Skrill

"This elusive creature is highly secretive, it is known to ride lightning bolts."

- Book of Dragons

The Skrill is an elusive, Strike Class Dragon appearing in the film adaption of How to Train Your Dragon. According to the Book of Dragons, it is one of the most mysterious and formidable dragons. It is also one of the most powerful of dragons, being among the smartest and fastest dragons. It is assumed one of the rarest, however this is debatable and not actually confirmed. 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 II.

Dragon Appearance
This incredible creature has large wings, a spiked back and a 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. 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 Nadder, and incredibly fast, comparing speed to size.

When a Skrill is riding lightning, it seems to wrap itself in its wings and dive down. 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. It is also seen walking with its wings held above its body slightly resembling a typhoomerang Find more information at Dragon Anatomy.

As with most of the dragons in the manual, it's listed as being "extremely dangerous" and the manual instructs readers to "kill on sight".

Behavior
One of the most mysterious and feared species in the Book of Dragons, the Skrill is aggressive, powerful, and nearly untrainable. 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 smaller size, Skrills can give as good as they take, and they can take a lot.

Abilities
See Fire Types. The Skrill is an electric dragon. It can absorb and store lightning. Using it's metallic spines, it can channel lightning through it's body and shoot it from it's mouth. Skrills also have the ability to direct multiple bolts of lightning, making the great beasts 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. 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 attack causes people to talk in gibberish, although Tuffnut was able to comprehend what Snotlout said after being hit by a Skrill.

It was revealed in A View to a Skrill Part I that, due to their inner body heat, Skrills could survive being frozen for decades. This was shown when Hiccup and Fishlegs revealed to Stoick that the Frozen Skrill could still be alive and dangerous, and indeed it was.

After the Night Fury, the Skrill is the fastest and most agile flier among the Dragons. They use lightning in order to go faster.

Like all Strike Class dragons, Skrills have blazing speed, extreme intelligence, explosive firepower, and are masters of stealth. Skrills have been known to appear out of nowhere in storms, the only warning of them being there is their electric outline when it absorbs lightning prior to attack. 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, 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 bolts of Skrills and the plasma blasts of Night Furies meet head on, there is a massive explosion of an electrical surge that can knock dragons from the sky.

Skrills are very strong for a dragon their size. The specimen in "View To A Skrill", managed to defeat Stormfly with just one slap of its' wings, and deflected Toothless' Lightning Plasma Blast.



How To Train Your Dragon (film)
The Skrill is mentioned briefly as Hiccup reads the Dragon Manual for information on Night Furies.

In the Book of Dragons
The Skrill is featured in Book of Dragons. 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 of dragons.

Dragons: Defenders of Berk
The Skrill appears in Defenders of Berk in episode 10 and episode 11- View to a Skrill Part 1 and 2. In the episode, the Skrill is found frozen in a solid block of ice, found by Berserkers who attack Bucket and Mulch to keep it hidden. Hiccup, Astrid and Snotlout fly it back to the Academy, Where it is eventually blown open by Snotlout and the Twins, unleashing the Skrill. It is pursued by the gang and Dagur for almost the whole episode and in the end is captured by Alvin when it falls into the ocean. In Part 2, the Skrill is 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 Hiccup and Toothless until he gets electrocuted and the Skrill is set free. In the end, the Skrill is refrozen in an iceberg once again.



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

Trivia

 * The Skrill is the Berserker Crest.
 * At full speed, the Skrill is the fastest flier after the Night Fury
 * There was a rumor surfacing that the Skrill was faster than the Night Fury while riding lightning, but the stats say otherwise.
 * On the official website it shows Typhoomerangs as faster than Skrills. However this is incorrect as Typhhomerangs are the third fastest dragons. It is also possible the stats for the Skrill are wrong, which means the former "Skrill speed > Night Fury speed"  rumor would be correct.
 * The Skrill has an error on it's official page (in the gallery). Instead of saying it is in the Strike Class, it is labeled as being in the Sharp class. In School of Dragons, it is mistakenly put in Fear Class, however the latter was proven to be a glitch.
 * According to the Cartoon Network site, Skrills are completely untrainable. Dragonpedia, however, says Skrill are nearly untrainable, which is the case.
 * Skrills have been released in School of Dragons. Skrills are acquired from purchasing a Skrill egg for 750 gems as a nonmember, and 600 gems/free starter dragon for members, despite them being nearly untrainable. They are also faster than most of the other dragons despite their stats.
 * A Skrill's favorite food is sheep (mutton).
 * The Skrill made it's first appearance on the series in the episodes View to a Skrill Parts I and II.
 * The Berserkers can actually control a Skrill to shoot out lightning during electrical storms.
 * The Skrill is said to draw lightning from the sky and strike it in several directions at once.
 * Due to the Skrill's internal body temperature, the dragon can remain safely frozen for decades.
 * It is possible, due to Toothless's injured tail, that the Skrill is equal in speed or even slightly faster.
 * In A View to a Skrill Part I, Hiccup seems to have great interest on the Skrill along with Fishlegs.
 * It is possibly the first time that Hiccup gets so excited on seeing a dragon.
 * The Skrill in the Book of Dragons and Riders of Berk's trailer seem to shoot different type of lightning to the one on Defenders of Berk. This may be caused that the Skrill on the Book of Dragons and RoB trailer is the original Skrill, which shoots white fire while the DoB one is a developed Skrill that shoots true, long distanced lightning bolts.
 * At first glance, especially as a baby, the Skrill's look is similar to the Night Fury.
 * In concept art Skrills were shown to walk using their wings, similar to the Monstrous Nightmare, however in School of Dragons they hold their wings above the ground similar to a Deadly Nadder.
 * Also in Concept Art, they were shown being fed baskets of eels, but according to the TV show, only Typhoomerangs eat eels. In School of Dragons they lose happiness by being fed eels.