When you think of a Souls game, literally using your hands in combat isn’t exactly the go to for how you think you’ll be defeating bosses.
However, Shadow of the Erdtree introduces martial arts, a way to essentially go weaponless and use your fists of fury instead against Messmer and co.
One way in which you can take advantage of this is by acquiring Dryleaf Arts, one of the ‘weapons’ required to use martial arts.
Like most desirable weapons though, the Dryleaf Arts is a little hidden...