I'm too op. Solutions? [KCD2]

So I spent too much time in the first open world zone I think. I killed every bandit camp I could find, every wandering traveler I could get away with. I basically fought everyone I could without getting caught. Not including the dozen gaurds I killed to free a certain character who was scheduled to be hung at a certain bell chime. The combat as soon as I got used to it got much much much easier. I wasn't power leveling or anything or using any XP buffs, just exploring and playing.

But now I'm at a point where duels just flat out suck. Like really suck. I kicked the supposed best fist fighter period literally twice and he was just done lol. I can also just ignore armor with short swords and just brute force even fully armored dudes.

Again, I'm just using what's been naturally given to me and the perks I have available and all of that. I'm not cheesing the game in any way mind you, but I don't want to have to flat out not use mechanics in the game or ignore the basic rpg elements to force a challenge.

It's also made me notice a lot of cracks in weapon variety at higher levels. Everything else has less overall mechanics than sword's first of all, so it's less fun to use anything else. But the benefit of maces and hammers kinda goes out the window, when I can one or two shot everyone regardless just fine. Pole arms break just constantly and the lock on makes it really awkward to actually get any reach to take advantage that. Still not exactly sure what the axes are for.