A bit into the game you will start to encounter stone
statues that come to life and attack. An easy way to defeat them
is to exit combat mode and run close to it. When it starts to
attack, get out of range. It will hit the ground and be on its
knees for a short time. Jump near it and press Y to do
a mighty chop attack. The back of this creature tends to be its
weak point. This will get more difficult depending on how many
of them attack you at once. It seems that the most that will attack
at once is three.
If there are more than one stone statue, try to get all of them
close to each other. Go close to one of them and jump back when
he tries to hit you. If done correctly, one of the other statues
will hit the one that tried to hit you.