...I never once thought to try just sprinting away when you get hit. Oh man.
Hahaha yeah that's why its so good to have play testers. It'll be a problem if you're always faster than enemies and there not being any ranged. But having something you need to protect like the orb would make the strategy more difficult. From what I've gathered you're not sure where you're going with the game. I think it should be one of your top priorities to figure out now because of to balance and design the game will depend on it going forward. So have a singular vision for it and remove all the sandboxy options like what the enemies attack etc.
One idea would be to make it level based, have the enemies attack both you and the orb, and the orb going on a set path through levels. So the goal would be to protect the orb until it reaches the end of every level. Could have you unlock different moves and stuff if you want to go that route, secrets and stuff to find out in the dark if you dare run from the orb about, etc.