Hey necrophile7, thanks for the feedback. I'm afraid there's not much I can do with it however, maybe you could clarify some things for me? Here's a couple tips and explanations, I hope it will help you.
The 16th elf, I understand you mean you killed 15 elven villagers and huntsman in Anheluna which is a level 3 area, then you went toward Shadowbane and meet level 6 Elven Spellsinger? If so, the power difference is expected. The second elven location is optional and very difficult due to strong magic damage. You can determine if enemies are too powerful for you (higher level) by reading their tooltip. There's a colored sentence that describes the difference, orange and red mean they are probably stronger. Also, the damage difference may indicate that you have high endurance and physical resistances but low willpower and magic resist. In that kind of build, mages will melt your character.
The running away, there are many options in the game to escape. Early on it may be difficult (in levels 1 - 2) because the areas are packed with enemies and until you can clear space to rest it can be problematic. After a few levels, you can acquire many abilities that can help you out, like nomads' quick step that speeds you up, fallen knight lunge, berserker charge, or inquisitor intimidate. Even the grow tree ability can be used to escape. However, escaping some characters like centaurs, or elven grey watchers may be impossible - and that's fine. The game will not offer a "get out of jail" free card in every situation. Some part of the outcome of the battle will be decided by how well you've prepared for it, or where you engaged the enemy.