Fights are won through timing and placement, not speed. Combat is deliberately close and favours commitment: trading hits, blocking through pressure and closing distance beats backing off and dodging everything.
Light attacks
M1 attacks are light chain attacks, up to five in a row, fast enough to pressure and answerable by block, parry or dodge. The final hit of any chain deals knockback. Tap space during a chain and that final hit becomes an uppercut instead, lifting both fighters into the air for an air combo.
Heavy attacks
Heavy attacks are stationary and break through a block. They hit hard, but the wind-up is long enough to be interrupted or parried. Two heavies thrown at the same moment trigger a clash.
Blocking, parrying, clashing
Holding block reduces incoming damage and knockback, which makes it the tool for holding a position and punishing light attacks. It breaks to heavy attacks and to some specials.
Parrying is the backup, not the default. It is harder to time, stuns the opponent and absorbs light and heavy attacks outright, which opens real counterplay. It has a moderate cooldown, and a missed parry leaves you knocked back and briefly silenced.
Clashing is the centre of the close-combat system. When two players heavy attack simultaneously, neither is punished: both are locked in place with blades connected, and both spam the left mouse button. Picture an arm wrestle. Whoever clicks fastest follows through, knocking the other back and sliding them across the floor, which sets up a gap-closing special, a dash attack, or a dash into a fresh chain.
Dashing
Forward and backward dashes give no invulnerability. They are positioning tools. Side dashes do, and they are how you escape a combo. If you are dashing backwards to survive, you are playing the wrong game.