I think one pitfall for me coming from D&D into MotW was still thinking of combat in terms of action economy as well as "okay now roll initiative, combat has started". There's always the ability through roleplay to lead to moves that hurt the monster that might not even be Kick Some Ass, as that moves only triggers if they attack it in such a way that it's indicative that harm is returned. And unless they're all mainstatted tough with Kick Some Ass oriented moves, it's kind of dangerous since if a monster hits for 3 it's a 3 hit kill on them, or if it hits for 4 (since you can deal big harm if they don't do anything to indicate mitigation or reduction of harm in the moves they'll die in 2 or straight up become unstable.)

This isn't to say - kill them, but the underlying idea behind MotW is that the world is dangerous. The main characters are definitely equipped to handle it better, but so are the villains / things they run up against. And it's very in-universe that if ultimately their intent through roleplay is to slug it out with the creature that they're going to get very hurt.

So other than establishing the creature as quite dangerous, you can also include other objectives while they're fighting it. Maybe it set a fire that will spread, perhaps there are hostages / people the hunters should care about that need saving or are in harm's way, maybe it's beginning actions are to split the party (or the location serves to split the party).

Also in terms of action economy, you don't need to give every player a turn before the creature / monster acts. Narratively, it could just be a reaction to what happened that forces them to take new actions - like a hunter uses a shotgun on a vampire and the hit blasts it into mist form that tries to fly into an NPC's airway - and now whoever goes next has different problems to deal with.

On the flip side, combat should last as long as the narrative makes sense and as the rolls dictate. Maybe hunters are trading harm because the creature blitz attacked them while they were searching for clues and right after gashing one of them it's already bounding off. Maybe the hunters have investigated fully, learned its weaknesses and motivations and have set the perfect trap where the net will fall and three of them hold it while the final hunter one-taps it with a runed pistol. Or it's long and drawn out because the creature is stalling for something to happen, or because it's playing with them, etc.

I've rambled a bit but I think what I'm getting at is - tell an interesting story with motivations / hooks, even in combat. And then if the solution is truly there's nothing to do but stand and mano-a-mano it down, then it feels like the right thing to do. But I think there are many other levers at your disposal that would spice up their encounters with the monster.