Tyaethe's choice to act as a vanguard was vindicated when a lone bandit, already barely involved in the fighting, attempted to turn tail and run. Had he been a bit closer to the rest of his downed fellows, it would have been the ice that caught him. He was instead run through by the blade of a massive sword and carried by the undead knight towards the main group. 

One bandit was actually displaying a surprising amount of resilience, desperately engaging a knight and surprisingly not dying. This lasted all of a second before a heavily booted foot slammed into his back with a disturbing crack and the knight took full advantage of the opening to finish him as Tyaethe moved back to the captain's side.

As if her initial bisection of the ambush's leader wasn't alarming enough, her sword still had the mortally wounded man impaled on its length and, barely, conscious. The heavily-armoured knight didn't particularly care how gruesome her method of transport was as long as it kept the man alive for a precious few seconds more so that he could (hopefully) answer a single question. Lowering her blade so his feet rested on the ground, she growled, "Are there any more ambushes?"

The direction of attempted retreat showed them the way to go and they just needed to know if there was going to be another 'surprise' attack before they got to the bandit 'king' and maybe a harder fight. Something to test the newcomers more and give them a taste of real fear.