on the stage, and right as Kleaver moves over it, Diddy or Dixie must walk into the kannon to blast a kannonball into him. When the Kongs do it another time, Kleaver gets defeated.

Trivia

 * Kleever and the fire arm holding him is based on King Arthur's sword, which Lady of the Lake held above the water when she presented it to the legendary king.
 * Concept drawings show that Squawks would originally fight Kleever, and his Animal Barrel would have been hidden in an area behind the starting point. This was changed to Squawks fighting another boss instead, King Zing.

Kleever