Pain is sparking behind her skull as she stumbles away, the weight of her armor pressing down upon it. A safety net, her only one with Alice already fading in her head with the distance and nobody else around to bear witness to her defeat. She was already panting, not only from exertion but fear, eyes white and ears sliced so far back they were nearly indiscernible from her crest and mane. His twisted laughter follows her retreat, and even the ring of unfolding metal can't silence him or how it echoes on repeat in her head. He charges through it, and she skitters away on thin limbs, her bravery dwindling further with each blow until she can't charge at him in return, meet him with force. He slams into her and she goes stumbling, grazes her knees on the ground but doesn't fall, lurches away as he slams his hooves to the earth where she'd been moments before. Her mind is on lockdown, but instinct and preservation rear up like old gods in her body and wrench the magic from her form with greedy, desperate hands like claws. 

The winds tear out of her and across the expanse near her, slicing her cheek almost fondly with the invisible shards that dance in the turbulence. It grows, strengthens until it's a roar and her mane is whipping about and lashing against the metal of her armor. She directs it towards him, watching as it rips the earth apart in deep, awful clawmarks, a growing tornado that she feeds her energy and magic into. Backs away, stumbling with her injured knee and ribs, retracting her armor as she contemplates turning and running, running with all the speed she has in her body, the speed her mother gifted her with. The less weight on her, the better, as Hotaru plans her attempted escape. She knows he's faster than her, with his longer legs and greater agility, but she has stamina on her side. She can run for longer, if she can just distract him long enough with her hurricane. 

Without any care for how cowardly she may seem, she turns and tries to run, left leg jolting and crying with every step. Each step has her gasping, tiny mewls and whimpers of pain sliding across her tongue. She hasn't cried yet, she won't. She refuses to. But she has some sort of awareness that she won't escape, not yet. He's not finished with her, and no matter where she goes she knows he'll hunt her like the animal he is. This is all your fault, her mind cooes treacherously at her. If you had just loved him as he had you, if you had not been so broken... and her heart aches. She had loved him, she had. He had left her! And she had found somebody else. Maybe...and her mind flitted to Thranduil, and finally the tears started to prick and line her lashes, blurring the horizon. He didn't deserve the storm she always brought in her wake. Tingal was proof of the damage she could do, after all.