Apparently, you cannot escape battles.

[SirLeitet]

...Without dying in Missions.

 

Who was the genius that came up with this idea? C'mon, it was obvius we where going to lose in here, so I thought I could save  my 1 dura ship by going to the map border and escape...

 

But to my surprise, I got reload shock, all of my armour was gone and I was taking in water at the same time.

 

[Prater]

Yes, you cannot leave Small or Large Battles.  If you leave the Ring, you will sink after 5 minutes.

 

You can leave any kind of instance on the Open World. 

[Capt. Rice]

It more of a design to keep player from just skirting the area and running down the clock. Either you flee from battle or you fight no in between in my book.

[Mrdoomed]

So you knew you was gonna lose and decided to abandon the fight ( trying to exploit the system ) a d it gave you the loss you would have gotten?

It seems like a fair and balanced system so it makes sense they implemented it. Glad you pointed it out. Thank you.