How does combat work in Fury of Dracula
TL;DR - At the start of combat you add 3 Combat cards to your hand (1 Dodge, Punch, and Escape). The end of each combat round you pick up any cards played in previous rounds of combat, not including the current rounds cards. Finally, once combat ends you remove the 3 combat cards (1 Dodge, Punch, and Escape) from your hand.

Combat ( in short ) Works Like This:


  Pre-Combat The hunter takes 1 Dodge, Punch, and Escape card from the hunter
  combat card piles and adds them to his hand of item cards (these do
  not count toward his hand limit).
  
  1. Each player chooses 1 card from his hand and places it facedown. The
  hunter must choose one of his cards that has a banner (red or yellow).


Combat happens, players reveal and finally step 8:


  8. Refresh Hands: Dracula draws the top card of the Dracula combat deck. Combat cards played during this round remain in front of the
  hunter who played it. Hunter combat cards played during the previous
  round are returned to their owner's hand.


This limits the hunters options on what they can play if combat continues.

Anything played in this round of combat will not be available to play in the next round of combat.

Anything played in a previous round of combat is now available to be played in the upcoming round of combat ( if there is more combat to be had ).

Finally, if combat is finished you simply remove the 3 combat cards from your hand ( 1 Dodge, Punch, and Escape ):


  After combat ends, each hunter in the combat places his hunter combat
  cards (Dodge, Punch, and Escape) back in the combat card piles near
  the board. Dracula shuffles all Dracula combat cards into his deck.


Rules on BGG