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 is a massive, demon-like monster, with dark blue skin, a tail resembling a cobra, and horns of a mountain goat. Its main weapon is an equally massive Zanbato sword, and despite its epithet and the title of the ninth episode, The Gleam Eyes does not have blue eyes, but rather they are red. However, they turn into a piercing, glowing, blue color when Asuna and Kirito first encounter it and remains to have 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 are forced to fight 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 leapt to the rescue to fight the boss. Though Kirito successfully defeated the boss, it had succeeded in taking three lives in the process, making this the first time casualties resulted from a boss battle ever 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 both with its sword and fists, but never actually used its snake tail during its fight.

The Gleam Eyes was truly worthy of being the boss of the 74th Floor as it could 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 even put the likes of Kirito, Klein and Asuna on the defensive. Able to match the above mentioned players in sword combat, punch Asuna several feet away, as well as send Klein flying despite the latter blocking the attack, the Gleam Eyes is a fearsome opponent. Its greatest achievement, however, is that despite being slain by him in the end, Gleam Eyes was able to, even while facing Kirito's unique Dual Wielding skill, reduce the latter's HP down to a mere sliver.

Casualties

 * Kobatz
 * Two other Players in ALF

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 looks very reminiscent of a satyr from Greek mythology, specifically the god Pan. The only difference is that it, The Gleam Eyes, has a violet cobra for a tail. Satyrs in mythology are normally depicted as being related to fertility and sex.
 * 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.