Elites be scured

From my knowledge of the Halo universe, I have come to terms with the fact that elites are honorwhores. They crave nothing more than to be filled with honor, so why would I bring this up? It’s because EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM IS A -Yoink-, no matter what, whenever you attempt to charge at them for the melee, they always run away screaming. I would like to know reasons as to why they’re so scared of my fists when they’ve got those enormous swords.