Triple Stryke

"Now with your champion dragon, the fights are over before they start."

- The arena host talking to Ryker Grimborn about the Triple Stryke.

The Triple Stryke is a Strike Class dragon that appears in Dragons: Race to The Edge.

Official Description
"Vicious. Aggressive. Belligerent. These are only three of the words that describe the Triple Stryke in battle and the incredible fury it unleashes with its trio of braided tails. Displaying an ornery disposition from the beginning of their lives, Triple Strykes make the ideal champions in underground combat arenas. With their barbed hides that deflect attacks, their intense fire blasts that blind opponents, and their tail triad that braids into a single powerful weapon, a Triple Stryke wins most bouts on intimidation alone. But victory sometimes breeds vanity and exploiting this overconfidence is often the only way to defeat a Triple Stryke in battle."

- Dragonpedia "This giant Sharp Class Dragon's three tails can slash through its enemies or snake around its prey. When confronted by one, the best thing to do is turn tail and run!"

- Dragons: Rise of Berk

Egg
In Rise of Berk, Triple Stryke eggs are smooth and oblong shaped with some small nubs on it.

Hatchling to Adult
The Triple Stryke is a stockily built dragon with armored plates on its back that resembles an armadillo's and two legs. Much like the Night Fury, it has two ear-like appendages on its head. The most notable feature has to be its thick, braided tail that can unwind and split into three thinner ones. Each tail is equipped with a stinger much like a scorpion's. Their forelimbs act as pincers, which also resemble a scorpion's.

Titan Wing
Titan Winged Triple Strykes now have two pairs of thorns on his head and larger and sharper dorsal spines. Their tails seem to have silver, gold and bronze tones, with details on its orange wings and different designs on their body and wings.

Triple Stinger Tails
On the tip of each of the Triple Stryke's three tails, there is a stinger, each one producing its own unique venom: The first numbs opponents, the second disorients them with mild hallucinogens, and the third creates the agonizing sensation of your blood burning. Triple Strykes use their tails as their primary source of attack and defense, as they prefer not to use their fire as much, as it requires a lot of energy.

Firepower
The Triple Stryke shoots intense, orange fire blast that can blind its opponents. The fire is also resistant to wet and damp air, as it can burn during rainy weather without being put out.

Strength and Combat
The Triple Stryke is one of the few dragons shown to be able to take on a Night Fury even in a ring as small as the old dragon arena on Berk. It is able to grab the weight of Toothless in the air using only one tail without any struggle.

According to the ringleader from the Dragon Arena, the Triple Stryke is able to defeat dragons in under five minutes. It was shown to have even beaten a Speed Stinger.

Hide and Stamina
The Triple Stryke has a barbed hide, which protects it from attacks. As it was able to take the attacks from Toothless as it was able to fight for long period of time and able to fly long distance with Toothless.

Speed and Agility
As a Strike Class Dragon, the Triple Stryke is an incredibly fast dragon. It shows great aerodynamics, being able to fly upside down and do flips.

Prehensile Tail
The Triple Stryke is able to wrap around objects with one of its tails to hold dragons and possibly other objects. It can then use its other two tails to sting an opponent.

Behavior and Personality
The Triple Stryke is merciless and formidable, stopping at no cost to destroy its opponents. Their sheer confidence and intimidating stature is enough to scare other dragons. With its incredible skills, these dragons are arrogant and sometimes, over-confident, loving to boast its abilities. These dragons are vicious and relentless, as displayed when it continuously attacked Toothless and attempted to kill a Dragon Hunter.

These dragons, however, are quite misunderstood. While seemingly merciless, these dragons do repay their debts and are incredibly grateful. They will stop at no cost to express their gratitude and respect. This is shown when Sleuther was spared by Toothless. Instead of killing him, he stood up and cast a seemingly confused yet thankful look. When the Hunters broke in, he immediately prepared to defend Toothless, but when the latter told him not to kill a hunter, Sleuther obeyed with respect.

Training
These dragons are fierce and vicious, thus presumably hard to train. However, these dragons do repay their debts. If shown mercy and kindness, the dragon would too treat you with respect, compassion and will stop at nothing to protect you.

As seen in "Blindsided", the Triple Stryke can also be trained by clacking objects together, as it sounds like the click that the dragon itself makes. If the Viking approaches the dragon slowly while clacking the objects, the Triple Stryke will calm down and allow the Viking to touch its head.

Weaknesses
Triple Strykes can be very vain and over-confident, and these can result in their own downfalls during combat.

As seen in "Blindsided", the Triple Stryke makes a clicking sound right before it attacks. Those who can hear the sound can anticipate the Triple Stryke's next move.

Season 3
In "Stryke Out", the Triple Stryke was the champion of a Dragon Fighting arena owned by the Dragon Hunters. However, fans got tired of the Triple Stryke's constant quick wins and attendance began to drop. Ryker demanded that the manager find a way to make the fights entertaining again, or else.

When Hiccup and Toothless were captured in a Dragon Hunter trap and sent to the fight ring, the manager finally found a way to boost attendance, which was to have Toothless battle the Triple Stryke. After a long battle, Toothless won and was about to kill the Triple Stryke, but noticed the pain and sadness in its eyes and allowed it to live.

It then helped Toothless, the Dragon Riders, and the other captured dragons break out of the ring and escape. However, unlike the other dragons, the Triple Stryke had been in captivity for so long, that it didn't know how to be free. However, with encouragement from Toothless, it finally left the ring. Flying back towards Toothless, the Triple Stryke revealed that it wanted to go back to Dragon's Edge with the Riders. Tuffnut named the dragon Sleuther, and they all returned to Dragon's Edge.

Dragons: Rise of Berk
Sleuther, named Slasher in the game, appeared in Rise of Berk first. Following its release, the species was introduced into the game-play, along with its Titan Wing form and the Champion Triple Stryke.

Trivia

 * The Triple Stryke appears to be a combination of a scorpion, a wasp, and a bat.
 * It is the only dragon to have pincers.
 * It is the only dragon in which part of its name is the same as its dragon class, though off by one letter.
 * It is the third dragon to have a stinger, with the first being the Speed Stinger and the second being the Stinger.
 * Out of three, it is the only one that doesn't have "Stinger" in its name.
 * Though Rise of Berk says that the Triple Stryke is in the Sharp Class the official stats from Dragonpedia states that it is in the Strike Class.
 * The Triple Stryke is one of the 7 dragon species that doesn't have forked tongues. The others are the Wooly Howl, the Snow Wraith, the Death Song, the Razorwhip, the Flightmare and the Snaptrapper.
 * The Triple Stryke's head is quite similar to a shark's.
 * The Triple Stryke's ears and stripes on its back are very similar to Pikachu from the Pokémon franchise, but with reverse colors.
 * Despite being venomous, the official stats for the Triple Stryke states that it has no venom. It has also the exact same stats as the Night Fury.
 * The Triple Stryke is the third dragon species that had a specific individual appear in Rise of Berk before the dragon itself did (Sleuther).
 * The first was the Catastrophic Quaken (Spikeback) and the second was the Gobsucker (Muddlehunt).