Netherite Saber
This guy right here has your back if you want safety. It has 2 attack speed and 7 damage, almost as good as an Axe and twice as fast as one.
Spear Shockwave
It pushes enemies just like a Punch 1 enchanted bow, it does slightly lesser damage than a bow but it could also be used as a melee weapon, and not hard to craft. Decent safety.
Wooden Saber
It has +0.2 extra attack speed for the cost of -1 damage. The only great part of this trade is that you will be able to push back multiple mobs at a time. It is not bad for safety.
Why Saber?
It may look like the attack speed is unnecessary with minecraft weapons, but you see; the sweep sword perk activates very often and this helps with killing multiple mobs attacking at once. And it's attack speed is forgiving for missed attacks so it is safe
Why Echo Sword?
This sword is the first sword to ever shoot out a projectile that bounces off of the blocks. It will drop a single xp for every hit with the projectile, it does around ~10 dmg on projectile hit. It has piercing 1, it will get piercing 5 after bouncing off.
Why Great Sword?
It does lots of damage within matter of very short seconds. At first it starts off worse than the axe (wood, stone etc...) but then if you craft the better ones (diamond, netherite etc...) they are better than axes.
Netherite Great Sword
This weapon is currently THE best weapon for choice if you are interested in heavy-hitters. It is bascially like a Netherite Axe, does 10 damage and it is +0.3 attack speed faster than Netherite Axes.