Some accounts locate implicit metaphor in the unstated comparison; others focus on the figurative employment of an expression. Much confusion comes from treating an overt word and a mentally reconstructed source as the same kind of item.
“Death” is overt, but the predator is inferred. “Claws” is overt, but literal anatomical claws are not asserted of death. Word, assigned sense, predication, and overall image must be considered separately.
The analytical question is not only “which word is metaphorical?” but also how the hearer reaches the unstated source and what sort of attribution the sentence performs.