Stryke Out

Stryke Out is the eighth episode of Season 3 of Race to the Edge. It was released on Netflix on June 24, 2016.

Overview
When Hiccup and Toothless accidentally land in a Dragon Hunter trap, they find themselves the newest contestants in a gladiator-style arena.

Summary
Ryker visits a Dragon Fight arena, and the Arena Host tells Ryker that business has been slow as the audience has become less interested in the sport due to how often Ryker's champion dragon wins. Ryker cuts the Host's pay and tells him to find a solution to the problem.

Hiccup and Snotlout fly their dragons to a Dragon Hunter base to free a group of dragons captured. They go inside the caverns when they hear dragon screams and find the dragons trapped in cages. While trying to free them, Snotlout accidentally pulls a lever that traps Hiccup and Toothless inside a cage with knockout gas that renders them unconscious. At Hiccup's request, Snotlout escapes to alert the other Dragon Riders. When they come back, Hiccup, Toothless, and the other dragons are gone. They find sea slugs in the prison, meaning that the other dragons were lured there with food and then doused in knockout gas to ensure easier transport. Heather decides to use her inside knowledge of the Dragon Hunter ports to their advantage.

Hiccup and Toothless wake up to find themselves chained up next to a number of imprisoned dragons in a prison next to the Dragon Fight arena. The Host sees them and says that he'll put both Hiccup and Toothless to good use. He then excites the crowd by telling him the next day a Razorwhip will fight a Night Fury. The next day, Hiccup tries to tend to the other imprisoned dragons, but they act hostile towards him likely due to their treatment from the Host.

The Dragon Riders fly with their dragons towards a Dragon Hunter trading port to find where Hiccup and Toothless were taken. The Riders defeat a number of the Hunters, as Ruffnut and Tuffnut kidnap one defeated by Snotlout to interrogate him. Astrid claims that she got the information during their interrogation, but she actually faked it so the prisoner could tell someone to send a Terrible Terror to the Arena, allowing them to follow it to Hiccup and Toothless' location.

At the arena, Hiccup tries to tame the imprisoned Gronckle, but the Arena Host arrives and knocks him aside as they set up Toothless and the Razorwhip to fight. At Hiccup's request, Toothless incapacitates the Razorwhip by trapping it in a cage. The Host in charge tells the messenger to tell Ryker that he has the solutions to both their problems. At night, Hiccup tries to tend to Toothless' injuries as they are visited by the Host. Hiccup demands to be released, but the Host plans to keep them there to continue to make more money as he introduces them to their next opponent, the Triple Stryke.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut intercept the Terrible Terror's message allowing the group to discover that Hiccup and Toothless are in Dragon Fights. The group is unsure how to infiltrate the place, but Ruffnut and Tuffnut tell them their sleuth abilities will help them out, leaving the group unconfident as Ruffnut and Tuffnut's detective skills haven't been very helpful so far.

At the arena, Hiccup helps the other imprisoned dragons by removing a metallic piece from the Monstrous Nightmare's mouth and comforts the Deadly Nadder. The Host's men come into the prison with the Razorwhip Toothless defeated and lock it's tail into the ground. Ryker arrives with his men to witness the event as the Host promises a big surprise. Meanwhile, Ruffnut and Tuffnut use Barf and Belch to get past the guards.

As the fight starts, Ryker demands the Host hand Toothless and Hiccup over to him, and threatens to kill him if Toothless is killed. Astrid arrives with Heather to rescue Hiccup as Toothless gets the upper hand on the Triple Stryke. Toothless chooses to spare the Triple Stryke, instead befriending it in the process. The Dragon Riders and the captive dragons take down the Arena and chase out Ryker, the Host, and the audience. The other dragons are freed, but the Triple Stryke, being in captivity for so long, doesn't know what to do. The dragon chooses to join Hiccup and the other Dragon Riders at the edge, as Tuffnut names him Sleuther.

Transcript
The transcript for this episode is here.

Trivia

 * The Triple Stryke makes its debut.
 * This is the first time a Razorwhip other than Windshear has been seen.
 * This is the first, and so far, only episode in which Ryker appears but Viggo doesn't since A Time to Skrill.
 * Except for the Gronckle, all the captured dragons have different eye colors than the rest of their species.
 * It is possible that the arena was on Changewing Island due to the fact that the Host said "this side of Changewing Island".
 * This is the first time Toothless has been seen without his saddle since Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.
 * The Deadly Nadder and the Monstrous Nightmare seen in the dragon fighting cages have the same coloring and scar patterns as Scardian and Firescrapes.
 * When the Monstrous Nightmare flames up, the shackle on his leg is transparent. The same thing happens with the Nadder's the second time Hiccup approaches it.
 * When the cages are first being lifted for the fight between Toothless and the Razorwhip, he has his saddle on.
 * Hiccup pulling a metal hook out of the Monstrous Nightmare's mouth is similar to how Gobber pulled out Hookfang's bad tooth in Viking for Hire. The dragon even spat out the fish like Hookfang did because of the pain.
 * Several Vikings of the Outcast Tribe were seen among the dragon fighting crowd present.
 * When the Riders follow the Terrible Terror and after they leave the island, Heather and Windshear disappear from the group.
 * Toothless prevents Sleuther from killing the Host.