Grapple Grounder

The Grapple Grounder is a very fast, springy, and dangerous Boulder Class dragon. It is snake-like in appearance, with four long skinny legs and a long body. The Grapple Grounder is ready to fight any dragon it meets, and it seems that this dragon shoots pulse blasts similar to those of a Night Fury. It first appeared in the How to Train Your Dragon game.

Official Description
"This undisputed wrestling champion of the Boulder Class, it coils itself around victims and squeezes until they beg for mercy (but they never receive it!) Grapple Grounders create beautiful waves in the sky while it shoots fireballs at its enemies."

- Dragons: Rise of Berk

"Trader Johann has restocked the Viking Store with the latest set of dragon eggs to be discovered on campus. Prepare yourselves for the Grapple Grounder, a dragon that is not only known for its ferocious fire-breathing pulses, but also for its ability to quickly twist and coil around its prey. After all, the Grapple Grounder possesses a unique and almost snake-like appearance that would catch any Viking’s eye. Be on the lookout for these fiery creatures... They might be known to lurk in dark, mysterious crevices, but they are about to take the School by storm! Ready to take to the skies and show off your flying skills with this new dragon? Ride with caution as every dragon flies differently, and the Grapple Grounder is no different. As your new companion, this dragon is sure to grab your attention with its enormous wingspan, yet shockingly thin frame. Just make sure to watch out for its tail! While it sways delicately in the air, its arrow-shaped tip is something you will definitely want to avoid in addition to those menacing horns! Stop by the Viking Store now to experience the Grapple Grounder for yourself and set your eyes on this all new addition to the School of Dragons campus!"

- School of Dragons

Egg
Grapple Grounder eggs come in a variety of colors, so far only red, from normal Grapple Grounders, and green, from Exotic Grapple Grounders, have been seen. They have a few large white bumps that stick out from it. The scales can be seen on it clearly.

Hatchling to Adult
The Grapple Grounder is normally red, with golden or yellow spots or rings on its body. It has four horns and its body is long and slender. The tail is shaped like an arrow and it has the larger wings than other dragons of the Boulder class.

Titan Wing
Titan winged Grapple Grounders are dark gray with black stripes. They have green wings and a green outlined arrow-shaped tail. There are small blue spots on their knees as well. They developed a pair of smaller horns, as well as grew more spines along its neck to the tail, which are also sharper and smaller.

Wrestling
This dragon is described to be the wrestler of the dragon kingdom. They prefer to constrict their prey rather than use their fire. Much like large snakes like the Boa and Anaconda, they wrap their elongated body around their prey, suffocating and snapping their bones.

Fire Power
The Grapple Grounder can shoot a light-blue pulse ball, possibly of electricity or plasma of a sort. It can shoot multiple of the blue orbs at a time, but at a sacrifice of size. The balls have a somewhat magnetic field, drawing towards larger objects than it (ie, opponents or victims), however the more decreased the size the stronger the force is. This information could also infer it might be electromagnetic. If a Grapple Grounder takes a deep enough breath, or charges it long enough, the fire will come out as a big blackish sphere that explodes impressively upon impact, almost fatal. Its bomb contains Magnesium gel.

In addition, the Grapple Grounder launches fireballs at its opponents and are said to create beautiful waves in the sky as they shoot.

Speed and Agility
Being a snake-like dragon, the Grapple Grounder is very agile. It quickly twists and coils around its victims. It like to slice its victims, much like the Razor Whip.

Behavior and Personality
This species is jumpy and aggressive, described to be merciless to its enemies.

It is also known to lurk in the dark, however it is unknown if it has night vision or something to help him orientate in the dark.

Weakness
It has slow attacks and can't dish out attacks in a fast amount of time, making them vulnerable to ships to fire.

When this dragon is frustrated and has nothing to fight it may tie itself up in knots. This dragon does not know when to call it quits.

Training
Prove yourself as a worthy opponent by wrestling it.

How to Train Your Dragon
A golden statue of a dragon impaled by a sword sits over the viking meeting table in the Great Hall. This statue is most likely a Grapple Grounder.

How to Train Your Dragon Game
The Grapple Grounder appears in the boss battle of the Wii game. Snotlout uses four Grapple Grounders in the Thors'day Thursday Tournament. Beating the last tournament, you unlock the Grapple Grounder in arcade mode, and become a Dragon Master, thus beating the whole game. Their main power is their body size. Although it can't execute fast attacks in a short time, it's magnificent speed takes it from one attack to another quickly. It has more stamina and strength than Night Furies, but less speed, power, stealth, and firepower.

In the Nintendo DS version, Grapple Grounders are shown to prefer Ham.

Dragons: Rise of Berk
The Grapple Grounder reappeared in Dragons: Rise of Berk where it was revealed to be a Boulder Class dragon. The Grapple Grounder in Rise of Berk is much longer than the one in the How to Train Your Dragon game, and has a less coiled shape.

School of Dragons
The Grapple Grounder then made its way to School of Dragons, with its default color being shades of oranges and yellows. The body shape follows that of the Grapple Grounder in Dragons: Rise of Berk.

Trivia

 * The Grapple Grounder's head and neck seems to resemble a Hideous Zippleback's and Scauldron's.
 * Its appearance is very similar to dragons of several exotic or eastern lore, particularly the Yinglong, a powerful dragon from Chinese myth, and the Korean Lung Dragons who squeeze their prey to death and have long, snake-like bodies with four legs and four toes.
 * The Grapple Grounder in School of Dragons appears not to have a horn on its snout like previous versions.