There is one stronger armour for entering the swamp but not that much higher and block skill, like all skills, aren't that important in how you accomplish anything. The listed reasons for why you died in one hit i think are exhausted and quite sound. Food is pretty important and you said it's your first time in swamp so yeah dieing really is the slap in the face to let you know something's not right, a bit unfair but also to be fair it's a scary dank swamp . . .