Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-25045079-20140826195207/@comment-25555436-20150727040438

Regarding the Ursa fight, remember: Cardin's safety or not, the Major Ursa had already seen and focused on Jaune. It was going to attack him no matter if he leaved or anything, whether Cardin survived or not. If he left, it would follow him, probably endangering the others and Jaune was too dumb or scared to think of how actually leading it to the others could be good (about 8 Hunters with attitude vs a big Ursa? Come on).

So it wasn't a matter of voluntarily protecting Cardin, but of being forced to take action to deal with a problem before it becomes a Major problem (heh...). Cardin just happened to be there. He was going to fight it sooner or later.

Also, "Protection" can easily mean saving one's own ass instead of saving others. That's exactly what it did with Jaune actually.