Rummaging through the runs on the leaderboard, I see that the avoidable fight with the Strongling early on in cave 3 is almost always tanked, and when it is dodged, it is not done in a terribly efficient manner. After about 20 minutes of trial and error, I found a consistent setup for avoiding the encounter. While it is a little tricky, when you have the button presses down, that 15 second fight will be shaved right off.

Explaining it in a speedrun.com guide with no way to insert videos/images is difficult, so here is a link to a more easily-digestible video I've made:

Nonetheless, I will do my best to describe the skip through text as well.

Upon entering the second room in cave 3, you are met with a Strongling who isn't immediately aggressive, but will chase you down once you get about two tiles away. To consistently avoid him, first get within his ~2 tile range of aggression (usually by standing on the rightmost bridge tile) and immediately run back to the top left corner of the room, and stand on the tile left of the doorway. Wait for the Strongling to arrive at the tile just right of you (he will be in front of the doorway) and then move downwards ASAP. Once you've moved two tiles down, and are perpendicular to the bridge, make a mad dash for the exit on the right. The timing is really tight, but the Strongling will always move the same way if you go to the tile left of the doorway through which you came in on. Good luck!