Parry Not working

Parry often seems not to register. At first, I assumed I was using it wrong, and when I read the skill, I realized I didn't have to time the parry, I just had to hold up the shield, but the vast majority of enemies in the starting cave the one with the first bosses seem to be able to hit you, though your parry sometimes it works fine but for the most part they seem to ignore the parry and a lot of the time they will even knock you over.

Later note: A friend thought I was crazy and tested it they said that the starting enemies seem to randomly cause your heavy stun bar to instantly fill in a single hit.