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 it using «Dual Blades».

Appearance
The Gleam Eyes was a demonic monster with muscles as taut as ropes rippling up its towering form. Its skin was deep blue and its eyes glinted with the same blue-white hue, matching the tint of the flames in its boss room. Its head, resting atop its thick chest, was that of a goat's rather than a human's and had an elongated snout and thick, twisted horns stretching backward from the sides of the head. The lower half of its body with bestial legs was covered in long, navy hair. Its main weapon was an equally massive blade that looked like a zanbato.

Background
On October 18, 2024, Asuna and Kirito stumbled upon the 74th Floor Boss Room after mapping the Labyrinth 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.



The pair encountered The Gleam Eyes again when they fought it in order to save the surviving members of the Aincrad Liberation Force (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 hit points 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 Aincrad Liberation Force members

Gallery

 * See The Gleam Eyes/Image Gallery

Trivia

 * In the anime, The Gleam Eyes was portrayed as having a tail resembling a cobra and, despite its epithet, had red eyes. However, the eyes turned a piercing, glowing blue when it targeted Kirito and Asuna during the players' first encounter with the boss and when it devastated the Aincrad Liberation Force raiding party.
 * While 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 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 only with the Elucidator, 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 zero Hit Points they simply shatter into shards.