@Sean: At target practice? 70.
How about 66 damage in Three Hits? (Hint: Scoring a knockdown by winning a Hyper Duel, or if you're lucky, landing the knockdown blow early in a Hyper Combo, causes the rest of the combo to hit. This can also be of use in Story Mode and Quick Match, as that also drains the opponent's stars.)
I'm not sure it's a bug either. The way the battle system goes, the more attacks from either character are successfully defended, subsequent attacks come out faster. There's a diamond-shaped gauge between the vitality meters that shows this. At/near full, attacks become near-unblockably fast.
Anyway, I like this game mostly because the battle system is akin to the tournament battles in the old NES game Flying Dragon. The only major difference is that you choose when and where to attack
Oh, and as mentioned before, there are uses to the Life and Magic levels: Levelling up Life improves defense, while levelling up Magic reduces the cost of specials.
If enemies seem too hard and too numerous, then your sword's special attack can be used to escape. You're invincible for a few seconds after using it.
If you're not sure what to do, look everywhere and try everything, especially with a recently acquired weapon.