bug: there was an elephant I killed with balanced iron poniard power attacks, with a dancer actively following me, the elephant did not fight back and died.
official server 1737 pve
time: about 2:05pm UTC-6
map coordinates: G | 1945 and 7 | 80104 (about the center of G7)
relogged at 2:21pm (UTC-6) and the elephant attacked.
NPCs not responding to being attacked is a sign the server needs a restart. If you try singleplayer and well maintained multiplayer servers, you will not likely see the issue ever happen. There really isn’t any bug to be found here. Just general maintenance.