Speed Stinger

The Speed Stinger is a Sharp Class dragon that appeared in Defenders of Berk. They are flightless and hunt in packs and have a leader, the Lead Stinger. It appeared in the episode Frozen, and made it's way to School of Dragons.

Dragon Appearance
The Speed Stinger is a swift, flightless dragon which strongly resembles a theropod Raptor/dinosaur, with sail-like appendages on its head, back and legs. Though the Speed Stinger does have wings, these are very small and not useable for flight, due to the species having adapted to an earth-bound life. The Speed Stinger's name is derived from the barbed stinger at the tip of it's tail (resembling a stingray's). All of them have red-colored stingers and red-colored eyes. Their small pupils resemble those of Terrible Terrors. Average Speed Stingers have turquoise-colored scales, while the leader has red stripes and highlights on it's turquoise-colored scales, and is slightly bigger than the rest of the pack. The Speed Stinger's head resembles a vine snake.



Behavior
The Speed Stinger is described as the Velociraptor of the Dragon World, being extremely intelligent and cunning. These dragons are ravenous scavengers, that will often steal from other dragons and Vikings. They most likely hunt as well, like their Jurassic counterpart. They live in packs, led by a Lead Stinger, and have a hive-like mindset. They hide under the shadows of the sun. They Lead Stinger decides everything, and the pack follows wherever he goes; without him or her, the pack becomes useless. Speed Stingers are nocturnal, spending the days sleeping in caverns in order to avoid predators. Previously it was believed Speed Stingers where to aggressive to be trained, but this was proven wrong in the Race to the Edge episode called: "The Next Big Sting". When attacking, Speed Stingers leap in the air and use their stinger to paralyze their victims, then strike for the kill.

Abilities
The Speed Stinger lives up to its name. It is the fastest dragon on land, hunts in packs, and can't fly, unlike all other dragons. However, with it's super speed and tiny wings on it's back, Speed Stingers can jump higher than any other dragon. The sharp stinger on the end of it's barbed tail contains venom that can temporarily paralyze it's victim. Speed Stingers are also shown to be great at stealth and are highly intelligent dragons. It is the first dragon in the DreamWorks: Dragons universe that apparently lacks any sort of ranged attacks. This is because all the internal energy goes to its powerful legs, which give it its speed, agility, and capacity to jump high. Because of their thick hides and large amount of internal energy, Speed Stingers have great stamina, which they spend throughout the night, and their incredible night vision allows them to see clearly in the dark. Certain Speed Stingers that live on warmer islands have adapted and evolved webbings on their feet, which give them the ability to run on water surface like a still-living and very real.

How To Train Your Dragon
The Speed Stinger is found in the Dragon Manual when Hiccup was searching for information on Night Furies.

In Dragons: Defenders of Berk
The Speed Stinger made its appearance in the episode Frozen. While Hiccup and Toothless were searching for Trader Johann, whose ship was stuck in the sea, they could see a pack of these dragons running beneath them, covered in dust, on the frozen sea. It later turned out the Pack had taken over Berk, and paralyzed most of it's citizens, including Stoick, Snotlout, and Meatlug. Ultimately, Toothless and Hiccup managed to lure the Stingers away from Berk, by capturing their previously sleeping leader, the Lead Stinger, luring it back along the path and forcing the other Speed Stingers to follow until Hookfang- ridden by Snotlout with Gustav Larson acting as his arms due to his paralysis- was able to melt the path they took and leave them trapped on their original island.

In Race to the Edge
The Speed Stingers were then found on Dragon's Edge. Hiccup and the others then took in a wounded speed stinger they found in one of the new islands, abandoned from it's pack, and nursed it back to health, taming it in the process.

Trivia

 * The Speed Stinger strongly resembles the Stinger Dragons from the How To Train Your Dragon Arena Spectacular. The resemblance and name similarities are notable enough to hint that the dragons may be the same species just in different forms of telling the story of the How To Train Your Dragon Universe.


 * The Speed Stinger's tail resembles a scorpion's stinger, or to be more accurate, a stingray's tail.


 * Although it did appear in the dragon manual in the movie, it did not appear in the short Book of Dragons. The image may have been put in the book to fill in space, but was later embraced in Defenders of Berk.
 * The Speed Stinger is one of the very few dragons that does not to have a horn on its nose or a horn-shaped nose.
 * The Speed Stinger is the first dragon in the series to be flightless.
 * Despite Fishlegs saying one drop of their venom can freeze a human or dragon in an instant, it took six Stingers to paralyze Stoick. This could mean their poison can be counteracted by either sheer adrenaline, body size or both, although this might just mean it took six dragons before one of them could sting him. The latter is most likely the right one. This dragon's venom may act a bit more slowly the bigger the animal or person its acted upon. Such as when Stormfly received a single sting, it took a few seconds to paralyze her completely. Also when the first Speed Stinger attack happened, it took four Speed Stingers to instantly paralyze Flystorm, the Deadly Nadder who they had cornered.
 * They are one of the fastest dragons in terms of their overall speed, 13, and are also excellent at stealth.
 * Some of the Speed Stinger's roars use the same sound effects as the Velociraptors in the Jurassic Park movies. This is most likely due to the Speed Stinger's resemblance to them.
 * The Speed Stinger is the 6th Dragon not to be featured in the short Book of Dragons, but to be featured in the show. The others are the Typhoomerang, Fireworm , Smothering Smokebreath , Screaming Death, and the Flightmare.
 * Although this dragon is not the first dragon unable to breath fire, it is the first to have no ranged attack.
 * It looks like a combination between a Velociraptor, a shark, and a scorpion.
 * Like the Stormcutter and Night Fury, Speed Stingers are able to hang themselves or sleep upside down like a bat.
 * It is unknown why only the leader has red, but it might be to show that only he can mate. The leader may release hormones making them unable to mate similar to queen bees or it could just be a rare variation.
 * Their teeth reach further back when compared to other dragons.
 * Speed Stingers are the fastest dragons on land.
 * The Speed Stinger resembles the fictional dinosaur species Acceraptor from the TV Show Terra Nova, since they both have sharp weapons at the edge of their tails.
 * Many fans thought Speed Stingers were trainable, but this is now known to be false since they are too aggressive to be trained.
 * However, in the game School of Dragons, the Speed Stinger was made trainable. Which means that the Speed Stinger is in fact trainable.
 * In addition, in The Next Big Sting, Hiccup and the Dragon Riders temporarily train an adolescent Speed Stinger. So that phrase was false.
 * While clearly based on Raptors, the Stingers forearms resemble those of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
 * The official stats for the Speed Stinger are most likely inaccurate, such as it's speed 30, which most likely means the speed on land (since it only moves on land), although this has never been seen before, it is not as fast as a Night Fury and a few other dragons. Meaning that the speed 13 from the Cartoon Network stats would be it's overall speed.
 * The stealth 30 is also another issue. Even though it has excellent stealth, they have not yet been proven to be better at stealth than a Changewing.
 * Speed Stingers can adapt to live in cold environments such as the Arctic. A pack of Speed Stingers were encountered in Icestorm Island.
 * Although on Dragonpedia it says they have no fire type or firepower (due to all energy dedicated to running), in School of dragons they spit balls of acid, and they are still capable to run very fast.
 * The Speed Stinger is the only known species who has evolved a new feature in order to survive in a specific environment.
 * Adolescent Speed Stingers can only paralyze one part of their prey's body at a time.