In this paper the distributed asymptotic consensus problem is addressed for a group of high-order nonaffine agents with uncertain dynamics, nonvanishing disturbances and unknown control directions under directed networks. A class of auxiliary variables are first introduced which forms second-order filters and induces all measurable signals of agents' states. In view of this property, a distributed robust integral of the sign of the error (DRISE) design combined with the Nussbaum-type function is presented that guarantees not only the desired asymptotic consensus, but also the uniform boundedness of all closed-loop variables. Compared with the traditional sliding mode control (SMC) technique, the main feature of our approach is that the integral operation in the proposed control algorithm is designed to be adopted in a continuous manner and ensures less chattering behavior. Simulation results for a group of Duffing-Holmes chaotic systems are employed to verify our theoretical analysis.