Skrill

"This elusive creature is highly secretive, it is known to ride lightning bolts. Found only during electrical storms that can shoot bursts of white fire."

- (Book of Dragons) Hiccup talking about the Skrill.

The Skrill is an elusive, Strike Class dragon appearing in the film adaption of How to Train Your Dragon. The Skrill is seen in the Dragon Manual while Hiccup looks for more information on Night Furies. A frozen specimen appeared in A View to a Skrill Part I and Part II and A Time to Skrill.

Appearance and Characteristics
This incredible creature has large wings and a spiked back and tail. The spikes on the Skrill's back and tail are sharp enough to cut with the slightest abrasion, and it's an excellent flyer. It also appears to have shark-like gills on its neck. The Skrill posseses a crown of spikes on its head which nearly all are the same length except the center one. The Skrill's crown can also be used to give it expression, as it is able to control them to be pulled back or forward. Its head slightly resembles a Thunderdrum, and its tail also resembles that of a Deadly Nadder. The proportion of its head, body, and wings are quite close to that of a Flightmare. It apparently resembles a Night Fury in flight and rivals its speed, being only slightly slower. It's the size of a Deadly Nadder, but incredibly fast, comparing speed to size.

Like the Monstrous Nightmare, its locomotion on land resembles that of a Pterosaur, using the large claws on its wings to walk and run on land. However, the Skrill has been shown to walk and run on its two legs with its wings folded. A new model in School of Dragons was made for the Skrill, featuring the Skrill walking on two legs, instead of its original locomotion. Find more information at Dragon Anatomy. As with most of the dragons in the dragon manual, it's listed as being "extremely dangerous" and the manual instructs readers to "kill on sight", although it's name was only mentioned.

Behavior
One of the most mysterious and feared species in the Book of Dragons, the Skrill is aggressive, powerful, and nearly untrainable. It appears to be almost as feared as the Night Fury, if not more feared. This reclusive dragon is belligerent and as unpredictable as lightning strikes. It is very territorial, despite following stormy weather; Skrills do not breathe fire, instead, they channel lightning down their metallic spines, firing it from their mouths in a show of destructive blasts. If you find yourself flying through a thunderstorm, watch out! Despite it's average size, Skrills can give as good as they take, and they can take a lot.

Abilities
Like all Strike Class dragons, Skrills have blazing speed, extreme intelligence, unique firepower, and are masters of stealth.

Absorbing Electricity
The Skrill is an electrical dragon. It can absorb and store lightning's electrical energy. Using its metallic spines, it can channel lightning through its body and fire out destructive blasts through its mouth. Skrills also have the ability to direct multiple bolts of lightning, making the dragons greatly feared by Vikings. They have been known to wrap themselves in their wings and ride lightning bolts like an air torpedo to reach supersonic speeds. These dragons recharge their lightning (very quickly so quick it as once thought to have had unlimited Shots during a storm) from the clouds to be able to gain back their shot limit. Its ability to harness and store electricity gives it a static field, making your hair stand on end if you get too close. A side effect of getting hit by the electric blast causes people to talk gibberish. It can also store the Lightning in its body and use it later on.

Riding Lightning
The Skrill is able to "ride" lightning bolts. It was first and only seen in A Time to Skrill, after the Skrill was tamed and set free, it ascended upwards at supersonic speeds through a field of lightning bolts. The Skrill was able to use the energy of lightning to accelerate very quickly and fly at supersonic speeds. It was able to reach the clouds from the glacier it was on in seemingly two seconds. It is unknown why the Skrill only used this ability once, possibly due to a limit. This move is by far faster than any other dragon, but the stats say otherwise.

Firepower
Unlike other dragons' fire attacks, where it is a single blast of some sort, Skrills have the ability to shoot lightning in a long line over great distance of their unique ability of electrokinesis, adding more power to it and more damage to whatever is unlucky enough to get hit. A strange effect was discovered, that when the Lightning Blasts of a Skrill and the Plasma Blasts of a Night Fury meet head on, a massive explosion of a electrical plasmatic surge will form and can knock dragons from the sky.

Ice Hibernation
It was revealed that their hidden ability is their inner body heat, Skrills could survive being frozen for decades. Dragonpedia states that once Skrills emerge from being frozen, they will show to be as fierce as the day they were frozen, as shown when Hiccup and Fishlegs revealed to Stoick that the Frozen Skrill could still be alive and dangerous, and indeed it was.

Speed and Stealth
After the Night Fury, the Skrill is the fastest and most agile flier among dragons. Its speed is seen to be competitive to that of a Night Fury's, as the the Skrill was always able to catch up and cling right behind Toothless every time in a chase. The Skrill has a sleek, dark colored body, which makes it extremely difficult to spot in dark clouds and gloomy, stormy weather, with the only warning of them being there is the light given when lightning travels through the clouds and their electrical outline when it absorbs lightning prior to attack.

Strength
Skrills are very strong for their size. The frozen specimen managed to defeat Stormfly with just one slap of its wings.

Senses
Their sense of vision is shown to be strong enough to see in dark clouds.

Stamina and Endurance
Their stamina could be close to a Night Fury's', as the Frozen Skrill was able to emerge from hibernation, attack the Riders' dragons, go in search of food (unsuccessfully) and then engage the Riders in combat with no pause in between. The Frozen Skrill has shown for his kind to be able to endure many attacks and still look fine to continue in flight.

Weakness
The Skrill's unique weakness is water, as it cannot channel electricity and looses all firepower when it is wet. If you force a Skrill to fall in the water, it will lose its upper hand.

How to Train Your Dragon
In How to Train Your Dragon, the Skrill is mentioned briefly as Hiccup reads the Dragon Manual for information on Night Furies.

Book of Dragons
The Skrill is featured in the Book of Dragons (short). It is said to be highly secretive and is known to ride lightning bolts like air torpedoes to reach supersonic speeds, and usually only comes out during electrical storms. It can shoot blasts of lightning as its entire body crackles with static electricity. Just being close to a Skrill is enough to make one's hair stand on end. Skrills belong to the Strike Class dragons. Bork and his sheep Willy found one that caused their hair to stand on edge.

Dragons: Defenders of Berk
In Dragons: Defenders of Berk, the Skrill was the symbol of the Berserker Tribe in which it appeared on their ships' sail, shields and their chief's belt. According to Stoick's grandfather, the Berserkers were said to use harnessed Skrills in their attacks, they would attack behind them after they rained lightning blasts upon their enemies.

A Skrill was found frozen in a solid block of ice, found by Berserkers who attack Bucket and Mulch to keep it hidden. Hiccup, Astrid and Snotlout flew it back to the Academy, where it was eventually blown open by the Twins, unleashing the Skrill. It is pursued by the gang and Dagur for until it was captured by Alvin when it fell into the ocean.

The Skrill was then locked up and put in a cage on Outcast Island. Wanting the dragon, Dagur secures a fake deal with Alvin and ultimately steals the Skrill, using it to battle Alvin, Hiccup and Toothless until he gets electrocuted after Hiccup tricks him into making the Skrill attack while he is standing in a puddle, and the Skrill is set free. In the end, the Skrill is refrozen in a glacier once again when Hiccup and Toothless lure it into an iceberg and provoke it into knocking itself out when it charges Toothless's reflection, Hiccup melting the glacier with the aid of the twins and Barf and Belch.

Titan Wing
Source: Dragons: Rise of Berk

Titan Skrills still resemble their younger counterparts. However, they are now larger and teal blue, instead of purple, and their mouth is light blue. Also, the spines on their back is longer and sharper and the talons on their wings have grown significantly thicker.

Known Skrills

 * The Skrill that Bork encountered (see Book of Dragons)
 * Frozen Skrill (see A View to a Skrill Part I and II)
 * Icebane ( see Dragons: Rise of Berk)
 * Hunterbolt (see Dragons: Rise of Berk)

Appearances

 * How to Train Your Dragon (film) (Mentioned)
 * Book of Dragons
 * Riders of Berk Commercials
 * Twinsanity (Berserker Crest)
 * The Night and the Fury (Berserker ship sail)
 * A View to a Skrill Part I
 * A View to a Skrill Part II
 * School of Dragons
 * Dragons: Rise of Berk
 * A Time to Skrill

Trivia

 * The Skrill is the Berserker Crest.
 * According to the Cartoon Network site, Skrills are completely untrainable. Dragonpedia, however, says Skrill are nearly untrainable, which is the case.
 * Hunterbolt's description in Rise of Berk states "Training a Skrill isn't the easiest to do"
 * A Skrill's favorite food is sheep (mutton).
 * Berserkers can actually control a Skrill to shoot out lightning during electrical storms.
 * The most likely theory is that the Skrill has sensitive organs along the side of its wings. These organs are able to absorb lightning better than any other part of its body. Once pulled down, the Skrill is not able to absorb lightning as easily. This is a similar movement to a Skrill absorbing lightning naturally.
 * The Skrill is said to draw lightning from the sky and strike it in several directions at once.
 * Their appearance on the How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular greatly differs from that of other sources.
 * As Skrills temporally loose their ability of firing lightning once they enter the water, they try to avoid water as much as they can. However, in Rise of Berk, the Skrill's specialty is fishing, and it has to dive into the sea to catch fish.

External link
Wandersmok