Leveling down during combat and "will not pursue..."

[bronet]

Hi, I have a question about a specific situation where:

I am facing 2 monsters, and I am unable to defeat them. This obviously means I have to run away from both. I am level 7. One monster will, if i fail to run away, set my level to the same one as the lowest of any player in the game (3). The other monster would kill me, but would not pursue any player of level 5 or below.

So I roll to run away from the first monster, and I fail. Does this instantly set my level to 3, and would that mean I don't have to roll to escape the second monster?

Or does the Bad Stuff only apply to me after I have rolled to escape both monsters (meaning I can potentially first level down and then die if I'm unlucky)?