Aquí tienes la traducción al inglés, manteniendo el tono oscuro, épico y amenazante de la escena:
Redacción
Tharak clenched his claws into the reddish earth. A bead of sweat ran down his temple, disappearing into his thick mane. His predator instincts, honed through decades of hunting and bloodshed, were screaming in a desperate language he had never experienced before:
Danger.
"Circle formation!" Tharak roared, raising his polished bone axe. "Back to back!"
The fifteen Leontaris surrounding him obeyed immediately. The arrogance with which they had marched from the savanna had vanished. They were no longer hunters stalking a cave of helpless humans.
The air turned icy.
The density of the surrounding mana began pressing against their chests, making every breath feel like a titanic effort.
Suddenly, a pair of yellow eyes blinked to the right.
Then another to the left.
Behind them.
Above, among the branches of the twisted trees.
Within seconds, the darkness surrounding the patrol filled with dozens of pairs of golden and yellow eyes, watching them in absolute, chilling silence.
Not the slightest rustle of grass.
Not the crack of a branch.
Not even the sound of breathing.
"What… what kind of demons are these?" one of the younger warriors whispered, his voice trembling uncontrollably.
"Show yourself!" Tharak shouted into the darkness, stepping forward. "I am Tharak of the Fang Clan! Zarhama is our land! If you have the guts, show your face!"
The shadows did not answer with a roar.
Nor with words.
The only response was the sound of slow, heavy footsteps moving through the red grass.
The darkness parted.
And from the mass of shadows, Lusian emerged at an unhurried pace.
Behind him, emerging like ghosts born from the darkness itself, came Elizabeth with her greatsword drawn, Kara baring her fangs with her tails wrapped in spectral flames, and the rest of the group, sealing off every possible escape route.
Lusian looked down at them, his gaze cold and devoid of any trace of humanity.
"You said that in Zarhama, the weak do not give orders," Lusian said, his voice resonating not through the air, but directly inside the minds of all sixteen Leontaris. "Let's see just how strong you are."
Tharak felt an icy chill run down his spine.
"Formation!"
The warriors obeyed through sheer survival instinct.
Back to back.
Claws raised.
Ears taut.
They waited.
Nothing.
One Leontari swallowed, feeling sweat sting his old wounds.
"They don't move like animals."
The eyes appeared directly in front of him.
Less than two meters away.
The warrior unleashed a brutal swipe charged with wild mana.
It struck nothing.
An invisible, suffocating pressure closed around his throat. His pupils dilated to their limits.
He tried to breathe.
The flesh of his neck split open in a perfectly clean cut.
A thin line of blood slowly descended before his body collapsed to the ground.
Without a scream.
Without a thunderous impact.
Without anyone seeing the attack.
"Back!" Tharak roared, feeling his stomach twist.
Another warrior spun around in desperation.
A dense shadow swept past his face and, before he could even blink, his head rolled across the red grass.
The others stumbled backward in a frantic retreat, colliding with one another.
Now they understood.
Primitive, visceral, pure fear began clawing its way into the hearts of the Fang Clan.
"It's magic!" Tharak roared, desperately trying to maintain control. "He's a sorcerer!"
But the command was useless.
How could you fight something that had no body and cast no shadow?
One Leontari could no longer withstand the pressure and fled toward the savanna.
He managed only three steps before his leg vanished from the knee down.
He crashed face-first into the ground and tried to scream, but a spear of shadow pierced straight through his chest.
Silence.
Tharak clenched his claws until blood seeped into his palms.
"Show yourself!"
Nothing.
"Show yourself!"
The darkness remained motionless.
Then…
Two yellow eyes emerged from the gloom, mere inches from his face.
Tharak did not retreat.
Not this time.
He dug his claws desperately into the earth and bared his saliva-covered fangs.
"I am Tharak."
The eyes did not move an inch.
"This is my land."
A voice answered from the depths of the darkness, cold as the void between the stars.
"Not anymore."
The shadows slowly began to recede.
For the first time, a physical figure took shape at the center of the abyss.
Lusian.
He walked with a calm, measured stride.
No armor.
No haste.
Not even Dainslein in his hand.
The legendary sword floated beside him, suspended in the darkness as though the night itself were holding it by the hilt.
Tharak stared at him, and the truth struck him like lightning.
Now he understood.
That human had not returned to the fissure to protect the refugees.
He had been waiting for them.
"What are you…?" the beast whispered, feeling his strength drain away.
Lusian stopped a step away from him. His golden eyes glowed with an ancient light.
"By day, a human."
Darkness spread beneath his feet like a sea of living ink.
"By night…"
The yellow eyes began multiplying throughout the darkness surrounding what remained of the Leontari patrol.
One.
Two.
Ten.
Twenty.
Far too many.
Lusian raised his gaze.
"…I am the predator."
Tharak released one final roar of agony and lunged forward with all his weight.
The darkness snapped shut.
The few remaining Leontaris barely had time to see the yellow eyes disappear into the mouth of the abyss.
Then nothing.
No screams.
No roars.
Not even the sound of bodies hitting the earth.
Only silence.
The night remained motionless for several seconds.
Miles away, a baboon suddenly jolted awake high in the canopy of a distant tree. It stared toward the savanna, its fur standing on end.
Sabertooth elephants began moving south for no apparent reason.
Herbivores abandoned their resting grounds in a silent stampede.
Even the great predators of the mountain ranges stopped roaring.
Something in the very nature of Zarhama had been broken.
For three hundred years, this continent had been home to relentless predators.
That night…
the savanna discovered that it, too, could be hunted.