Mist Monks - The Anti-Mage squad

Research

Final design

[You can find the world's context in the first comment below, please go through this first so you can fully understand the rest]

It's been a while since I haven't wrote an entry on my world building project! I've been working on many different sides of the world, locations, stories, factions... Including these fellows.
For more context, you should know that in this world, magic happens through the wishes of mages, using porcelain masks that manifest their thoughts into reality. But doing so, generates nightmare fumes.

Nightmare Fumes is a strange black gaseous substance, resembling a thundercloud with a restless blue glow perpetually churning within. According to popular belief, it is a punishment, a natural rebalancing of the powers granted to mages who use porcelain to fulfill their desires. An inexorable tide returning to claim its due.

The fumes are immune to magic. They cannot be dissipated, burned, or contained in their gaseous form. They do not drift with the wind, though they appear capable of movement all the same. When inhaled, by human or beast alike, they awaken the deepest fears and nightmares buried in the heart. Thus were born the creatures of folklore and legend, the monsters that roam these lands. And thus, were born the Mist Monks. A physically enhanced squad of superhumans, unwaveringly loyal to the Eastern government that has vowed to eradicate all mages and their masks.

These elite warriors are trained to inhale a chemically-altered form of Nightmare Fumes taken to Mist Monsters. Through precise breathing techniques, they suppress the manifestation of their own fears, redirecting the fumes effects entirely. What emerges in their place, is no longer fully human.

Gifted with exceptional strength, speed, and reflexes, they wield shards of porcelain as both armor and shield, designed to resist and neutralize magical attacks. Together, they stand as the ultimate bulwark against the godlike powers of the mages.