Good game! It seems common for players to gravitate to the Irelia fantasy (from League of Legends), when your idea as you've explained is something a bit different. I'd love to see more evolution on the concept in the future! I like how it feels tactical, although the bug with the 2nd tick of damage is unfortunate since it's both easier and less fun to play that way, so of course players will optimise the fun out of the game for themselves - I actually thought it might be intended until I saw your comments.
To take the gameplay in a faster direction, one idea I had, that may be too many steps, is to 1. throw out your sword as is, 2. reposition rapidly somehow (instead of walking), perhaps by dashing to the cursor instead of sword on release, and then 3. dash from there to the sword. The inputs would be the same but it would play faster due to the extra mobility.
One more unsolicited idea is that the sword path is not straight, but some less intuitive pattern, so that if you use it correctly and anticipate it's final position accurately amongst a crowd of enemies, you can be rewarded by being able to dash freely to the sword without an enemy blocking your path.
Well done!