Daira

Dairas are humanoid alligator soldiers. They are expert axe-throwers, and their axes are able to slice through most Shields, making them more dangerous than those enemies who wield conventional swords or spears.

In, Dairas are very commonly encountered in the tunnels and caves riddling Death Mountain, and even on bridges in the surrounding area. The orange variety will simply charge at Link to attack him, to which he should attempt to attack his feet where possible, or simply keep striking to keep the gator warrior at a distance. The red varieties actually hurl their axes at Link with an endless supply, making them deadly at long range as well as close range. Sometimes defeating these foes is too much for Link even with the Shield Spell, so simply running away is not a bad idea.

According to the official The Legend of Zelda website, Dairas are a hybrid of Hylians and alligators.

The Legend of Zelda comic
Dairas appear throughout various issues of the Legend of Zelda comic published by Valiant Comics. They are identical to their artwork depiction of The Adventure of Link and are capable of speech, although they speak poorly. Dairas first appear in the "Missing in Action" story of the first issue as they are chasing Princess Zelda through the Midoro Swamp in an attempt to take the Triforce of Wisdom from her. Just before they have a chance to attack Zelda, Link rushes in to the scene and defeats them swiftly with his Sword. In "Coming Home", Shadow Link commands one of the Dairas to execute both Link and Queen Seline for treason, although he is stopped by the queen before he is able to do so.

Philips CD-i Games
Daira appears in both and. In both games they appear in two versions: a running version that will only drop 1 Rupee, and a squatting version that throws its axe and will drop 5 Rupees. In The Faces of Evil, there is a red version of a Daira known as a Fire Daira which only appears in volcanic areas. They are immune to all weapons except for the Snowballs, which defeats them in a single hit.

Trivia

 * Dairas are the only humanoid enemies in Zelda II that do not have a blue variant, although some artwork depicts a green variety that went unused in the final game.
 * On the official The Legend of Zelda website, this type of enemy has its name spelled Daria.