Combat is so fucking bad. Miss Miss Miss Miss, make it a bit easier because the game revolves around fighting so you can earn money.
That usually means that the enemy is more agile than you. Switch up your attack, between Feint, Powerful Attack, Attack, or Defensive Stance. You know, like feint, then next time powerful.
My comments hereafter are under the assumption you're on hard difficulty; if you're having trouble on a lower difficulty, these probably will help all the more. In fact, until your combat is high enough, I would suggest using
Defensive Stance only while you have more than one enemy. I also save during the battle, after I've made decent progress. I can then just reload to that point in the battle if I've lost and then try again without losing progress I had already made.
It also depends greatly on
what you are fighting. Don't go hunting during mid-day / afternoon. By the lake, I don't believe you initially really get anything to kill (or at least not often). In the forest, you'll run into a goblin, which is
way too difficult at low levels; Forlan does almost no damage
if he hits, and the goblin has
both much higher strength
and much higher agility than you do.
In the early morning and the evening, you'll be more likely to encounter deadmen if you hunt in the forest (i.e., don't go to the lake or anything; stay on the path and use the
Hunt option). While not exactly
easy at low levels (unless your difficulty is lower), they are manageable especially with the
Defensive Stance tactic I mentioned before. Just keep using
Defensive Stance until you're down to one left. From there, you can try varying your combat actions.
When you use a normal attack (
Feint,
Strong Attack, or
Attack), you open yourself up much more to getting hit by an enemy in return. But if there is more than one enemy fighting you,
Defensive Stance will minimize how often you get hit, which means you last longer in battle. It
also provides the added benefit of a possible repost when you block; randomly —
only if you successfully block — you have a chance to strike back automatically in response. I have had multiple rounds of two or more reposts (one on each of two enemies). This can whittle down enemy health while at the same time drastically reducing the damage you otherwise would take (or even making you avoid damage entirely).
Notice that I said it "minimizes" damage; you will
almost be guaranteed to get hit still, and you can still die. This is also why I save when I've made good progress in the battle (e.g., I took very little damage compared to normal hits, but I also
did a decent amount of damage back to one or more of the enemies).
Finally, though I'm sure you're doing this already, but just in case, I'd also make sure
every morning you're practicing your agility or strength.