Another close-ish call

I was doing Overlord Mok'Morokk's Concern, which involves picking up items near dragonkin, so as a pacifist that meant picking up items while getting whacked by dragonkin. However, dragonkin are large and tend to block such items... I did my usual technique of picking up items "behind" me, so I can grab items without accidentally hitting mobs, and that seemed to work (I got the usual "you are facing the wrong way" message when I clicked on a mob), but either I slipped up or combat mechanics are different, because when I turned around I started hitting a dragonkin. Luckily, nobody was around to "help" me by killing the mob (which would give me a kill credit) and I let the mobs kill me.