Moby
Dick
I don't remember my upgrades but I don't think blades did a lot of damage for me, and I also stopped throwing the axe once I was done with early game and felt confident fighting in close quarters. So it was pretty much entirely axe melee for me and I only switched to blades for runic attacks. After a point all you need to do is keep switching between the 4 runic attacks, don't really have to bother with normal attacks.I didn't find a massive difficulty jump, more about swapping to the right weapon for the right enemy and when there are too many around, using the blades as much as possible. Sometimes you can wander into an area you are underlevelled for but besides that it shouldn't be too difficult.