((The point is that I doubt he bothered to check the alignment of who was attacking him. If someone is shooting at me, I don't check their tag, I react by defending. Regardless of what he said, he had several people attacking him and that is the main point.))
Which is more useful in battle? Someone who lives to fight another day or a corpse? If I know I'm going to get killed by a gang of people, I don't make a futile attempt to fight (at least, not for long), I leave knowing that I'll be able to return later. Going to reclaim is neither noble nor brave, it's just going to Reclaim. It's easy to claim bravery when "Death is not permanent (TM)"