The Gleam Eyes

The Gleam Eyes (ザ・グリーム・アイズ) was the boss of the 74th Floor in Sword Art Online. It was the first demon-type boss shown in the story and the only known boss that was defeated without a strategy meeting, with the Black Swordsman, Kirito, defeating him using «Dual Blades».

Appearance
The Gleam Eyes was a massive, demon-like monster with dark blue skin, a tail resembling a cobra, and the horns of a mountain goat. Its main weapon was an equally massive Zanbato sword, and despite its epithet and the title of the ninth episode, The Gleam Eyes did not have blue eyes, but rather red. However, they turned into a piercing, glowing, blue color when Asuna and Kirito first encountered it and remained that color for the rest of the fight.

Background
Asuna and Kirito stumbled on the 74th Floor Boss Room after mapping for some time. Curious, they took a peek inside and saw The Gleam Eyes staring at them. They immediately ran away in fear as the boss attempted to attack the two-person party.



They encountered The Gleam Eyes again when they fought it in order to save the surviving members of The Army raiding party under Kobatz, who were forced to fight it. After the death of Kobatz at the hands of The Gleam Eyes, Asuna, and later Kirito and Klein, leaped to the rescue to fight the boss. Though Kirito successfully defeated the boss using his Dual Blades skill, it had succeeded in taking three lives in the process, making this the first time casualties resulted from a boss battle since the 67th Floor's boss fight.

The 74th Floor is also the first time a boss room contained an Anti-Crystal Area trap.

Abilities
Its main weapon was a large Zanbato Sword, but it could also fire purple energy spheres from its mouth. It attacked with both its sword and fists, but never actually used its snake tail during the fight.

The Gleam Eyes was able to overpower the Aincrad Liberation Force party (although Kobatz's men were already thoroughly exhausted from exploring the area). It succeeded in killing Kobatz and two of his men, and almost killed Kirito, leaving him with just a sliver of HP left. Capable of matching the aforementioned players in sword combat, punching Asuna several feet away, and sending Klein flying despite the latter blocking the attack, the Gleam Eyes was a strong floor boss.

Casualties

 * Kobatz
 * Two other Players in ALF

Gallery

 * See The Gleam Eyes/Image Gallery

Trivia

 * Demon_Kirito.png in ALfheim Online, Kirito used a spell to transform into a creature similar to the Gleam Eyes to defeat a large Salamander party. Just like the Gleam Eyes, Kirito attacks in a vicious manner while transformed.
 * The Gleam Eyes is one of the five in the Aincrad Arc that have managed to inflict heavy or fatal damage on Kirito. The others were Nicholas The Renegade, Kuradeel, The Fatal Scythe, and Heathcliff.
 * The Gleam Eyes is shown in the opening scene in the Aincrad Arc of the anime. The only difference is that The Gleam Eyes is defeated by Kirito and Asuna, instead of Kirito alone. Kirito also attacks the boss with Elucidator only, without using his Dual Blades. When the boss is killed by the two, it explodes, releasing shards and also causes a green-colored explosion, which is impossible in SAO as when a player/monster reaches 0 HP they simply shatter into shards.