The combat system is built around the idea of weapon movesets in action games, so continually attacking lets you perform more damaging attacks (stab 1 deals 1 damage, while stab 3 deals 3 damage) at the risk of potentially getting hit. There's also a sheathed / drawn state for the weapon, which is why you initially have a "draw attack". I had planned to have the character move faster when the weapon is sheathed, but I didn't get around to implementing it, so there's very little downside right now to keeping your weapon drawn.