he's not allowed to jump off a cliff he needs to be fucked by his soulmate, his best friend, and his best friend's soulmate until he doesn't want to jump off a cliff anymore and couldn't walk there anyway!
[obviously, late-season spoiler]
So...why didn't UrVa try just yelling at SkekMal to stop flinging little people around, and see if that worked first...?
As opposed to shooting first (*not* a warning shot, either) and THEN saying "OH HAI halfsie, long time no see and BTW, get away from them"? -_-
I mean -- they 100% had the drop, right? They certainly could've already had their bow nocked and everything. It's not like 'Mal would've said "pfft" and kept going because hey, their light half could always *miss*.
Frankly, I doubt the Hunter would've even attempted to flee with a Gelfling in hand like they did, *except* that UrVa was drawing serious blood already and well -- at that point, turning tail and chancing a shot in the back is still a safer option than sticking around to try and melee your equally-badass UrRu, who's already signaled that maiming the both of you is not only *A-OK with them*, but very possibly their preferred approach.
Besides, you're still outnumbered, because the only combatant you've taken out yet is the Podling. (Mind you, the Podling in question is Hup, so that's actually kind of a big deal, but. :-) ) Rian's still good for another ten rounds; Heretic seems to be in literal shock so well-played on instantly neutralizing *them* -- yet, they still could have it in them to deal some well-timed blow to the back of the head even with their good hand impaled; and hell, one the others might always wind up cooking up a quick gambit with any of the piles of crazyass stuff lying around the place. There are an inconvenient number of vines.
At minimum, SkekMal clearly did *not* fancy their chances in a straight-up duel with halfsie. Whether they thought it was the light or dark shard that'd technically "win," they must've figured that either way M.A.D. was the result. I.e. -- they had *no* standing assumption that 'Va would lay off the hurting and homicide at any sane point. That's...pretty hardcore.
Anyways. *Especially* if you're hellbent for the sake of your dumbass Hunt on taking someone with you as prisoner, fleeing once you're already shot and bleeding does makes sense..........BUT not up *until* then.
Up till then, from any normal perspective, there was a more than fair chance of getting SkekMal to blink first in the standoff -- to skedaddle for now, NO prize in hand, WITHOUT anybody having to 3/4ths murder them first. Because unwounded, they'd almost certainly have preferred to just heave-ho and wait for the damn Archer to go away, or fall asleep or be rebraiding their damn hair or something. And while that's for sure a dangling plot thread that'd come back to haunt everybody...there honestly wasn't a better plausible outcome than that for the good guys either. Forcing the battle then and there was not going well for anybody. From Team Gelfling's standpoint, far better to let SkekMal skedaddle and use the respite to do some preparation/teamwork for another face-off, or else figure out a way to elude their pursuit. After all you've got the one and only Archer, conscious and alive, to help with that now!
So why shut off that whole avenue from the start, UrVa, my dear space dino?
I mean you're a *Mystic*, aren't you? Not keen on violence? Practicing archery purely as a spiritual discipline and all that shit? Isn't it a bit...off-brand to jump straight to the serious puncture wounds, without even giving the other party a chance to stand down?
And remember, Aughra said "confront" the Hunter...NOT "KILL."
So a little weird, yeah?
There's only two explanations I can see for this: 1) UrVa was just THAT incandescently certain that somehow the confrontation was going to end with them both dead, so they might as well skip ahead to that part; or, what I think is more likely, 2) their self-hatred was just jumping THAT far out ahead of their rational strategizing. Which makes this a fairly epic (not to mention tragic) case of Telling On Oneself.
[NB: As always: ALL HC ARE VALID, this is just my fan theory]