Also take into account the fact that Legolas was the son of Thranduil, who was the King of Mirkwood and probably the head of a pretty much well-to-do family. In other words- Legolas probably had a good education and even if he had not seen a Balrog before, he knew enough fact and had heard enough legend about them to think something along the lines of, "Hey, that's a Balrog! Get me the hell out of here!" Or the Sindarin/Silvan equivalent of that.
Legolas had probably heard of the Fall of Gondolin among other tales involving Balrogs. Undoubtedly his father at any rate had and most likely would have passed that knowledge on to his son.
--Aran/Cúdae
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"And if you listen very hard/ The tune will come to you at last/ When all are one and one is all/ To be a rock and not to roll." --Led Zeppelin "Stairway to Heaven"
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