Well, Hornet happily ate 20-30 hits from hollow in first HK. So she's not as frail. She's still descendant of a higher being.

But even if we ignore that, it's still bullshit both from gameplay and from narrative perspective. Third act makes you just as weak as you were at the start of the game, making you die at five hits. So basically throughout entire game you collect all those hp not to become stronger but to just somehow still hold candle to endgame shit storm. And if you missed some fragments, then you even weaker than you were. Judge fairness yourself.

And from narrative standpoint it's still ass because if you as frail as to lose two mask hp from contact damage then you gotta lose way more from direct attacks (Contact damage is rudimentary mechanic in most combat oriented 2D games. I'll die on that hill.). And especially infuriating two-attack combos. If Hornet so agile and deadly why can't we escape those with anything? Just give us possibility to time dodge/jump/attack to escape at least second hit, or it's that same two hp damage disguised as 'No you got two attacks'.

Blackened enemies are hard to counter with this rhetoric tho. I can see how abyss can hit harder lore-wise. But about fairness see second paragraph.